Transfering Windows Folders To Macs?

[Guitar701]

So I will be recieving my first mac this week and was wondering about transfering stuff from my Windows based machine to my iMac. I know how i will do it but i was wondering about the macs ability to recognize Windows folders.

For instance.

If i transfer all of my pictures, that i have already time-consumingly catagorized, will my new iMac recognize the folders name(i.e. Ski Trip 2005)??

Thanks
Steve

p.s. I did actually spend time looking for a thread on this topic but found only ones with the question of How to move things.

 

[7254278]

It should recognize the folders just fine, make sure the drive you are transfering from is FAT32 and not NTSF format.

 

[Guitar701]

Yea

Yea its FAT32...

I think i read somewhere that There is a My Pictures type Folder somewhere in OSX so if i just put them in there it would be fine? and iPhoto would pick them out.

What about recognizing a heirarchy of folders like....My Pictures -> Big Pictures -> Ski Trip 2005

 

[gallivant]

It doesn't even matter if it's NTFS, if you're talking about doing it over a network.

And yes, it'll recognize the heirarchy and file names and everything without a problem.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I don't think iPhoto is smart enough to recognize a category system you created with folders previously. There might be an application that can parse your folder structure and auto-add the appropriate EXIF tags though...hold on, I found one that MIGHT work: A Better Finder Attributes.

 

[Guitar701]

Uh

Ill just redo my catagory system its not too complecated.

Another thing i was worried about is if i burn all these floders with pictures on cd then windows makes them "Read-Only" Files...is that gonna screw me up...should i plan reverse transfering them on my camera or a jump drive to bypass this issue...using the camera would take forever.

 

[asif786]

Ill just redo my catagory system its not too complecated.

Another thing i was worried about is if i burn all these floders with pictures on cd then windows makes them "Read-Only" Files...is that gonna screw me up...should i plan reverse transfering them on my camera or a jump drive to bypass this issue...using the camera would take forever.

if you're burning them to cd, it's no problem. just make a data cd with all the photos on it, put the cd into your imac, load up iphoto and then drag all the photos into iphoto.

then you can start arranging them into albums and stuff like that. iphoto will copy the files from the cd into your pictures folder for you..

 

[Applespider]

Another thing i was worried about is if i burn all these floders with pictures on cd then windows makes them "Read-Only" Files...is that gonna screw me up...should i plan reverse transfering them on my camera or a jump drive to bypass this issue...using the camera would take forever.

It'll be fine - the only thing that you may have to do is go to 'Get Info' (Apple key I) on the folder once you've dragged it in and give yourself Read/Write permission rather than read only.

The Finder will be quite happy with your current Pictures->Skiing->Tahoe 2005 folder structure - and I'd advise leaving it as it is.

If you decide to import your pictures into iPhoto, then you can import multiple folders/subfolders but at this point, iPhoto will import them as one 'block' of pictures. You can import them folder by folder and then it will keep each folder as a new 'roll' in iPhoto. It might not pick up on any keywords/comments you've added in the past but file names and EXIF data will be kept.

 

[Guitar701]

Neat

Thanks for the info...Its something that ive been thinking about since i ordered and was concerned that it might cause a few hang up in the switching process.

 

[Advance The Man]

No it will not work. I am a new Mac user and what it does is change them to numercial file numbers. I had all of mine labeled (pain, put a lot of time in it) and now in Apple it shows the folders as numbers. i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc instead of Hawaii Trip, Christmas 2004, etc. It sux, but I will eventually fix it.

So I will be recieving my first mac this week and was wondering about transfering stuff from my Windows based machine to my iMac. I know how i will do it but i was wondering about the macs ability to recognize Windows folders.

For instance.

If i transfer all of my pictures, that i have already time-consumingly catagorized, will my new iMac recognize the folders name(i.e. Ski Trip 2005)??

Thanks
Steve

p.s. I did actually spend time looking for a thread on this topic but found only ones with the question of How to move things.

 

[Applespider]

No it will not work. I am a new Mac user and what it does is change them to numercial file numbers. I had all of mine labeled (pain, put a lot of time in it) and now in Apple it shows the folders as numbers. i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc instead of Hawaii Trip, Christmas 2004, etc. It sux, but I will eventually fix it.

