If you switch from Mac to PC, what do you do with the files and hardware of your old Mac?

[hajime]

Hi, my 2010 17" is at a stage of interfering my work in a negative way. I need to retire it.

Q1: What if you switch from Mac to PC? Do you sell your old Mac or keep it for backup or just in case you need to a real Mac to do something such as creating a disk to make a Hackintosh/virtual machine? Few months ago, I could have sold it to Apple at about CAD $350-400.

Q2: If you are selling it, what is the best way to keep the files? Is creating a virtual MBP on a PC and clone the entire contents of the MBP to it a good way? In the case of cloning, how to do it?

 

[c0ppo]

For your first question, it's a fairly subjective situation.

Q2: If you are selling it, what is the best way to keep the files? Is creating a virtual MBP on a PC and clone the entire contents of the MBP to it a good way? In the case of cloning, how to do it?

I just copied my files over, and moved on completely. Nothing fancy about it. Why would you clone anything?
Photos, videos, personal files - copy/paste to external drive and that's about it.

 

[Clix Pix]

Exactly, c0ppo! It's the files and data that are going to be important, not the the apps or OS since Macs and Windows operate differently and are formatted differently. You want to have your photos and documents, etc., ready to go into the new machine as data. I don't think you can "create a virtual MBP on a PC." You can put Windows on a Mac legally without hassle, but you cannot really put MacOS on a PC legally and without hassle.

Years ago, when I switched from Windows to Mac, I did exactly as c0ppo mentions: I copied all of my files and folder to an external drive and then put them on my new Mac. At that time we were still using the PPC platform so there were more differences between Mac and Windows than there are now. I kept the Windows machines (old desktop and cheap little laptop) around for about a year "just-in-case"....and then wiped them both literally of the dust that had collected on them physically as well as the contents, reinstalled fresh versions of Windows on each of them and gave them away. Haven't missed them, haven't used Windows since.

 

[hajime]

Exactly, c0ppo! It's the files and data that are going to be important, not the the apps or OS since Macs and Windows operate differently and are formatted differently. You want to have your photos and documents, etc., ready to go into the new machine as data. I don't think you can "create a virtual MBP on a PC." You can put Windows on a Mac legally without hassle, but you cannot really put MacOS on a PC legally and without hassle.

Years ago, when I switched from Windows to Mac, I did exactly as c0ppo mentions: I copied all of my files and folder to an external drive and then put them on my new Mac. At that time we were still using the PPC platform so there were more differences between Mac and Windows than there are now. I kept the Windows machines (old desktop and cheap little laptop) around for about a year "just-in-case"....and then wiped them both literally of the dust that had collected on them physically as well as the contents, reinstalled fresh versions of Windows on each of them and gave them away. Haven't missed them, haven't used Windows since.

I use Keynotes for many years and PowerPoint cannot import all keybotes files correctly. That is one issue. Another issue is that I used Outlook in one former workplace. I still have all the mails stored in that program. I don't know how to keep them nor want to mess up with the current Outlook used at work.

I think one of our friendly moderators has created a Mac virtual machine on his Windows PC.

 

[maflynn]

Q1: What if you switch from Mac to PC? Do you sell your old Mac or keep it for backup or just in case you need to a real Mac to do something such as creating a disk to make a Hackintosh/virtual machine? Few months ago, I could have sold it to Apple at about CAD $350-400.

I sold my MBP, which helped fund the purchase of my X1E, though I still have Macs in my household, I really don't use them. If a given computer doesn't have a specific use, I would look to get rid of it. That's just me.

Q2: If you are selling it, what is the best way to keep the files? Is creating a virtual MBP on a PC and clone the entire contents of the MBP to it a good way? In the case of cloning, how to do it?

All of the data that was on my Mac is now on my thinkpad. i use mostly platform agnostic applications like Office and Lightroom, so the files are readable on both Mac and PCs. I don't have any proprietary files that I needed to keep around. YMMV but for me, I guess its not an issue.

 

[SDColorado]

I use Keynotes for many years and PowerPoint cannot import all keybotes files correctly.

