New apple user

Hello, I am new to the apple scene, as I am very sick and tired of Windows. I just bought a used G3 tower, to begin my switch over. (i know it is not the fastest out there, but i have to start somewhere right?) I know a decent amount to techy type stuff for the pc, but I don't know if it carries over to mac. For instance I have a hard drive that I have all of my music files (mp3's) on, along with artwork. The hard drive is formatted with the windows file format. Is there a way I can get my mp3 files, and photoshop, and jpeg files over to the mac? Also I want to upgrade my hard drive size on my mac, and I was wondering- I have a 40 gig hard drive lying around with windows on it. Can i just install OSX on there and use it? I didn't know if this was the right place to put this thread, but since I am a noob to apple I figured it would be ok. Thanks.

If you have a network set up you can copy files like mp3s, pictures, and other documents over without a problem.

I'm not sure when you said "Photoshop" if you meant Photoshop files, or the actual Photoshop program. The files will copy over fine, but the program itself will not run under Mac OS X (neither will any of your other Windows programs). Mac OS X will only run software designed for Mac OS X (and some other platforms like Unix and Mac OS9 if you're into it). Luckily, any software that really matters has an OS X port, such as Microsoft Office and Photoshop. You just have to hunt down the OS X version of PS.

Good luck.

Thank you for the info. I do know that most programs are not compatible with windows and mac os. I will be purchasing mac versions of photoshop, illustrator, etc. The files are what I need. I forgot to mention in my previous post that all of the hard drives are IDE, not SCSI, and the mac I bought has IDE hard drives as well.

What about an external houseing for the HDD?

I suppose if you are willing to spend money, you could always buy an external Firewire housing for the harddive and then plug that into the Mac. As far as I know it should read the drive just fine.

Thank you guys for all of the info so far. I really do appreciate it. My next question about the hard drive is if I plug it into the master IDE cable of the G3, and start up the machine with the OSX disk in the dvd drive can/will OSX reformat the hard drive and install OSX on it?

MrPencil said:

Thank you guys for all of the info so far. I really do appreciate it. My next question about the hard drive is if I plug it into the master IDE cable of the G3, and start up the machine with the OSX disk in the dvd drive can/will OSX reformat the hard drive and install OSX on it?

Click to expand...

Yes, if you boot from the OS X installation disk, there will be an option in the Menu bar (the bar at the top of the screen with the Apple logo in the corner) to run Disk Utility. Disk Utility will allow you to format the drive, and you'll then be able to install OS X onto it. Out of curiosity, is this a Beige G3 or a Blue & White? Also, what version of OS X will you be installing?

Ah, thank you for this information. This helps alot. The G3 is a blue and white tower. I know it is not the best or fastest out there, but it was cheap enough that I could afford and it is in great shape. The version of OS X I will be running is 10.1.2 SPG3.

MrPencil said:

Ah, thank you for this information. This helps alot. The G3 is a blue and white tower. I know it is not the best or fastest out there, but it was cheap enough that I could afford and it is in great shape. The version of OS X I will be running is 10.1.2 SPG3.

Click to expand...

No need to keep putting-down your machine, the B&W G3 is a very nice way to get started and I think you'll like it a lot. I'd just recommend upgrading the RAM depending upon how much is already installed. If you run into any problems or have any questions, feel free to send me an email or PM me. I love the G3's, and mine is older than yours. :yinyang:

Cool. Thanks I really appreciate it alot. I am sure I will have a ton of questions to ask. ^_^ The only reason I state that I am aware that my G3 is not the top of the line is because I am used to reading people being flamed on forums for not going out and purchasing the top of the line, fastest machine, etc. I just found this site, and I noticed from the threads I have read before I joined that everyone here is mature, but you never know. The last thing I wanted was to go join a new forum and get flamed, etc. I will be upgrading my RAM from 128 to 512. Once again I want to thank you guys for your help and information. I will definately be sending you some pms or emails with questions Padawan.