Going from PC to Mac, drive questions?

Ok, this is for all the Mac guys out here. I just converted from PC to a iMac. I have the 3tb Fusion - but in my PC I have 6TB in (2) 3tb SATA 7200 drives. The first drive hold 14 years of photography, while the second hold 8 years of video. These are active drive, I use the data on both in quite a bit of different projects. These are not archives or backups, they are usable libraries. So my question: these drives are formatted NTFS - I'm not sure how to get them to work with the Mac. While I can read them, I can't write to them. Also, I don't know the mechanics or efficiencies of running NTFS drives in a Mac environment? Looking for some real world advice.

Software is a valid solution in the short term that allows you to use your drives easily.
However, I'd strongly urge you to consider replacing the drive system with a more Mac-ish box and then copy your multiple TB to the new disks. You will get a backup and new. easily accessible mass storage.
Hope you enjoy your new Macintosh. It's the only machine I've ever used so I don't know how to compare Premiere on a PC to my use of Adobe and Apple products on my Macs.

Similar Messages

Moving from an external mac drive to a pc hd

Good evening,
Have been reading different posts and different articles from Apple and have a fairly good idea about this situation..but just have a couple of questions.
I have copied these folders and files from my mac to an external drive:
iTunes Library
iTunes Music Library.xml
I am currently using itunes on my pc just to listen to a collection of mp3s that I have collected over time..but nothing that I want to sync to my ipod..would like to keep them..but not at the expense of having them jumbled with what I want on my ipod.
Can I copy over the folders and files from my mac external drive and replace the ones already on my pc or do I need to copy them somewhere else on my pc and then have itunes find it? What about the updating the location of each song? Will that be done automatically or is there something I need to do manually?
Have been reading this article about consolidating my library:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
But am not following what to do if I want to get them off of an external drive onto my pc's hard drive. Am concerend about losing playlists and ratings.
Would greatly appreciate any advice or input.
Thanks
Tom
Powrbook G4 12 inch Mac OS X (10.4.7)

No idea, since I don't have a mac!
Do macs have paths like C:\Program Files? I kinda doubt it.
The only directions I've seen are going from pc to mac in the switch101 pages.
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
You could try it, plop the itl and xml files into the C:\Documents and Settings...... folder I typed above.
And move all the music files.
Either it will work, or worst case, you will have to clear your library and Recreate iTunes Library
edit: that recreate article might be the place to start, instead of consolidate?
Message was edited by: Katrina S.

Switching from Windows to Mac - Drive Compatibility

I'm finally getting back to Mac after a 15 year break using Windows.
My question relates to all my existing files. I have an external drive that I store all of my data on. It includes my ITUNES files, my photos etc. The drive actually hangs off of my Airport Extreme N Router.
When I get my MAC, will I be able to access those files? Will this be read/write? Even if it is just once so that I can copy them off of my external drive and onto my new Mac harddrive? Sorry, being in the Windows world I'm hung up on always thinking that things are incompatible. Is the drive formatted in a way that I can access?
I plan to use Boot Camp and/or Parellels as well - a couple of nagging work applications with no Mac version. When running Windows, will I still be able to access files from that drive as well? For instance, if I continue to run Windows Office while in the Windows environment, can I read/write files to that drive still without disturbing files that the Mac OS and applications will be accessing? Or will the drive be eitehr pure "windows or mac" ?
I'd still like the external drive to be accessable from the other Windows machine in the house as well until I switch that one out....can that happen?
What about my Apple TV which I haven't installed yet. Will it be able to access my photo files, etc. on this drive?
This is my last hold up to switching. I just dont want to dive in and find myself without any of my old data.
I know the answer is probably easier to explain than I'm asking. I just can't get my head wrapped around this for some reason. Thanks in advance.
Summary:
One Windows Machine that uses External Drive for all data storage - replacing with Mac
One Windows Machine that uses External Drive for backups
External Drive hanging off of AEN router.
Apple TV - to be installed

