What's the best way to transfer data from last computer?

[Tokumei]

I'm about to order the 2.93ghz 24" imac with radeon 4850 and I was just wondering what the fastest/easiest way to transfer all the data i have from my current pc would be. (first time mac buyer so be specific thx)

 

[RandomKamikaze]

Straight fromt he Apple website:


Move to Mac

Easily transfer your photos, music, and other documents from your PC to a Mac.
We’ll help you move.

Buy a Mac at an Apple Retail Store and a Genius will help you transfer all your files from your old computer to your new one. If you’d rather do it yourself, you can use a USB or FireWire hard drive or a local network to transfer photos, music, documents, and more.

 

[rgarjr]

of course the fastest way possible would be to take out the hard drive off your old machine and install it on your new machine and dump your data via SATA which is the fastest way possible.

Of course we can't do that since the imac has the "no open" design. So we have to settle for getting an external hard drive, using either USB2.0 or FW.

 

[jnc]

Ethernet cable is how I did it... set up a shared folder on the windows side. should be able to google it

 

[DoFoT9]

fastest and easiest would be an external HD that is formatted as FAT32 (macs cant read NTFS).

ethernet is closely 2nd easiest

 

[richard.mac]

Macs can read NTFS they just cant write to them (without third party support) and FAT32 has a 4GB limit file write limit.

best would be backing up your PC files to an NTFS external, plug it into your Mac and then drag them off.

 

[jnc]

Macs can read NTFS they just cant write to them (without third party support) and FAT32 has a 4GB limit file write limit.

best would be backing up your PC files to an NTFS external, plug it into your Mac and then drag them off.

Wouldn't it be simpler/faster to set up a direct connection between the two computers, rather than transfer off the PC, onto an external, and transfer again onto the Mac?

 

[mstam]

Wouldn't it be simpler/faster to set up a direct connection between the two computers, rather than transfer off the PC, onto an external, and transfer again onto the Mac?

It's IMO an option to share all drives on the Windows PC and transfer the files over a network. But if the PC has single drives (so no raid), taking the drives out and putting them in an external enclosure is somewhat faster.

Either way I suggest to copy all files over to some backup directory on the Mac and then sort them out.

 

[DoFoT9]

Macs can read NTFS they just cant write to them (without third party support) and FAT32 has a 4GB limit file write limit.

best would be backing up your PC files to an NTFS external, plug it into your Mac and then drag them off.

haha yes, i knew that.. was incredibly tired lastnight. thanks for pointing out my mistake

Wouldn't it be simpler/faster to set up a direct connection between the two computers, rather than transfer off the PC, onto an external, and transfer again onto the Mac?

i recommend an external HD only because it is harder for somebody to figure out how to enable file sharing and connect to it properly.. plugging in a USB is so much easier.