Made the Switch

rboseley · Jun 16, 2009

Commodore 64 - Vic 20 - A thousand PC's - now a Mac on order! Since my one year old Dell is dying fast - please don' be too hard on me for not searching. My first concern is how to get my "stuff" from old to new. When I got this Dell I used one of those USB transfer deals. A real nightmare. So what's the easy way?

Next, I have several Works spreadsheets which continue to gain new data. Must I use the Works Thingy Apple sold me and start with the new data on the Mac?

I have some really valuable spreadsheets (of course I didn't back up) and Works is just going insane. I finally got a "good" burn over to the CD drive - then the drive would not open. After literally 2 hours of trying every trick learned in 40 years of this - I got it opened. Can't tell if the data is good since I am not going to reinsert it. But that's a Dell/Vista story.

Please tell me this is going to be a piece of cake

Thanks. Bob

vansmith · Jun 16, 2009

Your best bet is to buy an external hard drive, back up everything you want to keep to it and plug it in when you get your Mac. Done.

Plus, when you are done with the external, you can use it with Time Machine.

If you want to save money, it might be cheaper to go with an internal hard drive and an enclosure. In my experience, it is about the same cost as an external but when the HD dies or you decided to replace it, it will be much cheaper as internal HDs are much cheaper that external HDs.

S.SubZero · Jun 16, 2009

"Works" like Microsoft Works? I think OpenOffice can manipulate Works files but it may have compatibility quirks. MS Office 2008 may also be able to open them, but again, I'm not sure how it will end up looking.

claudius753 · Jun 16, 2009

rboseley said:
Commodore 64 - Vic 20 - A thousand PC's - now a Mac on order! Since my one year old Dell is dying fast - please don' be too hard on me for not searching. My first concern is how to get my "stuff" from old to new. When I got this Dell I used one of those USB transfer deals. A real nightmare. So what's the easy way?

Next, I have several Works spreadsheets which continue to gain new data. Must I use the Works Thingy Apple sold me and start with the new data on the Mac?

I have some really valuable spreadsheets (of course I didn't back up) and Works is just going insane. I finally got a "good" burn over to the CD drive - then the drive would not open. After literally 2 hours of trying every trick learned in 40 years of this - I got it opened. Can't tell if the data is good since I am not going to reinsert it. But that's a Dell/Vista story.

Please tell me this is going to be a piece of cake

Thanks. Bob

What "Works Thingy" did Apple sell you? iWork?

rboseley · Jun 17, 2009

Looks like it is "Office 08 for MAC". Did I just answer my own question? That would sound like something which would run Office files. Except MS Works is not exactly the same as MS Office.

Back to moveing my stuff. Actually when it comes down to it - the files I wanted to move are the aforementioned Works files. I can't think of any applications I really need t move. Some of it can be re-downloaded in MAC version.

Pictures - This is a volume thing. Not nearly as many as some, but about 800 total. I would hate to buy an external drive just to move these, but on the other hand I still don't have a good solution. Were I back in my old DOS days, I would drop out of Windows and to it the old-fashioned way. As a matter of fact (until Vista) I virtually always used DOS for housekeeping.

Since one of my big problems is the non-performing Dell (damage) - I might just head over and let the Geek Squad do it.

Thanks for the info.

oilersrock99 · Jun 17, 2009

rboseley said:
Looks like it is "Office 08 for MAC". Did I just answer my own question? That would sound like something which would run Office files. Except MS Works is not exactly the same as MS Office.

Back to moveing my stuff. Actually when it comes down to it - the files I wanted to move are the aforementioned Works files. I can't think of any applications I really need t move. Some of it can be re-downloaded in MAC version.

Pictures - This is a volume thing. Not nearly as many as some, but about 800 total. I would hate to buy an external drive just to move these, but on the other hand I still don't have a good solution. Were I back in my old DOS days, I would drop out of Windows and to it the old-fashioned way. As a matter of fact (until Vista) I virtually always used DOS for housekeeping.

Since one of my big problems is the non-performing Dell (damage) - I might just head over and let the Geek Squad do it.

Thanks for the info.

Yes, Office and Works are different software, but are often cross compatible. OpenOffice also is compatible with many extensions. You shouldn't have to lose any or your spreadsheets.

As for the pictures, 800 pictures should be very easy for you to transfer over. Depending on the size of the pictures you're likely looking at less than 2gb of data. That could easily be transfered onto a USB key (which you can buy for $15) and then put onto your Mac. Just literally plugging in the USB key, dragging the files into the key, then plugging the key into your mac, and dragging the files out of the key.
You could also simply burn them onto a couple of CD's or a DVD or Dual Layer DVD.

If you're only moving over spreadsheets and pictures, there's no need to pay $100 for someone to do it. You could buy a USB key, or a couple of DVD's and simply move everything over.

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