Hello Atlantax,
I can't answer all of your questions, but some.
my photos etc.
Yes. As you know, all files are associated in Windows by their extension. With OS X, the Mac is also now like this. Though it does double up with the older Type/Creator codes of OS 9 and earlier. So all you your .jpg, .tif, .eps, .ai and other formats will all be easily recognized by your Mac counterpart applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, etc.
Not that it will be perfect. On the Mac, while all .eps files for example, like Windows, have the same extension no matter which app created them, the Mac also assigns Type/Creator codes to each file so it knows which app it belongs to. So unlike Windows, which can have .eps assigned to only one application (meaning an Illustrator .eps will try to open in Photoshop if that's the app the .eps extension is assigned to), this doesn't happen on the Mac. An .eps created in Photoshop will open in Photoshop, Illustrator in Illustrator, etc., when you double click on them.
But you will have an issue with the files you copy over since they will have no Type/Creator codes. As will .jpg, .tif and all other image formats. If there's more than one app that can open them, you'll have the same issue with those older files as you do in Windows. They will simply try to open in the whatever the default app is in the LaunchServices database.
You could get around this somewhat by assigning a Photoshop .eps to Photoshop. But then OS X will behave just like Windows and try to open all .eps files in Photoshop, ignoring the Type/Creator codes.
Will this be read/write?
If it's FAT16 or FAT32, it will be read/write. If it's NTFS, it will be read only.
When running Windows, will I still be able to access files from that drive as well?
Yes. It would be best to have the external formatted as FAT32 so both the Mac and Windows can access it natively. What the Mac will do in that case is copy two files to the external drive for each item you copy over. Say the name of the file is KittyCat.tif. It will put these two files on the external drive:
KittyCat.tif
._KittyCat.tif
Since the second file starts with a period, it will be invisible in OS X. But it's important because it holds the resource fork information of a Mac drive that can't normally exist on a FAT32 drive. So when you copy it back, OS X will automatically rejoin the data fork information (visible file) with the resource fork information (Type/Creator codes, time stamps, etc.). You'll see those ._xxx files from within Windows, so don't just start deleting them. Either that, or use OS X's Disk Utility to partition the drive into two parts. One as Mac OS Extended (HFS+), and the other as FAT32. Then save your files on each partition as per the OS they belong to.
I'd still like the external drive to be accessible from the other Windows machine in the house as well until I switch that one out....can that happen?
Yes, if it's FAT32, or split into separate Mac/Windows partitions as described above. Unless you've got MacOpener on your Windows machine, it simply won't access the Mac formatted partition. NTFS will also work, but you'll only be able to read from the Mac.
Also, as Gnarlodious mentions, the Mac will let you use some characters in file names that Windows doesn't allow. I'm sure you're already aware of these, but here's a list anyway.
These are all characters reserved by the system in DOS.
? [ ] / \ = + : ; " , * |
In the Windows Joliet file system, these characters are not allowed.
? / \ : " * |
Hope this helps.

Going from Windows to Mac

My brother-in-law just ordered a new iMac from the Apple store. He's leaving it up to me to get all his files transferred from the PC to the iMac. I have an external hard drive formatted for Windows that I will use for this. He has an iTunes library on his Windows PC. Can I re-create the library on his new iMac using the external hard drive?
On Apple's support site, I found an article explaining how to back up an iTunes library with an external drive, then restoring the library backup. Is this all I need to do? Will it work going from PC to iMac? Will any songs he purchased from iTunes be included in the transfer?

I think you'll find all the answers you need in this article: Move iTunes from PC to MAC, http://www.macworld.com/article/146958/2010/03/moveitunes_windowsmac.html

Going from windows to MAC OS

Hi
I have an iPod video 30GB. Currently I am a windows XP user so it is formatted for that. However, I am considering buying a MAC. I was wondering how this would affect my iPod. I presume it will have to be re-formatted. How will this affect any music on the iPod?
Pippa

You can use your iPod formatted as it is as Macs can read Windows formatting. I've seen a few posts on the forum where there have been problems but these would be the exception. Have you thought about how you are going to get your music from your PC to your new Mac? There is a good general guide to switching from Windows to Mac at the following link that touches on moving music as well How to Move to a Mac - Get your stuff from your PC to your new Mac
There are also these guides:
How to move music between authorised computers
Networking with a Windows PC
Alternatively you could copy the music directly from your iPod. There's a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to your Mac at this link: Two-way Street: Moving Music Off the iPod
There are also a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod, this is just a selection. Have a look at the web pages and documentation for these, they are generally quite straightforward. I use Senuti but check the others out and choose whichever you are happy with.
Senuti Mac Only
iPodRip Mac Only
PodWorks Mac Only
iPod.iTunes Mac Only
PodView Mac Only
iPod Access Mac and Windows Versions
YamiPod Mac and Windows Versions
PodUtil Mac and Windows Versions
iPodCopy Mac and Windows Versions

