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Moving From Windows To Mac

Hi, i bought a macbook last week and i am in the process of preparing to move all of the files on my Windows laptop over to my new Mac system.

I have already deleted all desktop.ini files (in order to remove all personal icons)

Is there any other changes that i should make to my user files before i transfer them over, thanks in advance for your help
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bloodygonzo
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Here is a KB article from Apple that discusses considerations as well as how to actually move the data http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2518 . The biggest thing is make sure for each file type you have a program that can open it.
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Dump your entire "documents" folder onto an external drive/usb memory stick.

Plug it in your mac, and copy the files to logical places:

i.e.

My Pictures to /Users/yourUserName/Pictures
My Music to /Users/yourUserName/Music         (note also copy the iTunes library here)
My Movies to /Users/yourUserName/Movies
Downloads (which is in your windows library) to /Users/yourUserName/Downloads
Documents to /Users/yourUserName/Documents

whatever is on your desktop to /Users/yourUserName/Desktop

It's that logical :)
Oh and regards to the file associating.. Don't worry about that, as quite a few windows programs aren't available on Mac so you might need to find alternatives or converters.

OSX won't freak if you don't have an association, it'll just not open it in the expected way :)
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oo7ml

ASKER

Ok cool thanks... i understand how to actually move them... just wondered if i would need to do anything to my files and folders etc

2 Questions

1 - i can copy my files to any directory on the mac, right... i don't have to copy "My Movies to /Users/yourUserName/Movies" etc

2 - i have a black external usb drive that i plan to use as a backup for my mac... i used to use it for my windows laptop... once i copy all the files over, i plan to format it... should i format it in any particular way for the mac
Just a note on your last post

1 - i can copy my files to any directory on the mac, right... i don't have to copy "My Movies to /Users/yourUserName/Movies" etc
The short answer is NO YOU CANNOT put the files ANYWHERE.  The longer answer is that you can save them wherever you want (if you have root/admin user permissions) but as OSX is a form of Unix/Linux it PREFERS to work with the files that belong to each user to be stored somewhere inside the Users folder.
It is good policy to put your documents, files, photos into folders INSIDE your user's Home folder.  
You'll note that inside your user folder are subfolders for Desktop, Documents, Downloads etc.  this is similar to the Users folder on Windows 7 & Vista and Documents & Settings/User folder on XP.
OSX has very strict user permissions and putting files and folders outside the Users Home folder can result in file access permissions for some applications or if trying to share files with other Mac users.

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ASKER

Apologies, sorry i meant i can put them into whatever folders i like once they are inside the user's home folder...

I know this is a silly question but i just want to set everything up correctly...

I see that OS X came with folders that were already created (Pictures, Movis, Downloads etc...)

What i meant was, i don't have to actually put My Pictures into /Users/yourUserName/Pictures folder that was already created by the system... i can put them into a folder called /Users/yourUserName/My New Pictures Folder

I just thought that these "already created" folders (Pictures, Movies, Downloads etc...) might have had some dependencies in the OS and that you must or should copy photos into the Pictures folder and videos into the Movies folder...

 
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Eoin OSullivan
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ASKER

Yes i thought this was how it was set up... similar to windows, however, most of my photos and videos are all in separate folders for events... i.e - if it was a birthday party, i would have taken photos and videos of that day so i don't want to separate them because they are different file types...

Thanks for your help... do you have any input into:

2 - i have a black external usb drive that i plan to use as a backup for my mac... i used to use it for my windows laptop... once i copy all the files over, i plan to format it... should i format it in any particular way for the mac
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ASKER

Cool, thanks... so am i right in saying that i will be able to copy files from the external NTFS drive that i have backed up my windows files onto... BUT i just won't be able to right back to it (without one of those plugins)... yeah
Yes you are correct.
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ASKER

I just tried to delete Movies and Pictures on the mac and it says

"Movies" can't be modified or deleted because it's required by Mac OS X

Is there a way around this...
NO .. leave them alone.
They can be deleted if you login as root and run terminal commands but you will cause a load of problems with some OSX apps and widgets etc which look for these folders to load/store images .. such as iPhoto etc.
Like several other users have said .. try and put your files in the Documents folder (you can put images in there too)
Put your photos into subfolders in Pictures or in Documents
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ASKER

Ok cool, thanks for all your help...
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ASKER

Ok, thanks... i am just about finished copying my files over...

Once i do this, i will format it the drive... is there a tool in OS X to format drives
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ASKER

Ok cool, i only want to format the external drive... i will use a different drive external drive for windows
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