PC to Mac Migration Error

I hope I'm posting this to the right forum as I'm new to this Site.
New iMac running on Lion. Migrating from PC running Vista. Guy in store says - 'one step process' - ha. The migration assistant gets to the common code on both computers. All I get from there is "An error occurred while preparing your information for transfer" and have to quit. I've turned off Automatic Updates, shut off firewall and that doesn't do anything. Any ideas?
thanks!

How do you have the two machines connected and where did you initiate the transfer from?

There's a lot of great info in this article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4796

PC To Mac - Connection

Thanks for the reply. The PC is hard wired into my router and the Mac is on wireless. I read in other forums that firewire isn't reliable but would appreciate any advice on that. I read the article too - thanks - and i've done all of those things - EXCEPT - create a new account on the MAC - is that necessary and if so, how is that done?

Firewire is very reliable, but it's rare to find it on anything besides higher end Windows machines or Macs - and even then, finding the right cable with the correct ends can be tough too.

If I were a betting man, I'd say this is an issue with overzealous security software on the Vista box. What security software do you use?

PC To Mac - Connection

I use McAfee as Security Software with Malwarebytes for Malware.

MoreCowbell said:

I use McAfee as Security Software with Malwarebytes for Malware.

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I'm more concerned about McAfee than MWB (the latter being a reactive scanner). Are you certain it's completely shut down? More often than not, these AV products are so intrusive, they co-opt the Windows firewall and interfere with data transfers. I'd almost be tempted to completely uninstall it (if it were my machine).

PC To Mac - Connection

Well - I've removed my anti-virus and shut down automatic updates on PC, done software updates on Apple, and even worse - I called Apple and the first response was "Yeah, I've never heard of a PC to Mac Migration working successfully" - not a real confidence booster. I still get the same error message but I can't imagine this is an uncommon issue - Any other advice is much appreciated! I have 60,000 songs and the thought of re-indexing them is not what I want to spend my time doing!

MoreCowbell said:

Well - I've removed my anti-virus and shut down automatic updates on PC, done software updates on Apple, and even worse - I called Apple and the first response was "Yeah, I've never heard of a PC to Mac Migration working successfully" - not a real confidence booster. I still get the same error message but I can't imagine this is an uncommon issue - Any other advice is much appreciated! I have 60,000 songs and the thought of re-indexing them is not what I want to spend my time doing!

Click to expand...

It's running Vista, right? If you can't get the automated tool to migrate the data, perhaps you could just do it manually.

Go into the C: drive and share the 'Users' folder. Assuming you can connect to the share from the Mac, most everything should be sorted (i.e. music is in the "My Music" folder, Documents are in "My Documents", etc.). Then, all you need to do is drag and drop.

Here's an article that should be helpful:

Move an iTunes library from a Windows PC to a Mac | Macworld

...in any case, I don't think you have any worries about losing your iTunes library. The transfer is pretty straightforward and the Mac and Windows versions of iTunes use the same database.

Thanks for all of your feedback and help. Much Appreciated. The iTunes migration is my biggest worry as are all of my settings and favorites but I guess that is the price I have to pay. I don't understand, however, why Apple would sell a bill of goods that a PC to Mac migration is feasible. It feels very much like a Microsoft move....!