Win to Mac – Moving Day
In this saga of one business user moving from a PC on Windows to OS X on a MacBook Pro, we have come to the critical day. Today, everything necessary to work moves from the PC to the Macbook.
Getting the MacBook attached to my PC network was easy enough, although I had to do it with ethernet cables. The setup is a little different, and not straightforward to a PC guy, but it only took me an hour or so even counting the false- and mis-steps. The transfer of files was also quite fast over the ethernet connection. All of my music and photographs took longer than anything else, I suppose. I did not take my big databases. They are part of a different project, during which I will move all of my Oracle and SQL Server work to MySQL on local Linux servers. Nor did I take my raw digital video from the camcorder. So the transfer of files went quickly and without a hitch.
I was slightly worried about trying to export and then import all of my Outlook information to their various new homes on the Mac. A little searching and I found a marvelous application called O2M (Outlook to Mac) from LittleMachines.com. The program costs an entire ten dollars and almost certainly saved days of anguish in getting this job done. Just turn it loose on Outlook and it builds files for each of the Mac applications that you’ll be moving to. Then move them to the Mac and import them. It is entirely painless and the program is highly recommended.
Next, I reformatted my 320GB Western Digital Passport USB drive for use with the Mac, which was also not a problem. I am not yet using Apple’s Time Machine. The Mac forums are full of problems with Time Machine. I only have about 85 gigabytes of files on the Mac at this point, anyway, so I am just backing up the whole disk and keeping the last two versions, leaving room for my daughter’s new MacBook files. The files on the PC network are set to back up automatically to other workstations weekly using automated software, so they are taking care of themselves.
Next – Final thoughts on the move.
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January 18th, 2009
Regarding Time Machine, it’s not just an automated backup. It also has an intuitive way to GET TO the backed up files. Here’s an example:
Let’s say you realize today that you need an e-mail that you received a month or two ago, but you deleted it maybe two weeks ago when you cleaned up your inbox and got rid of those e-mails you knew you’d never need.
Under regular backup, you need to know the name of the backed-up e-mail file. You go grab that file by navigating a file directory hierarchy and restore it. Then you use your e-mail application to see if that restored file has the e-mail you want. If so, great. If not, go get another backed up file and try again.
Under Time Machine, you open your e-mail application. Then hit the Time Machine icon in the dock. At that point the e-mail screen becomes “three dimensional” – it has the regular e-mail screen with your inbox, but has other screens behind it. On the right of the monitor you click on a date a couple of weeks ago. You are then shown your e-mail screen AS IT APPEARED A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO. If your e-mail is there, click it and restore it and you’re done. If not, go to the right of the monitor and go back a few more days or weeks and try again.
I don’t want to ramble on, but Time Machine gives you a new paradigm into getting to your old, backed-up data and may be worth your consideration.
January 18th, 2009
Definitely give Time Machine a go. It’s awesome.
January 19th, 2009
Time Machine has saved me many times, exactly like Patrick describes. It has also saved by by being able to backup my whole machine to the previous day. AppleCare talked me through that, but it was a very informative session…not to mention “life saving”. Give Time Machine a try.
Joe
January 19th, 2009
In regards to your statement about Time Machine. I think that you have some bad information about the application. Sure Time Machine is not perfect and it is getting better with every release of Leopard, but it is the best set it and forget backup solution that you can have. Time Machine has saved me from many individual files or emails that I needed that were no longer on my system. It has the ability to restore your computer in a state that it was X amount of time ago. I goofed up on overloading my power supply causing the computer to kernel panic a several times in a few days. I kept having problems with the system and Time Machine came to the rescue. I restored the entire system as it was hours before the initial kernel panic. After that was finished I had a completely working system as it was the day before. If you get a new Mac you could use Migration assistant or you could use your Time Machine backup to migrate your old system to your new one. I wouldn’t rule out just yet.