What particular issues have you had with importing Keynote files to PowerPoint? I haven't come across any myself with exporting from Keynote and importing to PowerPoint.

If you are having troubles with Keynotes export function, you could also try Zamzar

 

[hajime]

What particular issues have you had with importing Keynote files to PowerPoint? I haven't come across any myself with exporting from Keynote and importing to PowerPoint.

If you are having troubles with Keynotes export function, you could also try Zamzar

As I recall, the letter formatting, hyerlinks and video playbacks got all messed up.
[doublepost=1552257185][/doublepost]

What particular issues have you had with importing Keynote files to PowerPoint? I haven't come across any myself with exporting from Keynote and importing to PowerPoint.

If you are having troubles with Keynotes export function, you could also try Zamzar

So just drag and drop from the MAC to an external SSD and then drag and drop from the external SSD to a Windows PC? My Mac also has files made under Linux. Those files have very long names. I don't know if just drag and drop will do fine.

 

[xraydoc]

Moved my documents to Dropbox and gave my wife my MBP.
My iMac is still running as an iTunes server for our AppleTVs and Time Machine drive for my wife & kids' MacBooks.

 

[SDColorado]

As I recall, the letter formatting, hyerlinks and video playbacks got all messed up.
[doublepost=1552257185][/doublepost]

So just drag and drop from the MAC to an external SSD and then drag and drop from the external SSD to a Windows PC? My Mac also has files made under Linux. Those files have very long names. I don't know if just drag and drop will do fine.

I export files from Keynote frequently because before I had a PC of my own, I was creating files in Keynote and exporting them for others. Now that I have Office 385 installed on both Mac and PC, I don't do that anymore, but I can't recall any issues with the files I have exported as .pptx from Keynote. Then again I don't use any Mac-specific fonts either. I suppose if I had, PowerPoint might want to do a substitution.

Hyperlinks and playback have worked fine for me.

I suppose you could do all of that dragging back and forth from external SSD's if that is where you want to save them. Just export the .pptx to a folder on the external and open them from there.

Myself, I export the .pptx files to my PowerPoint folder on OneDrive.

 

[xraydoc]

I export files from Keynote frequently because before I had a PC of my own, I was creating files in Keynote and exporting them for others. Now that I have Office 385 installed on both Mac and PC, I don't do that anymore, but I can't recall any issues with the files I have exported as .pptx from Keynote. Then again I don't use any Mac-specific fonts either. I suppose if I had, PowerPoint might want to do a substitution.

Hyperlinks and playback have worked fine for me.

I suppose you could do all of that dragging back and forth from external SSD's if that is where you want to save them. Just export the .pptx to a folder on the external and open them from there.

Myself, I export the .pptx files to my PowerPoint folder on OneDrive.

I've had a few issues where the exported Powerpoint file from Keynote has resulted in some very low-resolution images on certain slides. I think (but I'm not certain) it's from using PDF images as the source when I made the Keynote file.

The only solution I've found is to re-import the image back into the Powerpoint slide (presuming one still has the source image). I've had to find a few work-arounds for images I no longer have the source to. My main one is to play the Keynote on an external 4K monitor and screenshot the image, then import back in to the Powerpoint file.

 

[SDColorado]

That could be. I am trying to recall if I have ever used PDF images as the source image, but I believe I have only used JPG. If I have used PDF, I don't recall the issue. Has this been with current versions of PowerPoint 16.XX?

 

[hajime]

I thought NFS could be a good solution but none of you suggested that. When is a good case to use NFS?
[doublepost=1552474646][/doublepost].

 

[fivetoedsloth]

After I got a Surface Pro 2 years ago, I moved the files I knew I needed right away, and also created a clone of my Mac drive onto a removable drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. I purchased an app for Windows that allows me to read Mac-formatted drives, so I could grab files off that cloned backup as needed. I also have kept my 2013 retina MacBook Pro (still runs fine) and have no plans to sell it. As my comfort level on the Surface Pro increased, my usage of the Mac dwindled to almost nothing, but I keep it around for a backup computer and for the rare instances when I need to do something Mac-specific.