Transfer Of Files From Mac To Pc

[saladiro]

hi, I recently purchased a mac book pro (not arrived yet). I want to buy an external hard drive to move over my files (word,excel, music)

few questions
1) is there a particular hard drive that you could recommend for a reasonable price?

2) how many Gigs should i get? I know the new OS, has this app "time machine" that does a one time back up, so I am not sure of how much space is enough, 30 40, 60 180 ect....)

3) i read something about possible having to format upon transfer, something to do with NTFS? not sure what this means? Is this necessary?

4) I was looking at this one, can any one tell me if its a good quality?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290188659337&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

let me know if you cant copy and paste that like and I will re-try

tks
(ps i am a 25 year veteran with a PC and, so this is gonna be my first experience w a mac, kindly go easy on me)

 

[mad jew]

hi, I recently purchased a mac book pro (not arrived yet). I want to buy an external hard drive to move over my files (word,excel, music)

Welcome to Macs!

1) is there a particular hard drive that you could recommend for a reasonable price?

It's not the hard drive brand so much as the case brand that matters. You'll want something that supports macs, ideally. The cheapest and easiest solution is probably to get a larger powered 3.5" case as the hard disks are cheaper, faster and larger. Plus the fact it's powered means your MacBook Pro will be under less strain and it's more likely to work consistently and reliably.

2) how many Gigs should i get? I know the new OS, has this app "time machine" that does a one time back up, so I am not sure of how much space is enough, 30 40, 60 180 ect....)

Get as many as you can afford. I think 250GB drives are representing great value for their size at the moment.

3) i read something about possible having to format upon transfer, something to do with NTFS? not sure what this means? Is this necessary?

You really have three options.

1. Format it on the Mac as HFS+ and then use MacDrive on all PCs that need access to the drive.
2. Format it as NTFS and rely on Leopard's dodgy NTFS compatibility.
3. Format it as FAT32 (named MS-DOS File System on the Mac) and have both PCs and Macs work with it natively. Unfortunately you're then limited to having individual file sizes limited to 4GB and you also can't name some files with certain characters.

Of these, I really think the third option is the easiest and best unless you'll ever be working with very large files (like large videos).

4) I was looking at this one, can any one tell me if its a good quality?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290188659337&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

I don't know about the quality of the product but the drive is slow (4200RPM) and the drive is powered by your laptop. I really think you're better off buying a larger case and a separate 3.5" 7200RPM drive.

 

[saladiro]

TKS! w/ more questions

thanks so much...few more questions

1) psyched about the mac purchase

2) understand..can you recommend any brands (I understand if that's against the forum rules)


3) in terms of the gigs, i agree the more gigs, the better the savings. I guess what I was getting at, was if I bought a 30 gig hard drive, and ran "time machine" for the first time, would 30 be enough?. How much could the first back up take up? I will really only use the mac for the basics, no major video work and stuff. Just want to make sure all my spreadsheetsand tax files are safe

4) transfer of files....WOW...this one got me confused. I was really hoping that I could just take a word, excel or mp3 file off my pc, onto the hard drive and then right on to the mac.... What would/could happen if I do this?
- if the above is not true, do you have any web links that could walk me through the conversion process in detail (i am new to macs, but pretty good a understanding cpu stuff in general.

5) in regards to the slow hard drive i was about to purchase...
a) what are the cons of the hard drive being slow...could files be damaged, as well as my mac?
b) is it bad to have the HD powered by the mac itself vs an outlet?

thanks for your help

 

[mad jew]

1) psyched about the mac purchase

So you should be!

2) understand..can you recommend any brands (I understand if that's against the forum rules)

It's not against forums rules per se, but there are a lot of brands out there that are great. People have mixed results with all of them though, so maybe read up on their individual warranty details to see what they'll do if things go wrong. If you recognise a brand, it'll probably be fine.

3) in terms of the gigs, i agree the more gigs, the better the savings. I guess what I was getting at, was if I bought a 30 gig hard drive, and ran "time machine" for the first time, would 30 be enough?. How much could the first back up take up? I will really only use the mac for the basics, no major video work and stuff. Just want to make sure all my spreadsheetsand tax files are safe

I don't use Leopard and therefore don't have any Time Machine experience, but I really think 30GB will be a struggle. The price of that drive isn't that great, all things considered. As such, I really think it's worthwhile looking around for a larger one.

4) transfer of files....WOW...this one got me confused. I was really hoping that I could just take a word, excel or mp3 file off my pc, onto the hard drive and then right on to the mac.... What would/could happen if I do this?
- if the above is not true, do you have any web links that could walk me through the conversion process in detail (i am new to macs, but pretty good a understanding cpu stuff in general.

Most of the files will be fine. I guess I made it sound more complicated than necessary. Use the Mac to format it as FAT32 (MS-DOS File System) and you'll be right. If you use the PC then you might run into troubles with a larger drive because it won't necessarily let you format a big partition.

In short, format using the Mac's inbuilt Disk Utility app as MS-DOS File System and you'll be fine.

5) in regards to the slow hard drive i was about to purchase...
a) what are the cons of the hard drive being slow...could files be damaged, as well as my mac?

The files won't be damaged, but you may as well get a faster drive. The main negative is simply it'll take longer to find and use your files.

b) is it bad to have the HD powered by the mac itself vs an outlet?

Well, some hard drive enclosures that rely on the USB port for power don't work well with laptops since the laptop doesn't have enough power to run it. In addition to this, it'll chew through your battery power which will in turn reduce your battery life.

The drive you're looking at is charging a premium for physical size (2.5") and portability (powered by USB). For your money, I think it's more sensible to go for a drive that's physically larger (3.5") and self powered as there'll be a larger range for you to choose from and they'll all have much more space making it easy for you to use Time Machine.

 

[ucfgrad93]

3) in terms of the gigs, i agree the more gigs, the better the savings. I guess what I was getting at, was if I bought a 30 gig hard drive, and ran "time machine" for the first time, would 30 be enough?. How much could the first back up take up? I will really only use the mac for the basics, no major video work and stuff. Just want to make sure all my spreadsheetsand tax files are safe

At a minimum, I would get a external hard drive at least as large as my hard drive in your MacBook Pro. Ideally, I'd get one 2X the size of my internal hard drive. Here is an excellent article from MacWorld that will help explain about Time Machine.

I hope this helps.

 

[saladiro]

thanks all

thanks all.....