Example format of M3u playlist on MAC - Going from Windows to MAC

If you look at the examples below, you will see that I am experimenting with different paths , fully qualified, From Users etc. None of them work. Can someone please post an example of an M3u file that you were able to successfully import into iTunes 9. An example file and the path to where you imported it from on your hard drive and an fully qualified path of where the music is stored would make it possible for me to figure out what I am doing wrong.
I edit the m3u files in windows, save them as MAC line end format with a CR, and in a code page for ANSI/ASCII. Is ANSI okay? Do they need to be utf-8?
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:236,The Band - Life Is A Carnival
Macintosh HD\Users\garyjohnson\Music\The Band\The Best Of The Band\05 The Band - Life Is A Carnival.mp3
#EXTINF:366,Tim Curry - 10 Paradise Garage
\Users\garyjohnson\Music\Tim Curry\10 Paradise Garage.mp3
#EXTINF:243,Van Halen - Jump
garyjohnson\Music\Van Halen\1984\02 Van Halen - Jump.mp3
#EXTINF:477,Lou Reed - Intro/Sweet Jane
Music\Lou Reed\Rock 'N Roll Animal\01 Intro - Sweet Jane.mp3
#EXTINF:215,Van Halen - Runnin' With The Devil
\Van Halen\Van Halen\01 Van Halen - Runnin' With The Devil.mp3
#EXTINF:201,Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
Various\X-Games Volume I- Music From The Edge\01 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground.mp3

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518

Going from Window to Mac

Please help! My ipod has windows software. Iused it before on my mac and everything was fine. I recently updated to Tiger and mac wanted to do the ipod updater. It asked me to return to factory settings - I did - Now I see the ipod in itunes with no songs under it in itunes; no songs registering on the ipod either. Funny thing is itunes shows that 3/4 of the ipod is full. Help! What happened to my songs. Or why can't I totally erase it. I only want to use it on mac from now on.
Thanks!!
Patti

Just double checking...I am changing jobs and therefore changing computers. From PC to Mac.
I had posted this a few weeks ago and I'm just a little confused exactly what I need to do to make a "safe transition" I don't mind losing playlists just not music.
Thanks very much!!
-Nicole

Switching from PC to Mac, have question about processing speed

Hi, I am going to buy a used Mac off of ebay and I am pretty clueless about where to start. I am not very knowledgable when it comes to the difference in processing speeds on pc's and apples both and have just been using what has been passed along. I am on a budget and cannot afford to do a bunch of upgrades when I get a new (to me) apple. I am currently working on a old pc (8 years?) that has had as many upgrades as it can handle. It is a Pentium III 548 mhz, 384 mb of ram and 40g hd on Windows XP. The Apple that I am stuck on getting right now is a G3 with a bunch of upgrades. It is an Imac PowerPC g3 with a 600mhz processor, 512 mb of memory, 120 gb hard drive. It has OS X 10.4 Tiger and ILife and has a single processor. It has a airport extreme card also. My question is 1) Does it take less mhz and ram to run the operating system for an apple and 2) am I going to notice a big difference in speed between what I have now and with the apple? The g3 is $249 and comes with a 90 day guarantee minus shipping. Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!
Tracy

I'd save your money or apply it to an Apple G4 (AGP or newer) tower. Depending on how it was configured, you may find that your PIII was a little faster loading web pages than the 600 MHz iMac. My 1 GHz P3s are faster than my iMac DV G3-400 MHz models. I think $249 plus shipping for a 5 or 6 year-old iMac is a bit high. I picked up one of my G3-400 MHz iMac DVs for $20 at a thrift store. If there are any in your area that accept donated computers, you might want to check for a local bargain. While the 600 MHz model that you described is loaded, that's about as far as it goes, other than bumping the memory to 1 GB, but that would likely involve removing a pair of 256 MB DIMMs already in it, and buying a pair of 512 MB DIMMs. If it has a single 512 MB DIMM installed, you wouldn't have to spend as much. Selling the computer with Tiger installed but without the OS installer media will eventually put you in a bind, when you'll need to boot from the installer CD to perform disk repair maintenance. Some may consider Tiger to be a bit demanding of that iMac's system resources, preferring the predecessor "Panther" instead. The bottom line is that the iMac is somewhat limited, in terms of design (no PCI slots) and/or future upgrade potential. If it will suit your needs as a starter Mac, try finding a comparable model for less. You might also check for used computer dealers in your area, as that saves the cost of shipping, and return shipping - if there's a problem. The G4 tower has more potential for hardware tweaking, if you decide to stick with the Mac OS. You can find G4 towers at eBay selling for less than $249, but you'd need to have a monitor. Is space at a premium, in terms of a preference for the iMac's compact form factor? There is a direct correlation between the OS version and the optimal processor speed and amount of installed memory to adequately run it. OS X needs/uses more memory than the older, pre-OS Mac versions, just as Vista or XP2 requires more memory than Windows Me or 98SE. A comparison of Intel's P3s to Apple's G3s or G4s gets into the debate over which one handles more instructions per clock cycle than the other at a given speed. It's difficult to do a head-to-head comparison, because the hardware and software is not the same.