If you just copy them into the Finder, it should keep them all with the appropriate folder names. I copied over several thousand images in a variety of folders from my PC to my Mac a year or so ago and it kept all of that info.

If you import them into iPhoto, they'll then follow iPhoto's library system which seems to be that the user should never look at them in the Finder but only interact through iPhoto - which if you can throw away the 'I have control of my files' makes sense. I had an easier time giving up control of my music files to iTunes than I did with giving iPhoto all my photos. That principle is getting easier now since Spotlight gives you access to them in 'attach' dialogues that we didn't have in Panther.

Within iPhoto, if you've imported them by individual folder, you'll see the name of the folder as the roll name and all the images as they're named.

Outside iPhoto (if you look in the Finder), they'll be in iPhoto folders which basically correspond to the year/month/day they were created on - as AdvancetheMan says.

AdvancetheMac, don't try to 'fix' this in the Finder by renaming those folders- you'll end up with iPhoto not recognising the folders anymore.

 

[Guitar701]

Ok Got my Mac

Dont like iPhoto's catagory system...i like my folder system...is there any photo editing/organizing software that uses a more name-oriented file system. Im not liking the whole number business. Nothing fancy really, just simple.

 

[asif786]

Dont like iPhoto's catagory system...i like my folder system...is there any photo editing/organizing software that uses a more name-oriented file system. Im not liking the whole number business. Nothing fancy really, just simple.

is there a reason you need to access the files outside of iphoto? i really do recommend keeping your photos in iphoto as it's a great app and essential if you intend to use your photos in the rest of the ilife suite (imovie, idvd, etc).

you really will miss out on a lot if you stop using iphoto (imho).

 

[Guitar701]

Like iPhoto, dont get me wrong

I like the app...however if i was to maybe burn a photo cd, and i have already, it uses the numbers and adds in the thumbnails...if i could change this part of it, maybe leave the numbers take away the thumbnails, then it would be cool. This may be a small issue annyway considering im still learning the Mac lifestyle...so far its great.

 

[blodwyn]

It was nearly a year ago that I moved all my photos from Windows to my Mac. In Windows I had all the pictures in a folder structure, and I'm pretty sure I just dragged each folder from the Windows drive into the iPhoto album frame, and iPhoto imported the photos into a new album with the same name as the Windows folder.

 

[asif786]

I like the app...however if i was to maybe burn a photo cd, and i have already, it uses the numbers and adds in the thumbnails...if i could change this part of it, maybe leave the numbers take away the thumbnails, then it would be cool. This may be a small issue annyway considering im still learning the Mac lifestyle...so far its great.

aah, i see. well if you select a batch of photos, clcik on the share menu, and then 'export' it will let you export the photos into a folder ready for burning onto a cd. your originals will still of course be in iphoto.

is this kind of what you were looking to do?

 

[Guitar701]

If i?

That is a definite option...I probably wouldnt have ever found that. I know it all seems like a lot to ask but sometimes ill need to put pictures on my parents computer or take a cd to wal-mart and print them out and the numbers and thumbnails would just annoy me to death. I guess ill will have to get more used to the Mac way of doing things.


Steve

 

[GreeneGirl7]

In my single, personal experience, it did not work properly from CD to Mac. I burned the folders on a CD from a PC. Everything copied onto the Mac, but almost all the folders cannot be modfied, as in I can't add anything new to them. I had to create all new folders and drag the picture files themselves from the CD forsaking the original folders.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

In my single, personal experience, it did not work properly from CD to Mac. I burned the folders on a CD from a PC. Everything copied onto the Mac, but almost all the folders cannot be modfied, as in I can't add anything new to them. I had to create all new folders and drag the picture files themselves from the CD forsaking the original folders.

It's possible to make the folders writable again (through the Finder or Terminal). For some strange reason, files copied from a read-only volume (such as a CD) get marked read-only also. I wish Mac OS X and Windows did NOT do this, since it's HIGHLY annoying.