I just got my 15" Powerbook and I want to get all of my music (about 35 gigs), pictures (7 gigs) and documents (maybe a gig) off of my windows xp box. I am pretty pc literate but very new to this whole mac thing. What is the best way to do this? I was thinking of just using my 20gig Ipod back and forth, but that takes a while to update and unload songs, etc. Is there an easier way? I have a router and cable modem, so if anyone can tell me how to set up a network between the two? Otherwise I'll just make a few trips back and forth (which is not preferable, because I'd like to be able to get music and pics between comps pretty often). Thanks for any help you got!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New to mac..trying to transfer songs/pictures/documents
- Thread starter fidel castro
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
fidel castro said:
Actually I'd suggest that for the first "big transfer" that your idea of using the iPod is probably the best. According to what you have written it would take at most just over 2 iPod refills of 20GB to make the transfer. I already have a network set up but just yesterday installed a new hard drive in my main machine and used another hard drive (analagous to your iPod) to transfer the data over rather than copying it over the network.
It is certainly worth your while to figure out how to set up your router and network the two (pretty simple really, and many online sources can explain how to do this). For your future, moving a few songs and pictures over the network here and there will be very convenient this way. Of course once you've used the Mac chances are you won't bother with the Windows PC anymore anyhow
. But for transferring 40+GB worth of data the first time...aside from your tired legs walking back and forth, the overall transfer time will be much quicker using your iPod as an intermediate hard drive over FireWire or USB2 than 10/100 Ethernet (which you could then work on setting up at your leisure instead of being stuck trying to figure it out "right now").
Can PC's do Target Disk Mode? I think thats what it's called, when you boot up the computer with a firewire cable and make it think it's a external HD
rickvanr said:
Nope, but you can network over firewire. In my experience, it wasn't much faster than 100Mb (megabit) networking as I only sustained about 16MB/sec over firewire.
Not sure about PC FW Target mode, but I would be (pleasantly) surprised if it worked.
One alternative (maybe not first choice) would be to get a FW IDE HD enclosure, remove your PC HD, pop it into the enclosure, plug it in, and off you go.
One side benefit is that you can reformat the HD and use it for back-ups, storage, etc.
If you're comfy with a screwdriver, it's an option.
One alternative (maybe not first choice) would be to get a FW IDE HD enclosure, remove your PC HD, pop it into the enclosure, plug it in, and off you go.
One side benefit is that you can reformat the HD and use it for back-ups, storage, etc.
If you're comfy with a screwdriver, it's an option.