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Transfering 162gb of music between laptops?

M

macdoobie

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 12, 2008
63
0
I have 162gb of music on my laptop PC that needs to go to my macbookpro. No external hardrives right now but I hope to get one at the end of the month.

anyway, how can I do this? I don't want to buy a million dvds..and waste time burning....yuck

using SMB://*name of computer* is VERY VERY slow. It only transfers at 1MB/second and usually crashes frequently.

Can I connect both laptops to the router via their own ethernet cables....and run it that way, somehow?

please help!:eek:
 
You should be able to connect them directly to each other via an ethernet cable and it should appear in the network on the mac.
 
Depending on what Mac, if it has a FireWire 400/800 port, then using that with an external hard-drive would work, but the cheapest way for you would probably be an ethernet cable.
 
JML42691 said:
Depending on what Mac, if it has a FireWire 400/800 port, then using that with an external hard-drive would work, but the cheapest way for you would probably be an ethernet cable.
Click to expand...

You could also plug the firewire cable directly between the two computers, I have done this before
 
Get this.

macdoobie said:
I have 162gb of music on my laptop PC that needs to go to my macbookpro. <snip>
Can I connect both laptops to the router via their own ethernet cables....and run it that way, somehow?
please help!:eek:
Click to expand...

I just got this Cat 6 Crossover for the same purpose. :D No need to involve the router in between.
OR
If you are in a hurry and you have 2 non-crossover ethernet cables you can connect both the MBP and the PC to the router. I dunno why my standard (non-crossover) ethernet cable did not work between my MBP and my windows laptop (although I have read on forums that the MBP eithernet controller is functional over a non-crossover ethernet wire as well)
 
Hi,

using a standard (read non-crossover) works perfectly well if one end is connected to a Mac. At least at one end there is a smart computer ;)

/Rupert
 
Buy an external Hard Drive NOW! It sounds to me like you don't have your 162GB of music backed-up anywhere? My goodness I can't even imagine anything scarier! Get a backup HD, copy it all over to it, and then copy it back onto your new system. I've only got 30GB of music and I've got it backed-up four ways, in two locations! Do it NOW!!! :apple:
 
Oh I plan to buy an external soon! im so afraid of losing my music :((((

Ok so I tried putting a ethernet cable between the mac and the PC but I dont know what to do from there?

Going to network in Leopard shows up nothing ?

I restarted both laptops while connected to this ethernet cord but still nothing is showing up
 
Do I need a crossover cable for this?? I dont know what I have I think its just CAT5.

I tried connecting again via wireless but after 20% of the transfer it just crashes...

Why does this have to be so hard...:eek:
 
Straight through cable should work, since the Mac Ethernet port is Auto-MDX, and is intelligent enough to work with either type of cable.

I have a hard time getting my Mac to see PC's, but I have good luck turning on PC file sharing on my Mac, and pushing the files from the PC to your Mac.

As far as setup, I would setup both machines with fixed IP addresses. something like 192.168.1.1 for the Mac, and 192.168.1.2 for the PC. From the Mac, try to ping the PC (ping 192.168.1.2 from the Mac Terminal). Assuming you get good responses, then turn on the PC file sharing on your Mac, and see if the PC can see it.

Once you can see the Mac from your PC, drag and drop the files from the PC to your Mac...

That should work!
 
:( I have no idea how to go about that and I think learning right now would take more freakin time than just burning all this to DVD and transfering it. i hate mac, and i sure do hate pcs too.:mad:
 
aross99 said:
Straight through cable should work, since the Mac Ethernet port is Auto-MDX, and is intelligent enough to work with either type of cable.

I have a hard time getting my Mac to see PC's, but I have good luck turning on PC file sharing on my Mac, and pushing the files from the PC to your Mac.

As far as setup, I would setup both machines with fixed IP addresses. something like 192.168.1.1 for the Mac, and 192.168.1.2 for the PC. From the Mac, try to ping the PC (ping 192.168.1.2 from the Mac Terminal). Assuming you get good responses, then turn on the PC file sharing on your Mac, and see if the PC can see it.

Once you can see the Mac from your PC, drag and drop the files from the PC to your Mac...

That should work!
Click to expand...

THANK YOU!!!!! I...took the shot and did all of this...and its working!! 5+MB/sec...thank you!!! :D
 
Connect both computers with the ethernet cable and use the Mac's ability to connect to the pc.
In the Finder use the "Connect to Server..." or " Go to Folder"enter the pc's ip address or the folder location there and you may see a Finder Window with the PC content.
Also you may see the PC in the Network.
 

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You mentioned having both computers connected to a router. If both computers are connected to the router, and can get on the Internet on each one, then you can actually transfer them through your router instead of a cable - but the speed will be limited to the speed of your router's network connection - probably 100Mbs, but it will work.

How about this:

Open the Sharing System Preference on your Mac.
Click on the check box next to File Sharing
Click on the Option Button
Click on the Check box next to Share files using SMB
Click on Done

Note that the screen now says "Windows Sharing: On", and note the smb address to connect to your mac...

Now your Mac is ready to be access from your PC.

I don't have a PC here, but you need to do the rest form your PC.
You need to enter the smb address that is shown on your Mac's sharing control panel (something like smb://192.168.1.1).

I believe you can enter the smb address at the top of a Windows Explorer window. You might also be able to use "start/run" and enter the address there.

You should get prompted for a user name and password. Enter your Mac's user name and password. If everything works, you will see a Windows folder open that that represents the data on your Mac. I Can't remember what folder you will be in on your mac.

Try copying a file from your PC into that folder, and then find it on your Mac if you aren't sure. Once you know you can copy a file, then copy your music folder and keep your fingers crossed...
 
THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!!

You have saved me! I had to do this transfer because my windows PC is failing, the hard drive is makign that famous click click sound...I am very stupid to have all this music on there with no backups. I couldnt really buy it this week but I did anyway because my music means so much to me. I got a 500gb external for $140, a lot of money right now for me but worth every cent!!! Thanks for the help, I'm glad I finally got the ethernet to work:):)
 
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