moving photos, music, videos, and documents from old PC to new MBP

I'm sure y'all (yes, that's a word in Texas )are going to get tired of my questions. I'm hoping to get to the Apple store on Monday to purchase my MBP so I'm trying to get a good understanding of what I need and how to accomplish the move with as little trouble as possible.

I've backed up my files (photos, music, video, documents, browser favorties list) from my PC to an external hard drive. If I understand this correctly, I can hook up the external hard drive from my PC to the new MBP using USB or firewire and move my files. So far, so good. My photos are organized in folders. Can I just drag and drop the file folders onto the new machine or do I need to drag individual photo files? What about the browser favorites list (for IE and Firefox), where do I put that?

According to what I've read there's a "migrate library" option in itunes. How does that work? Will it also migrate my settings for syncing my iphone 4? And while on the subject of the iphone, will it get wiped when I sync it? Is there a problem going from syncing with a PC to synching with a Mac?

Finally (at least for this post), what are some of the common problems people encounter when moving files from an old PC to a new mac?

Thank you for your help and your patience.

I hope to learn from the replies to your post as I just ordered my first MAC. I think I know the answer from Googling, visiting YouTube and hanging out at my local Best Buy, but there are always little tips or tricks than can ruin your day.

Good luck

Tom

ScubaDachshund said:

I'm sure y'all (yes, that's a word in Texas )are going to get tired of my questions.

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Nope.

I'm hoping to get to the Apple store on Monday to purchase my MBP so I'm trying to get a good understanding of what I need and how to accomplish the move with as little trouble as possible.

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1. Bring your current PC with you to the Apple Store. They will transfer your stuff to the Mac for free* as part of your purchase. This will take a little while so feel free to wander the mall a bit.

2. You're done.

I've backed up my files (photos, music, video, documents, browser favorties list) from my PC to an external hard drive.

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Always a good idea too, but I'm still going to suggest you bring the original PC rather than just the backup drive to the Apple Store*. They have software that reads PC systems and backs things up directly, that software may not know what to do with a manually-created backup. But it was a smart move and you should pat yourself on the back for that one.

Finally (at least for this post), what are some of the common problems people encounter when moving files from an old PC to a new mac?

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Mainly, doing it incorrectly is the most common problem, ie moving thumbnails rather than pictures, etc.

The other big issue is that various forms of Windows mail programs store their messages in a messy and proprietary database that's prone to corruption, making conversion to Apple's Mail program (or some other mail program, even MS's own Mac email clients!) a bit of a challenge sometimes. Apple's transfer will sort that all out for you, putting your mail in Mail, your contacts in address book, your bookmarks in Safari and so on.

The good thing is that even if you later decide you don't want to use Mail and want to move your Mail to (let's say) Thunderbird, THAT would be easy and painless, so there ya go. Freedom!

*it was free the last time I checked. You may want to call and verify that.

chas_m said:

*it was free the last time I checked. You may want to call and verify that.

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I called the local Apple store to confirm. It's no longer a free service. You have to buy the One-to-One service and it can take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours for them to transfer your files and schedule your first session. Think I'll pass.

I just had to do all that this past week so let me tell you how I did it. btw love my MBP and my PC is getting jealous:

For bookmark import I went to Safari first and just click on file and then import bookmarks. Then install Firefox if you want and just go to file and then import and it will import them from Safari. I just copied all of mine to three browsers (Safari, Chrome and Firefox)

For Itunes I backed up my whole Itunes folder on my PC an transferred it over Copy iTunes library from a PC to a Mac

For Pictures and Documents I just opened my Mac HD and then click on users and then your account name then just dragged my pictures into the Pictures folder and Documents into the document folder...easy as that

I did all this buy plugging in my external drive to my mac to transfer....I hope this helps and if you need anymore help I am sure the experts on here will help you...they are great!