Windows to a Mac Computer

[Central Bassman]

Hey guys, I’m in the market for a new notebook style computer and I’m looking at maybe getting a Mac. I have never used one before but looked at them at Best Buy today. Just wondering how hard it is to make the move from a windows computer to a Mac style computer. Likes and Dislikes???

Thanks

CB

[Shack]

All I know is word around the campfire is, it's easier to move to Mac, then from a Mac.

Most of your devices should just be a plug and play type move. If a device’s software needs to be loaded, you will have to check the installation disk for the Macintosh symbol. If not, contact the manufacture for new start up software or go on-line and down load. Now when it comes to file transfers and compatibility, the new computer should have help commands to help this go easy. Macintosh has made it very easy to move to their system.

I like Macintosh. Faster, better graphics and a whole list of things. It is just pulling the trigger and changing your train of thought on how computers work is the toughest thing. In some cases, the way Macintosh' system works is way simpler. It just takes a while to get used to it.

Good luck

[eurolarva]

It is a whole new beast but you will get the hang of it. Pros is it is less likely to get a virus or hijacked. My computer, my documents and windows explorer dont exist so organizing your hard drive is quite a bit different. You might have problems printing to a printer that his hooked to a PC versus a stand alone network printer. Excel files are kind of strange too and dont seem to convert quite right from Mac to PC.

[upnorth]

I am a PC guy, but that is cuz that is what I am used to. I work in IT and for the most part except for the arts and graphics thing most of the business world runs on PC. Just be sure all of the software you want to run is available in MAC format, before you buy one.

And as far a the Virus/Hacker thing as MACs get more popular they are going to start to exploit the holes in there security too. I get IT security bulletins and you are starting see a lot more exploits coming up for MACs as of late. Just so no one thinks the MAC OS is invincible and pays a price later.

[PierBridge]

I don't see any reason for you switch to a Mac IMO the annoyances far exceed the benifits still to this day.

[Sandmannd]

If you are planning on doing a lot of graphic art, video editing or photo editing, mac is the way to go. They are a much more stable machine. That being said, if you are just using it for interenet and goofing around like most folks, I would stay with a PC as it's more the norm and you don't have to learn a whole new system.

[Central Bassman]

I would like to do some Video editing with all the snowmobile videos we take out west, but i dont think i would be doing it a lot. I think i will just stick with the PC for know

Right know i can't even get my computer to work. It will load to the Windows XP screen and that's it??? any tips or thoughts on what might be wrong??

Thanks for the info guys!!!

[Sandmannd]

I would try running the windows restore by pressing F8 as it boots up. If that doesn't work you may need to reimage it.

[upnorth]

I could be one of the applications that load when Windows starts is corrupt.

You could try to start it in Safe Mode and then go to start, run, key in msconfig and hit enter. In the window that opens on the end you will see a tab that says start up, click on that tab and it will show you everything that your computer is set to start on boot up. One thing you can do is to deselect all and see if it will start normally. If it does you can go back and start the critical stuff like your Anti Virus and maybe a few other items you know you need. If it fails to start after adding a few items back you will know what is causing you the problems

To get into Safe Mode you need to press the F8 key when it says starting Windows, but I usually start tapping the key shortly after it starts the starting process. It may take a few times to get it right.

[Central Bassman]

Upnorth,

What safe mode should i use? When i press F8 is gives me a lot of opitions.

Safe Mode??

Safe Mode with Networking??

Safe Mode with Command Prompt??

If i try to load it in Last know good configuration or try to start Windows Normally it will go to the Window XP loading page and just sit there for ten minutes and then it will go black!!!

I tried safe mode and it just when to a black screen with some white sys files and thats it??

It a Toshiba and it's about four years old, if that helps!!!

[PierBridge]

Where is G-Town?

You need to re-install Windows or you may have a Hard-drive issue also.

[Sandmannd]

Load it in just Safe Mode. You can use Safe Mode with Networking if there is anything you need across your network, but Safe Mode is good to find out what is corrupted.

[Shorelunch]

I have a HP and a Macbook laptop. I have Office on both and it works great on both. Both laptops cooperate and work fine together. Over the year I've had the Mac, I use it more and more. It's faster, easier and "cooler" to use than the PC. I have Leopard on the Mac and it has some very cool features to boot. While my PC is fine, I would recommend a MacBook in a heartbeat.

[upnorth]

Just like Sandmannd said just plain safe mode, it will take quite a bit longer to load than windows normally will so be patient. If it won't load in safe mode you are probably going to need to reload windows. We have got them to work in other ways but unless you really need some special data off the PC it ain't worth the time.

[Central Bassman]

I have tried all safe modes and it doesnt work. Just go to a black screen or a screen with a bunch of white writing on it!!! So it doesnt pay to reload windows or it doesnt pay to do the other ways??

[IFallsRon]

I'm getting close to 20 years on a Mac doing high-end graphic design. They're easy to work with and not as many annoyances as "PC experts" say. Software is more spendy unless you can score educational versions. Planned obsolesence and forced OS upgrades are about as bad as it gets.

I have five of my seven Macs operating in my home office; two are G3 400s that my kids use for the Internet. I have my original Mac set up as a scanning station and my next Mac for audio conversion. All are networked and can access printers. And all have USB PCI cards for access with pocket drives or other externals.

There are plenty of good deals on used Macs. You'll need at least a 733 processor to do video or DVD slide shows.

I've never had a fatal disk error or virus.

[upnorth]

It don't pay to spend too much time on it if it won't even go into safe mode. That means there is something hosed in windows and you can spend an incredible amount of time trying get it running. If you don't have anything really special as far data goes, just reload windows and be done with it.

