From PC to Mac: transferring files, Mac Mini hard drive

[djmitch]

I apologize up front for the ignorance (and length) of my questions, but this is my first ever post to a Mac forum - only a month ago I was like most PC users, totally ignorant (and arrogant) about what Macs have to offer. Anyhow, this PC "lifer" will most likely be buying a 1.42 GHz Mac Mini once OS X Tiger is released in April and officially making "the Switch" - I don't want to spend more on something like a Power Mac until I'm absolutely sure that Mac is THE way to go! Until then, I need some issues cleared up before making this bold step (and scary at times!) and I hope someone in this forum can help.

First of all, I use a jumpdrive (a Lexar 512 MB JumpDrive Sport, to be exact) to transfer files ALL the time from my home PC to my work PC, and vice-versa. Because I rely on this so much, will I be able to do the same effortlessly once I have a Mac? That is, can I drag-and-drop files from the PC to my jumpdrive then from that to my Mac (and vice-versa) without problems? Something has me wondering if my jumpdrive needs some special kind of Mac formatting, or is this just a PC-user misconception? Former PC-ers will likely be my greatest help concerning this.

Secondly, once I get the Mac and it's time to get rid of my increasingly annoying PC (I won't get into details), I plan on transferring all of my files from my PC onto an external drive (LaCie 80GB, 7200 rpm, USB 2.0) and from there onto the Mac. 1) Is this the best way to do this, and 2) can I just drag-and-drop in order to do this, or does my hard drive need to be Mac formatted? Again, help me former PC-ers!

Third, I read in a user review of the Mac Mini somewhere that because of its "slow" notebook-style hard drive (4200 rpm), someone hooked up a 7200 rpm external drive and is running their Mac from it instead of the internal drive with far faster results. Is this possible, and is the internal drive actually slow enough that I should be considering this? If so, please let me know and I'll use the Mac's internal drive just for file backups. My PC has a significant time lag when I navigate through folders on its older, internal 4200 rpm drive (sometimes over 10 seconds), and it's annoying enough to have me question the integrity of the Mini's hard drive and my purchase of the Mini in general. Perhaps the Mac Mini's drive doesn't have this problem - I need to know!

Any help on one or more of these topics is appreciated. Sincerely,

Dave, the :dummy:

 

[ApplejustWorks]

1. You will indeed be able to use your jumpdrive to transfer, as simpleas drag and drop.
2. One of my macs is an ibook g4, with the 30 GB 4200 RPM HD, and I can tell you that it certainly does not have lag times going through folders. In fact, my PowerMac has a 7200 RPM, and I notice only a *slight* difference.

Honestly, as far as the hard drive goes, don't worry about the speed, it wont affect you, I'm a perfectionist, and it doesnt bother me..


Note:

I have read in some places that Apple put a 5400 RPM HD in the their mac mini, shipped out the door stock.(MacWorld).
Strangely enough, they said that only the standard 40 GB was 5400, and the 80 GB was 4200 RPM.

Hope this helps!

 

[mynameis]

I plan on purchasing a 7200rpm hard drive for my mac mini soon, the slow stock hard drive is really holding back the mac mini.

 

[djmitch]

I plan on purchasing a 7200rpm hard drive for my mac mini soon, the slow stock hard drive is really holding back the mac mini.

So to answer my third question, what will you do with this drive: Will you use it to run your Mini? If so, how will you set up your drive to do this? I would like to know how. If not, then how will you use this faster drive to make your Mini run faster?

 

[djmitch]

So how to solve the "slow" HD problem?

Thanks for the assurance that dragging-and-dropping between PC and Macs won't be a problem - whew!

Now, if anyone with a Mini has had slow hard-drive experiences, what has been your way around them, or is there a way? I won't be at ease about the Mini until I'm certain that the hard-drive isn't as slow in practise as it's rated in theory.

Actually, I'm leaning right now toward the PowerMac single-processor G5 because of my speed and lack of expandability concerns about the Mini. Again, your input is appreciated to make this decision a lot more clear.