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buying mini today, final quesions....

D

dazed

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 23, 2007
911
211
Hi,

Am going to get the 2gz version today and have a few final questions.

1) Is applecare worth it ?

2) will time machine back up drives connected via usb/firewire? ie i will have an external drive full of photos, music, and a separate external drive for time machine. will time machine back up both the internal and external drives?

3) hows the best way to copy files between an ntfs machine and the mac ?


Thanks and I look forward to becoming one of you soon :)
 
1) Applecare is always a tossup. You may never need it. You may need it 3 weeks after you receive the mini. I did not get Applecare with my mini, and almost one year later, I haven't needed it. Of course, you can read some of the horror stories on this forum for people without Apple care. Bottom line, if you can afford it, get it.

2) Not sure on that one, but I believe it will.


3) Hmm, sorry don't know anything about that.:eek:
 
1) Applecare is always nice to have. If you don't use it, no biggie. If you do, you probably saved yourself some cash.

2) It will backup with either cable. Time machine will backup whatever drive(s) you specify. Just make sure you have ample space.

3) Eh. You could always format an external HD to FAT32 copy the files from the NTFS machine and then copy the files to the mac... but that's a process and a half.

EDIT: Congrats on your pending purchase! Mini's are a great machine. Enjoy!
 
Regarding Apple Care, if you can afford it then buy it, even if it's just for peace of mind. If you break the cost of it down to how much you are paying for each of the three years (thinking of the extended telephone support after 90 days as well), it really is very reasonable. Remember you have up to a year to buy it.
 
dazed said:
3) hows the best way to copy files between an ntfs machine and the mac ?
Click to expand...

Just connect them both to your hub and use the network. Use wireless if you like but that can get painful if you want to move around large files, I know if I have to put anything large on my macbook I just take it upstairs and temporarily plug it physically into the network.
 
You can sometimes get a good deal one Apple Care via eBay... like the post above says, you have a year... so keep a lookout.
 
Nordichund said:
Regarding Apple Care, if you can afford it then buy it, even if it's just for peace of mind. If you break the cost of it down to how much you are paying for each of the three years (thinking of the extended telephone support after 90 days as well), it really is very reasonable. Remember you have up to a year to buy it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, what he said. If the worst happens and it dies on you n that first year, you're covered. I bought my iMac (see sig) in August, and I'm going to delay buying Applecare until Aug. 08! :rolleyes:

Seriously, though, don't sweat it. You don't have to decide now anyways.
 
I think the importance of Applecare greatly differs from Mini to iMac.

With the iMac you have the LCD to worry about.


And just a quick note, if you CAN wait, and may be in the market.. you might want to check out the refurbished previous gen 17" 2.0 ghz iMac which is $849. You get a lot extra things like mouse+keyboard, the 17" LCD (Which is great if you don't currently have a monitor, or want a new one), 802.11n, iSight, 160gb HD, and dedicated graphics card..

But it does seem random of when it arrives in the store, but it seems to be in fairly often. If not, enjoy your mini!
 
I wouldn't go for apple care and copying files over, I would just start copying via a network or something and leave it there for a few hours. Simplest way I can think of.
 
Nordichund said:
Regarding Apple Care, if you can afford it then buy it, even if it's just for peace of mind. If you break the cost of it down to how much you are paying for each of the three years (thinking of the extended telephone support after 90 days as well), it really is very reasonable. Remember you have up to a year to buy it.
Click to expand...

Yup. I've bought 4 Macs for myself over the year - the only one I did not get Apple care on was an Rev 1 Mac Mini G4 1.25 Ghz almost 3 years ago (stupid not to get it on a rev 1, I know). It died at 2.5 years old of a bad logic board. The cost of the logic board is almost as much as a new mini. Knowing that parts exist inside the mini with that replacement cost is enough for me to justify it.
 
thanks for all the feedback.

I got my mini and am loving it. Just have to get used to some of the ui differences between windows and osx like not being able to dbl click in the url field in firefox and have it select everything, and also the home and end keys dont seem to go to the beginning or end of a line like they do in windows.


anyway, I have another additional questions which hopefully you guys can help me with.

When i add external drives what should i format them as? should i be using journaled or non journaled ? whats best for the time machine drive ?


Thanks
 
Congrats on the purchase!

Format them as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

EDIT: To use the home key you have to use the Apple (Command or CMD) key. So it would be CMD + Home to bring you back to the beginning of the line.

Strange, when I double click on the address bar it highlights all
 
strange, that didnt work. maybe i have strange keyboard mapping or something....im using the new style wired keyboard and a mighty mouse.

i already formated one unjournaled, should i reformat and recopy my itunes library onto it?

thanks
 
Never mind what je1ani says, the mini is a great "get your feet wet" system. If you buy one and don't like it at least you're not out $1500-$3500 you could've spent on an iMac, MBP, MacPro, etc...also, you should ditch Firefox and use Camino as a browser, it's far superior to Firefox. For some reason FF on the Mac just sucks.
 
chadrob30 said:
Never mind what je1ani says, the mini is a great "get your feet wet" system. If you buy one and don't like it at least you're not out $1500-$3500 you could've spent on an iMac, MBP, MacPro, etc...also, you should ditch Firefox and use Camino as a browser, it's far superior to Firefox. For some reason FF on the Mac just sucks.
Click to expand...

FF on mac rocks for me… It's nice to be able to go to school w/ firefox on xp and have seamless switching.

cmac101 said:
all you have to do is triple click, at least in safari
Click to expand...

Same in firefox.
 
Go Ahead and buy the damn thing easily the sexiest cpu ever.
I have one too over 30 months old.
 
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