Newbie needs advice on file transfer: iTunes and PS Elements

[johnny9k]

LOOONG time windows user (20+ years) making the switch over with a new iMac 24". Arriving today...woohoo!

I've been reading up on the basic file transfer. I have an external drive that I'm loading up, but my main concern is getting off to a clean start by importing the files right the first time. I screwed up an iTunes transfer once (PC to PC) and when dealing with 40gb of music it is a PITA to cleanup afterwards.

iTunes - I have a backup of my library. Any suggestions for file structure or where to put the files when I copy them onto my mac? I want to maintain playlists and start with a nice clean install so I don't need to go rearrange things later.

Photoshop Elements - I backed up my catalog (30,000 photos). What is the best way to get these into iPhoto? Will they retain my categorization and version sets? Would it be better to import the backup or the file structure that has date stamps for folder names?

Thanks for your help. After 28 years of computing I don't think I've ever been this excited about a new piece of hardware. That says a lot...that first TRS-80 when I was a kid was sweet!

 

[killmoms]

iTunes - I have a backup of my library. Any suggestions for file structure or where to put the files when I copy them onto my mac? I want to maintain playlists and start with a nice clean install so I don't need to go rearrange things later.

As long as your iTunes library was kept in the default iTunes Music folder in Windows (~/My Documents/My Music/iTunes/iTunes Music in Windows as I recall), you should be able to copy your music into ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music and put your library file in ~/Music/iTunes and be good to go. This is because the iTunes database uses relative linking when everything's in the default place, so the "Windows vs. Mac path style" thing never comes into play. If you kept your iTunes library on a different hard drive though, then things might be more complicated (by which I mean "you're pretty much boned, and should just re-import the audio files and swallow losing playcounts/ratings/playlists/etc.").

Photoshop Elements - I backed up my catalog (30,000 photos). What is the best way to get these into iPhoto? Will they retain my categorization and version sets? Would it be better to import the backup or the file structure that has date stamps for folder names?

Not sure about this one, never used Photoshop Elements myself. I believe iPhoto will only import files and folders, and will sort into albums/events based on folder name, and draw all other information from the EXIF tags in the images themselves. If the categorization and version sets information you speak of exist in some sort of database file, I'm pretty sure that won't transfer over (unless there's some utility I don't know about).

 

[johnny9k]

Thanks for the info. My iTunes is not in the default directory, but I think the structure is the same so that might save my bacon.

The PS Elements might hurt. When you edit a picture you can save it as a version. The newest version is show in the organizer, but the original is available if you need it. I'm worried that when I import everything to iPhoto I will be seeing all versions of the photo.

The categorization I won't miss as much since the event organization in iphoto looks much much better. I think I'll try copying over a couple hundred photos and see how it works. I'll post my findings on here.

John in NY

 

[johnny9k]

Now I know why I couldn't find much information on transferring my files from my PC to my Mac...it was so fricking easy! Seriously, it was harder transferring my files from PC to PC than was it was going from PC to Mac. I am LOVING my new iMac. The irony is that my PC crashed 2 days after I got my Mac