[upnorth]

IFallsRon, I have never said they weren't good machines. Just that they shine in the video and graphics world, where the PC is more widely used in the business world and more software vendors write software for PCs than MACs. We had a couple of em at work and once we got things worked out where they would work with exchange and our file servers they worked fine for what we wanted them for. Just that 4 years ago they really didn't like to work in a TCP/IP environment.

[eurolarva]

We import Excel files into Fedex and UPS and it will not work when the file is saved as a CSV on mac. We have to open it in PC then resave then import into the programs. We have network printers and they work fine. Macs with printers hooked directly to them can not be accessed from other computers unlike a PC . At least that is what our network guy tells us. We are a print shop with 20 macs and 10 pcs. Each machine has pros and cons. PCs seem to run faster on internet applications and run Excel better then Mac. Graphic programs run much better on the mac.

[Central Bassman]

I would like to get my pictures and word documents off it, but i dont know what im going to do with it!!!

[upnorth]

If have access to another computer you can put the hard drive in there and access your data to copy it to a new drive. You have to futz with permissions, but I have done it in the past. I don't remember exactly what I had to do but I know it can be done.

Good time to point out that it is a good idea to back up your data every now and then. And I guess I need to do that too.

[Sandmannd]

Another option is to buy a usb drive. I put a hard drive that won't boot to windows in it and can pull info off of it that way (usually). Then you can load up windows and move it back. Where are you located Central? I would be up for giving you a hand if you like. No guarentees, but it's worth a shot.

[Central Bassman]

live about 30 minutes west of Chaska, but will be going down to the sports show this weekend!!! All I really want to get off of it is my picture and some work documents!!! Pictures are the most important since you can’t replace them!!!

I really don't know what else I can do!! Taking it in to Best Buy might cost me way to much!!! Thank for all the help guys!!!!

Mitch- Central Bassman

[lotsofish]

Maybe I am just a techie-nerd, but I am using Ubuntu Linux on my home machine and I think it's great. My wife uses the Windows still on her computer but I have Linux on mine and my laptop. All computers networked and can access files and printers across all three. I'm not going to say it was completely painless to set up as there were a few things that needed to be "tinkered". 1) On my desktop it didn't recognize my 1440x900 widescreen monitor resolution by default 2) On my laptop my wireless card is a "Windows-only" type thing, but I got it working using a wrapper application and the Windows version of the drivers 3) I had to mess with the graphic settings on my laptop too because it tried to use the wrong graphics driver. In all cases there is a huge community to help you out and basically any problem you might have has already been figured out and solved, you just have to search the forums.

The OS is free and I use all free and open source software; it sure is nice to have no software costs (legally). There are free alternatives to pretty much any software you might pay for to use on Windows and NO viruses. Security is handled completely different in Linux and it's just not possible, unless a program asks for your password and you give it permission to run only then can it change important system files.

[/end_infomercial]

OK, how to get the files off your computer that you want to save. Many different kinds of Linux have what they call a Live CD. Basically you download a file, burn it to a CD disk and then you put the disk in the computer, reboot and it loads Linux right from the CD. You don't have to install it, it just runs on the CD. (You would have the option to install it to the hard drive if you wanted.)

I would suggest Ubuntu (Ubuntu.com) because it has a nice graphic display and the file manager should be fairly easy for a Windows user to figure out. Plus you can test it out and see if you like it It's a pretty big download though (around 680MB). Other Linuxes are smaller to download, like one called Puppy Linux, and would work fine, but might be a little harder for a non experienced user.

After you boot into Ubuntu, just double click on the icon that says File Manager. If you have a CD burner, you can drag the files to the CD drive just like you would on Windows and when you get them all there, just click on Burn (you have to take the Ubuntu disk out and put a CD-R in.) You could use a USB drive to copy the files to as well. USB drives are well supported by all OS's, all you have to do is plug them in, they should be recognized automatically.

This method beats physically opening up the computer, removing the hard drive and installing the hard drive into a different system just to copy the files off.

If you only have a dial-up connection and want to give this a try, let me know I could maybe mail you a copy of the CD.

[Central Bassman]

WOW. I’m no moron on the computer I can hold my own so OK let me get this straight. I guessing you read all my post so you know what’s happing to my computer. All I do is put this CD into my CD drive and start it. From there it will take over my computer and I will be able to get my pictures and other files off of it?? I would put them on a USB drive instead of burning them. If I do this would my computer be junk after?? But I would be able to get my files off of it?? RIGHT??

[lotsofish]

Put the CD in the drive and reboot (on some computers you might have to go into the BIOS settings and change the boot order so it looks at the CDROM drive before the hard drive.)

The Ubuntu CD won't install anything on the hard drive unless you tell it to. It will be left exactly the same way it is now.

After Linux boots, use the file manager to copy the files from your hard drive to your USB drive. When you copy all the files you want to save from the hard drive, you can reformat the drive and reinstall Windows using your Windows install disk.

I use Ubuntu for my computer, but I admit it's probably not for everyone, yet. They are making more and more improvements all the time and with each new version it gets more and more user friendly. If you like what you see on the Ubuntu disk, after you reinstall Windows you can load from the CD again, run the install program and set up what's called a dual boot. The Ubuntu installation program will set this up automatically. With a dual boot you will get a choice of either loading Windows or Ubuntu when you start your computer. Kind of a best of both worlds kind of thing.

Let me know if you have any questions and I will try to help out if I can.

P.S. - Download from ubuntu.com - you will want the standard personal computer, desktop Live CD version. It's an ISO file, so you will need some sort of cd burning software to burn it, other than just the plain Windows file manager. If you don't have one, search for Windows ISO burner, there are free options.