Transferring files from MAC to PC - desperately need guidance!

[Emanation]

I know I may not get any help in a Mac Forum due to the fact that I am going over to the 'dark side'. I have used Mac for 15 years and have a G4 1.25 dual mirror front running 10.5.6, but my motherboard is going it seems and I can't afford a new Mac in the midst of this credit crunch so I have had to resort to this

If anyone IS wiling to help me, my problem is not knowing how to format stuff to be able to transfer it to the new PC running Vista, specifically - iphoto contents, itunes folder (80gb of it), mailboxes and signatures from 'Mail', contacts from 'Address book', bookmarks from firefox or safari, and then there are the documents that are text edit or pages????? Also if I have a folder that contains docs that are in word or pdf, will I be able to carry the whole folder over - will the PC be able to recieve a 'mac' folder? I also don't know the best way to actually move it over, can you just connect an ethernet cable and drag and drop or is that a stupid comment?

Please excuse my ignorance, this is all new to me and I am quite distressed about the whole thing.

I'd be grateful for any guidance at all.

Thanks

Emanation

 

[kastenbrust]

I know I may not get any help in a Mac Forum due to the fact that I am going over to the 'dark side'. I have used Mac for 15 years and have a G4 1.25 dual mirror front running 10.5.6, but my motherboard is going it seems and I can't afford a new Mac in the midst of this credit crunch so I have had to resort to this

If anyone IS wiling to help me, my problem is not knowing how to format stuff to be able to transfer it to the new PC running Vista, specifically - iphoto contents, itunes folder (80gb of it), mailboxes and signatures from 'Mail', contacts from 'Address book', bookmarks from firefox or safari, and then there are the documents that are text edit or pages????? Also if I have a folder that contains docs that are in word or pdf, will I be able to carry the whole folder over - will the PC be able to recieve a 'mac' folder? I also don't know the best way to actually move it over, can you just connect an ethernet cable and drag and drop or is that a stupid comment?

Please excuse my ignorance, this is all new to me and I am quite distressed about the whole thing.

I'd be grateful for any guidance at all.

Thanks

Emanation

A folder is a folder both pc and mac can recognise them, and yes for example with your folder of word documents you can just copy the whole folder across, or music, or pdf's infact pc's can read most files. The problem is especially with word documents, they will all need to be windows formatted, so you will have to open each one and check its saved for "Microsoft Office 1997-2003" or "Microsoft Office 2007" because Office on a PC wont recognise Mac office files.

Secondly the easiest way to transfer files is using a memory stick or external hard drive which is FAT 32 formatted.

 

[Emanation]

Fat 32?

THANKS for your quick reply,

I don't know what you mean by FAT 32 formatted or how to do it?

Also some of my files are .rtf - are these readable on a PC?

Any idea about the itunes folder?

Thanks again for your help : )

 

[Str8edgepunker]

It probably is formatted in fat 32, all you need to do is get info on the disk and look next to the the Format label.

RTF is rich text format and is readable on almost any text editor, Mac or PC. IMHO, its the only true universal standard that is available for Mac and PC.

As for iTunes, just copy the iTunes Music directory in the Music folder to the same location on your PC and you'll be fine.

 

[Emanation]

It probably is formatted in fat 32, all you need to do is get info on the disk and look next to the the Format label.

RTF is rich text format and is readable on almost any text editor, Mac or PC. IMHO, its the only true universal standard that is available for Mac and PC.

As for iTunes, just copy the iTunes Music directory in the Music folder to the same location on your PC and you'll be fine.

THANKS so much!

 

[Macky-Mac]

....The problem is especially with word documents, they will all need to be windows formatted, so you will have to open each one and check its saved for "Microsoft Office 1997-2003" or "Microsoft Office 2007" because Office on a PC wont recognise Mac office files......

MS Office for windows should open those Mac Office files just fine....I've been exchanging MS Office files with windows users for years and haven't had any trouble with the Windows people not being able to open Mac Office files. The default format for Word, Excel & PowerPoint have been cross platform for years

 

[kastenbrust]

MS Office for windows should open those Mac Office files just fine....I've been exchanging MS Office files with windows users for years and haven't had any trouble with the Windows people not being able to open Mac Office files. The default format for Word, Excel & PowerPoint have been cross platform for years

i cant open files from my macbook pro (made in word 2008) on my windows xp pc (office 2007)

 

[Emanation]

MS Office for windows should open those Mac Office files just fine....I've been exchanging MS Office files with windows users for years and haven't had any trouble with the Windows people not being able to open Mac Office files. The default format for Word, Excel & PowerPoint have been cross platform for years

Thanks : )

 

[TRIPLESTX]

Xfrng files mac to pc

Thanks all; this was exactly what I needed to know, also! Esp about fat 32 format.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

iPhoto will be your only real difficulty. You will have to export photos from it into folders. I would suggest doing it on some logical basis, such as export all the photos in Event AAA to a Folder Photos/AAA, all in event BBB to Folder Photos/BBB etc. Then you can point some other photo organizing software, such as Picasa or whatever, at the higher level folder 'Photos' (or whatever you call it), and take it from there.

 

[Emanation]

Thanks Tumbleweed

 

[donuttakedonuts]

Hackintosh it man!

 

[Troon]

I am trying to transfer personal movie files from my MBP to my dad’s PC with a memory stick. When i put the stick in the PC it says i “must format” the stick first.

I did this once and it partitioned my stick and i couldn’t see the section with all the movies on it.

I put the stick back on the MAC, deleted the movies, and put the stick back to normal, added the movies again, put it in the PC and the same happened.

Any ideas please?

 

[Troon]

any ideas people?

 

[Makosuke]

You'd do a lot better getting an answer if you post a new thread rather than digging up one a year old that isn't exactly the same issue.

You've probably got the stick using the wrong partition map format; this would cause Windows to not recognize it even if it has a FAT partition on it. The easiest thing to do would be to completely reformat it, with a single FAT partition, using Windows. Plug it into the Mac, which should recognize it immediately and be able to write to it, then copy the files and take it back to the PC. You could alternately repartition the device using the Mac Disk Utility, making sure to select "MBR" (GUID should also work, but stick to MBR) from the Options button, and create a single FAT partition.

This will run into problems if your movie files are larger than 4GB, as FAT can't handle those. If so, you'll need to either install MacFuse so the Mac can read and write NTFS disks, and use NTFS instead of FAT, or install something to give Windows HFS support (not sure what the exact options are, but such things exist).