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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,906
1,306
Hello, I have over 20 years worth of files stored on my MBP 2010 17". If I get a new Mac, it will be easy for me to search and access these old files anytime I want. If I switch to Windows PC, how do I store all these files with me in the new Windows laptop and be able to search and access them without compatibility issues?
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
Get a NAS, and have them stored centrally where your Mac and PC can access them.
 

Queen6

macrumors G4
Use a secure cloud server and sync, or format a drive with exFat copy and paste. most important to get the files into a format that a Windows application can read.

Personally I've avoided locking my files into Apple's format as it generally results in issue down the line when sharing with client and colleagues.

Search I think has been covered with several third party solutions suggested by member's. Personally I keep everything organised in the same manner by client so I know where everything is.

W10 search is generally lacking in fidelity...

Q-6
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,906
1,306
Thanks for the nice suggestions but I also need to able to search and access the files when there is no internet access.

Right now my MBP 2010’s 1TB SSD is almost full. Half devoted to MacOS and half devoted to Windows 7. Regardless of which new laptop I am going to buy, I would run out of storage if I also install Linux unless I put in an expensive 2TB SSD.
 

Queen6

macrumors G4
Thanks for the nice suggestions but I also need to able to search and access the files when there is no internet access.

Right now my MBP 2010’s 1TB SSD is almost full. Half devoted to MacOS and half devoted to Windows 7. Regardless of which new laptop I am going to buy, I would run out of storage if I also install Linux unless I put in an expensive 2TB SSD.

The the obvious answer is to have all the data on the physical SSD, but which is what I do as I'm not guaranteed Internet access in the field.

Q-6
 

DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,750
4,574
Delaware
If you are running out of space on your internal drive, then you need to replace the internal drive with more storage space, or remove files that you no longer need. If you need to be able to search through all of those files, then those files will STILL need the space somewhere. If you fill up the internal drive, then you need to transfer some, or most of those files to an external drive. It's possible to have as much storage space as you may ever need. All you need for that is money.:cool:

If you will be using only a Windows PC, then it makes good sense to move all your old files to a native format, such as NTFS, so you don't have to use a file system decoder to read the files stored on a non-Windows format, such as AFS, or APFS.
 

SteveJUAE

macrumors 601
Aug 14, 2015
4,506
4,742
Land of Smiles
Presumably in addition to wanting offline access you also need files to be in synch (when online) as you may continue to update via old or new laptop

One possibility that becomes easily affordable if you have MS Office 365 with the family/multi option your subscription comes with free 1TB storage on 5 accounts

If you were to use 3 accounts, 1 for Mac partition , 1 for Mac windows partition and 1 for new laptop thus having 3TB of available cloud storage (onedrive)

From your new windows laptop you can logon to any of the accounts and choose to have content saved/synch on or off line and to an external drive attached

Personally as I only need 1TB I have 3 laptops all saving to one "onedrive" and I choose what I want to be available on or offline

Of course there are other cloud services or NAS options or a good ext SSD as other have suggested
 
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