Switching from Windows to Mac(iTunes question!!)

Okay so I have an account on iTunes and have bought alot of stuff. I have a video iPod and my parents just orderd me a macbook for my birthday. Okay so is there a way I can make sure my library and account and everything can be on my macbook too? One time I tried to plug my iPod into my friends computer to put her shows on my iPod and it went cuckoo.
How can I make sure I move my whole library over to my macbook? xD I'm new at this.

Don't worry about the 'friends computer' situation coming up again. You're working with your own library and you are merely moving it to a different computer. Lots of ways to get your music and video files onto the MacBook.
Your family have a network? (Could be the easiest way.)
You could burn all the files to DVD's or CD's. (You should already have all your media backed up anyways)
As already said, flash drives are also a possibility.
Just copy/move the media files to the macbook. Then authorize the macbook. Authorizing is found under the "Store" iTunes menu item. You can authorize up to 5 computers to play media purchased from the iTunes Store.
You don't have to "take your account" over to the macbook. When you visit the iTunes store when using your macbook just sign in with your existing account ID and password and you'll be good to go.
Hey, enjoy the mac world you are entering. I'm a relatively new adopter and am really happy with it.

Moving LR2 from Windows to Mac; drive formatting issue...

Over the past year I have gradually switched from Windows OS to Mac OS and Lightroom is one of the last to migrate.
I have a 22+K image library (both images and movies) with a deep directory structure accumulated over many years, currently on a Windows NTFS formated drive. I moved the LR catalog to the Mac without problems and it now has no problem "seeing" the images on the Windows drive, HOWEVR, since this is a NTFS formatted drive I can only read and not write to the drive and thus I need to move the library to either a FAT32 Windows drive or (better) to a native Mac OS drive.
The problem I am running into is that if I move/copy the images outside of LR, the software cannot "see" the images on the new Mac OS formatted drive. Moving the library from within LR does not work because when LR tries to erase the images from the Widows drive it returns an error and stops the process. Exporting the image catalog seems to export the images and not the movies that are scattered through the folders and thus creates a file managing headache. I have read extensively through tutorials, support pages and discussion forums and cannot find a discussion of my specific problem. Am I missing something? Any suggestions?

Thank you for both suggestions! I am not quite sure what to make of this... I had tried what Jao vdL suggested before and it didn't work. Upon trying to find the files on the Mac-formated drive I usually get the message:"Lightroom has encountered problems reading this photo. You will not be able to make adjustments to the photo" At the time my understanding was that the problem arises from the different ways that both formats handle individual files.
Just in case, I tried the whole process again last night and got the same error message but then I left the computer running overnight and this morning everything seems to be fine. As far as I can tell the library and catalog are intact and LR is behaving normallly. Strange! Regardless what the reasons behind all this are, it worked so... thank you!

One more Epson R2880 Mac driver question?

Using OSX 10.5.7, with the latest R2880 v6.20 driver, does LR 2.3 now correctly bypass Colorsync when selecting a Profile in Color Management in the Printer module? I'm still concerned with the prospect of double profiling. I'm hoping that v2.3 passes the selected profile directly to the driver, where it is applied to the appropriate choice of Media Type in the Print Settings section.

I have a 3800 so cannot directly answer your question, but at the same time, even with a definitive yes from someone, that doesn't guarantee that it will get set up correctly on your machine. Likely, but no guarantee! I'd suggest a few smallish test prints.

Going from pc to mac with your iPod.

