Advice from Mac Experts

My Mac Mini has just arrived. I'll be moving from a very old Windows 8.1 PC. My thinking is to move my files - mainly photos by copying to portable HDs and then using these as storage and back up.
The new HDs I've bought are Windows formatted so I'm assuming I'll need to reformat them to exFAT first so the Mac can read them ?
I've seen there's a Mac tool to move email and contacts across but appears to require Windows 10 to be fully functional and I'm thinking it's probably quicker to do the transfer by usb cable rather than network?

Any advice for a Mac newbie appreciated

Sent from my moto g(7) plus using Tapatalk

With your drive you can get tools to read NTFS drives in Mac OS: https://www.paragon-software.com/us/...e600980a18b8f9 (if you dig around there are free ones). Or, if you can figure out how to network share your windows drive that can work.

As for contacts, Mac Calendar and contacts should read the standard files from windows, but it tends to not fill in all the details as well, so there is an extent to which you still need to edit them.

Just one thing in the future, if you are sharing files between both, yes you need ExFAT, but the Mac OS file system allows more punctuation in file names, so after a while of being used to that, windows complains about the file names, I have this when syncing my Mac documents to onedrive for work, it always moans about my file names being too long or fancy :)

If you bought the Mac from new you will have phone support from Apple included (I think 30days or so - you can check when you look at the “about my mac”).

general Mac OS guide : https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guid...lp/welcome/mac


If transferring to external device to attach to mac - if you want to read / write on both Mac and PC then use exFAT format. I’d recommend SSD drives if you want speed - tbh I use local drive combined with iCloud for backup on my Mac - I’ve had external drives fail on me.

This is the recommended route for transferring data from windows to mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204087. It does say check you have the latest patches.

I just read this: Migration Assistant needs something to transfer from; that something can be a Mac, a PC running Windows 7 or later, or a Time Machine backup drive. The source computer can be connected to the same network (via wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi) as the new Mac, or via a direct Ethernet connection between the old and new computers.


You can connect the two computers together via Ethernet cable - copy over the files you want to your Mac - have a read through this article: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guid.../13.0/mac/13.0

Try Apple support - they are very helpful- if you are near an Apple Store you could arrange to visit to discuss.

Hope this gives you a few options.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by redsox78

With your drive you can get tools to read NTFS drives in Mac OS: https://www.paragon-software.com/us/...e600980a18b8f9 (if you dig around there are free ones). Or, if you can figure out how to network share your windows drive that can work.

---

It's free for 10 days.

Could I try your product for free before buying?

Sure, you can try Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software for ten days completely for free. After that it will be locked until you activate a purchased license.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MartynJC (UK)

If you bought the Mac from new you will have phone support from Apple included (I think 30days or so - you can check when you look at the “about my mac”).

general Mac OS guide : https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guid...lp/welcome/mac


If transferring to external device to attach to mac - if you want to read / write on both Mac and PC then use exFAT format. I’d recommend SSD drives if you want speed - tbh I use local drive combined with iCloud for backup on my Mac - I’ve had external drives fail on me.

This is the recommended route for transferring data from windows to mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204087. It does say check you have the latest patches.

I just read this: Migration Assistant needs something to transfer from; that something can be a Mac, a PC running Windows 7 or later, or a Time Machine backup drive. The source computer can be connected to the same network (via wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi) as the new Mac, or via a direct Ethernet connection between the old and new computers.


You can connect the two computers together via Ethernet cable - copy over the files you want to your Mac - have a read through this article: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guid.../13.0/mac/13.0

Try Apple support - they are very helpful- if you are near an Apple Store you could arrange to visit to discuss.

Hope this gives you a few options.

---

Agree, phone support is outstanding service. The amount of times I’ve called (even well after the free cover periods) they’ve never failed to sort my issues

Thanks to everyone for their advice. Looks like Migration Assistant is the best way to go especially with Apple support - I wasn't aware of this

Sent from my moto g(7) plus using Tapatalk

Good luck with that.

I transferred about 30-years of scanned photos and digital pictures onto a MacMini for safe keeping using the migration assistant - and the OS mixed them all up.
Duplicated photos, with pictures grouped together randomly according to facial recognition, or the date:time of transfer.

I thought I must have done something wrong, but my mate had the same problem - no date order, no grouping of files, it was a total mess.
Keep a clean copy on a separate drive or USB chip for back up (I wish I did)
For me - Apple must be the worst operating system for storing data in a recognisable file system.