Full time PC user switching to full time Mac user - Go Flex 1TB HD

[pndmnd]

Hello! I tried to search for the board for an answer to this and couldn't find anything, but if there's already a post about this that I haven't found feel free to direct me to it!

I am currently a PC user with a Go Flex (Desk, I think) 1 TB external hard drive purchased in February 2011 (with a 2.0 USB). I have been using my external drive strictly for backup, not for extra storage space. I am now ready to make the leap to Mac. My question is (I've received mixed answers on this): Can I use my external drive to transfer my documents, pictures, music, etc., from my PC to my (yet to be purchased) new Mac? From other posts that I've read I understand that there are some issues with moving back and forth between PC and Mac, but I only want to move my files TO the Mac. Once I'm using the Mac, though, I'll want to be able to use the external drive to back up FROM the Mac, but I won't be going back and forth between Mac and PC.

If anyone can give me some guidance on this, it would be greatly appreciated! I should probably also add that I am not a tech person. I am your typical basic computer user (home, work, and grad school, using it mostly for Office products, as well as music/pictures). Which is to say, I'm not great at all the "tech talk"!

Thank you so much for any help you can provide!

--M

 

[randomhkkid]

Hello! I tried to search for the board for an answer to this and couldn't find anything, but if there's already a post about this that I haven't found feel free to direct me to it!

I am currently a PC user with a Go Flex (Desk, I think) 1 TB external hard drive purchased in February 2011 (with a 2.0 USB). I have been using my external drive strictly for backup, not for extra storage space. I am now ready to make the leap to Mac. My question is (I've received mixed answers on this): Can I use my external drive to transfer my documents, pictures, music, etc., from my PC to my (yet to be purchased) new Mac? From other posts that I've read I understand that there are some issues with moving back and forth between PC and Mac, but I only want to move my files TO the Mac. Once I'm using the Mac, though, I'll want to be able to use the external drive to back up FROM the Mac, but I won't be going back and forth between Mac and PC.

If anyone can give me some guidance on this, it would be greatly appreciated! I should probably also add that I am not a tech person. I am your typical basic computer user (home, work, and grad school, using it mostly for Office products, as well as music/pictures). Which is to say, I'm not great at all the "tech talk"!

Thank you so much for any help you can provide!

--M

Hi!

Yes you can move stuff from the drive to the mac, it only requires re-formatting if you want to read and write. However there are software solutions that you can use to both read and write to both NTFS and ExFAT. One which i use is called 'Tuxera' NTFS. Hope this helps If i've missed anything out just tell me

 

[pndmnd]

Hi!

Yes you can move stuff from the drive to the mac, it only requires re-formatting if you want to read and write. However there are software solutions that you can use to both read and write to both NTFS and ExFAT. One which i use is called 'Tuxera' NTFS. Hope this helps If i've missed anything out just tell me

Thank you so much! I've been trying to get a clear answer on this for a while now. This does raise nother question, though: Do you mean reformatting the documents/music/pictures, or reformatting the hard drive? Also, how would I go about reformatting? If it's the documents that have to be reformatted, do I need to take everything OFF the hard drive back on to the PC, reformat (somehow) and then put it back ON the hard drive? I'm really not a tech type person, and I'm still confused.

 

[randomhkkid]

Hi, I've been away for a few days sorry about the lack of response. You don't need to reformat the hard drive to move stuff over to the mac. Once you have moved everything over you have to format the hard drive with the program called 'disk utility'. Click on your drive in the left hand panel then click erase in the main window. Select 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then click erase. From there you just open up 'Time machine' and select the newly formatted disk for backups.

 

[pndmnd]

Hi, I've been away for a few days sorry about the lack of response. You don't need to reformat the hard drive to move stuff over to the mac. Once you have moved everything over you have to format the hard drive with the program called 'disk utility'. Click on your drive in the left hand panel then click erase in the main window. Select 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then click erase. From there you just open up 'Time machine' and select the newly formatted disk for backups.

Thank you so much for your response! I'm sorry to be a pest with so many questions. From what you've said, my understanding is that I need to take everything off of my external hard drive and put it on to the Mac. Once it's on the Mac, then I delete it from the hard drive, reformat the hard drive, and then put everything back on it. Will I be able to open evereything fine on the Mac right away, or is there something else that I need to do in order to view/edit documents? In regards to reformating the hard drive, are the "disk utility" and "time machine" things that are already in the hard drive, or do I need to download or purchase something? And, if I do need to download something, do you know where I might find it? Again, I'm sorry to keep posting questions, it's just that this will be the most that I've ever spent on a laptop and I just want the transfer to go smoothly and make sure that I'm setting everything up correctly!

 

[randomhkkid]

Thank you so much for your response! I'm sorry to be a pest with so many questions. From what you've said, my understanding is that I need to take everything off of my external hard drive and put it on to the Mac. Once it's on the Mac, then I delete it from the hard drive, reformat the hard drive, and then put everything back on it. Will I be able to open evereything fine on the Mac right away, or is there something else that I need to do in order to view/edit documents? In regards to reformating the hard drive, are the "disk utility" and "time machine" things that are already in the hard drive, or do I need to download or purchase something? And, if I do need to download something, do you know where I might find it? Again, I'm sorry to keep posting questions, it's just that this will be the most that I've ever spent on a laptop and I just want the transfer to go smoothly and make sure that I'm setting everything up correctly!

No worries I was the same when I first switched. You've got it correct once you've deleted all your stuff you can reformat and back up using 'time machine'. 'Time machine' and disk utility are built into mac osx. Once backed up your mac will have no problems reading or writing to the hard drive. Here are some more indepth guides from apple http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

For future reference tomshardware seems to be very PC oriented so try and visit http://www.macrumors.com/ and the forums there are full of people (Like me!) who own macs.

Hope this helps and just tell me if I missed something out

 

[pndmnd]

No worries I was the same when I first switched. You've got it correct once you've deleted all your stuff you can reformat and back up using 'time machine'. 'Time machine' and disk utility are built into mac osx. Once backed up your mac will have no problems reading or writing to the hard drive. Here are some more indepth guides from apple http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

For future reference tomshardware seems to be very PC oriented so try and visit http://www.macrumors.com/ and the forums there are full of people (Like me!) who own macs.

Hope this helps and just tell me if I missed something out

Thank you so much - I finally feel very prepared to make the leap to Mac!

 

[randomhkkid]

Thank you so much - I finally feel very prepared to make the leap to Mac!

If you haven't bought the mac yet I would try to wait 1 month till he 11th of June where new macs will be released at WWDC

 

[pndmnd]

If you haven't bought the mac yet I would try to wait 1 month till he 11th of June where new macs will be released at WWDC

I know that I should wait (mostly for the retina display), but I'm really not ready to give up a built-in optical drive. Plus, I'm not sure that my PC will last that long!

 

[randomhkkid]

I know that I should wait (mostly for the retina display), but I'm really not ready to give up a built-in optical drive. Plus, I'm not sure that my PC will last that long!

Even if the new ones come out without an optical drive you will be able to buy this generations for much less, so you would save some money. Plus you never know if you buy this close to a new release and the new ones have some killer feature you don't want to be kicking yourself!