I just switched from a pc to a mac, and all of the podcasts on my iPod were downloaded off the old computer. How do I switch the iPod over to my mac? Apple Support said something about software, and clouds...She also recommended posting this question on this site.
Thanks in advance for your help!

on Win :The podcast are in a folder C:/USERname/Music/iTunes/... and look at all folders !

Going from xserve to Mac Mini Server

I have a graphic design studio (design for print and web sites) that requires a new server.
Currently around 6-8 users working on files (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator etc) directly from the server.
The server is configured with RAID1 and has aggregated ethernet.
I am looking to replace our 2007 xserve 2.66Ghz Xeon with a 2012 Mac Mini Server.
I expect there will be a drop in performance in terms of the speed with which files can be copied and opened over the network.
My main points of concern are: the speed of the internal HDs, and lack of ethernet aggregation.
Are there any ways of limiting this drop in performance, ie use an external thunderbolt RAID (I am thinking of the LaCie 2big Thunderbolt™ 2 6TB http://store.apple.com/uk/product/HFYG2ZM/A/lacie-2big-thunderbolt-2-series-raid -hard-drive?fnode=cb26126edba6d5cf1f20a1188ab2f9a15577d8779cb89532f051d642f0462 5 9ef9b142bff2e3ddede4276fdae4b4074b80ffc3c6968f0fa0f13643559d04820cd08bdea7601a2 5 1154a61b6497c20fc6ec726f25583cf16d5946c93865ea04dbfaea9c26291ec67aef08afd262a35 c 7c)
And would it be possible to use a Thunderbolt to ethernet adapter connected to the external RAID to create the aggregated ethernet?
Any help or insight into this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Richard

Thanks for the concise reply John.
I think the Lacie drive I am considering is RAID hardware, would you be able to check the link and confirm for me?
Any ideas if this will be as adequate as the Promise Pegasus R4 Thunderbolt RAID for serving up image and InDesign files of about average size of 40MB to 6-8 users?
As we are coming from an xserve we have taken for granted the speed at which it can handle the demands we put on it without breaking into a sweat.
I am just worried I will get this new system and be disappointed in a big drop in file access speeds.
Thanks again for your time and appreciate it is hard to be definitive in the answer as there are numerous factors involved that can effect the end result.
All the best,
Richard

Going from Firefox to Safari - specific questions

I'm transitioning from a PC to a Macbook, and I'm not too familiar with Apple products or softwares. I know that Safari is the native Mac browser but I'm very used to using Firefox. I have heard that Firefox is slower loading than Safari. Is that so? If it is indeed the case, I would like to switch browsers as well.
Is Safari easily customizable? Does it have third-party extensions like FF?
I like to use mouse gestures when browsing (ie. right-clicking and draging left to go back a page, pressing the wheel to open a link in a new tab, etc.). Is that possible?
Is it possible to add other search engines other than Google to the search bar? For example, a Wikipedia or YouTube search bar?
As well, though not pertaining to Safari, are mouse keys customizable? I'm used to having a button on my mouse designated to play/pausing jetAudio. Is this possible with iTunes?
Thanks in advance.

Hi
Firefox takes a little longer to open the application (program), but once running, is easily as fast as Safari.
not so easily customizable as Ffox, tho yes there are 3rd party add-ons, but not such a neat way as Ffox extensions.
I don't know about mouse gestures & Safari.
Mouse keys customizable - Umm, yes, within certain limitations using apples mighty mouse - other brands, or third party software might provide the function you need.
Yes, the search engines can be changed - 3rd party app again.

I am working in LR 5.7. I am having problems moving files and folders from my internal Mac drive to an external drive.

My process is to drag files or folders from one location to another. Sometimes it works, but it takes a VERY long time. Sometimes it does not work. For example, I tried to move a folder with 329 images. LR processed for 13 hours and moved 58 images; then it stopped and gave the message "…error copying files to the destination you selected. The following files could not be copied." Then it noted the files not copied. Does this look like a LR problem? A hardware problem? Any suggestions on how to fix would be appreciated.

Jim has a very good suggestion. There are many factors at work here:
1) How are you connecting the external drive to the computer?
2) How big are files (329 x 1MB is not the same as 329 x 25MB)?
3) What is your computer specification?
4) Do you have any power saving settings on (in particular something that would send the computer/hard drives to sleep)?

Going from PC to Mac, drive questions?

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