11-16-2009, 04:37 PM

I bought my dad a mac mini -- he's got a pitiful IBM stinkpad that's over 6 years old and outta gas.

Since I'll be doing the switchover, I was looking at the current recommendations for migrating PC to Mac in the most efficient manner possible (as this will occur over T'giving and I'd rather not spend the whole break being IT-guy).

Saw an article on the Belkin Switch To Mac cable/software and man, it sure sounds like the bomb-diggity -- including the elusive Outlook to Mail conversion.

Anybody have any real world experience with this thing?

MSRP is $50, but you can get it from Mac Mall for $23 shipped. I'm probably going to gamble -- $23 to save hours of manual transfer is probably worth the gamble, but if there are significant issues it would be nice to know in advance.

11-16-2009, 04:54 PM

I haven't done it, but I like Belkin, and they've been making Apple accessories for a long time. Let us know how it works out, and congrats to your dad on the switch.

11-16-2009, 04:56 PM

I have not actually done what you are describing.

However... Apple's website has a great support section describing how to do so with only an ethernet cable. (follow that link for additional methods of moving data)

Direct connect
To move files by connecting your Mac directly to your PC:

Connect your Mac to your PC using a standard Ethernet cable.
Make sure that both computers are turned on.
In the Finder on your Mac, choose Connect to Server from the Go menu to open the window.
Type your PC's network address in the Server Address text box using one of these formats:
smb://DNSname/ShareName
smb://IPaddress/ShareName
Click Connect.
Follow the onscreen instructions to enter your PC's workgroup name, user name, password, and the volume or folder you wish to access.
Your PC volume should appear on your Mac Desktop.
Open the volume and drag and drop files directly from it to anywhere on your Mac.
When finished, drag your PC volume to the Trash to unmount it.

Hope this helps.

11-17-2009, 06:35 AM

I've been using the Targus file share cable for the past year.
It works great just like the Belkin product for PC to Mac transfer. The programs automatically load when you plug it up. It even works PC to PC.

11-17-2009, 11:16 AM

I've done the manual thing before. The intriguing part of the Belkin solution is its advertised capability of importing Outlook mail into Mail in one step. This was a major be-yotch when I did it a few years ago (involving running all the Outlook mail through Thunderbird or some such to get .mbox files, then importing, etc.).

I'll update after I try this thing out and let you know how it worked.

12-01-2009, 01:57 PM

Well, this cable worked great -- just as advertised. Loaded the software on the Win PC (an old IBM thinkpad) and on the Mac Mini. Launched the software on the PC, then connected the cable, then launched the software on the Mac. It defaults to picking up all the things you'd want it to (mail (from outlook or express), calendar, my docs, my pics, my music, etc), and allows you to specify a miscellaneous other folder for other stuff.

You hit the go button and off it goes. For me, it took about 10 minutes to transfer the files. It put everything in the right place, including the Outlook email into Apple Mail. Stuff it could not figure out where to go (pictures, for example -- I had not installed iLife yet so iPhoto wasn't on the Mac) it put it a new folder on the desktop called Windows PC.

At $50 I don't know that it's worth it, but for the $17 I paid, definitely worth it.

12-03-2009, 01:03 AM

I picked up the Belkin Switch to Mac cable and it doesn't work for some reason. I installed the software on my Windows 7, then upgraded it to the latest version.

Installed it on my Macbook Pro and then updated it. Connected the two computers, selected what I wanted to copy and about 5 mins later I get an interrupt error message from the Belkin software.

I tried numerous time and rebooted both computers. Still no go. Any other suggestions for this method? I may try the ethernet cable method described above is all else fails.

12-03-2009, 01:40 PM

Current Belkin specs that I've seen do not indicate it's compatible with Win 7, just XP and Vista.

12-08-2009, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by Daddy Elmis

Current Belkin specs that I've seen do not indicate it's compatible with Win 7, just XP and Vista.

doh! no wonder!