HELP! PC Died, Can a Mac Mini do what it did?

Some easy questions folks... my 5 year old PC just took a dump and I need to replace it ASAP, preferably within 24hrs. I'm considering a Mac Mini to replace it. A few simple questions about what the Mini can or cannot do, mostly related to the OS itself... I know very little about OSX Lion, so here go the things it must be able to do:

1) seamlessly share files with my Windows laptops, as if it were a Windows machine... e.g. SMB shares, read AND write...

2) seamlessly share printers with my Windows laptops, as if it were a Windows machine... e.g. SMB printer sharing... Printers are both HP connected via USB (Laserjet 1020 series and an Photosmart C4700 series combo).

3) Related to #1, the files to be shared are ALL on (2) USB 2.0 1TB drives connected to the machine... None will be located on the internal hard drive.

4) Utilize my existing LG 23" monitor, which has both VGA and HDMI input options ...

5) Utilize my existing Logitech speakers (don't see any problem w/ that)

6) Autobackup about 150GB of files using iDrive.com app (seems they have the app... any iDrive.com users?)

I'd also prefer if I can run Windows in some kind of virtual format. I do own one full license of Windows 7 Pro, which is now dead, since the machine I ran it on died. What's my best option? Note: I prefer not to reboot as I leave my PC on 24/7/365... this one went almost 6 years while turned on 24/7/365, so I don't wanna hear anything about how this isn't a good idea. My experience is that leaving a computer turned on makes it last longer, as opposed to the opposite. My prior machine lasted 7 years, both using original hard drives.

Essentially, my Windows PC is/was my "server," and also my "main" machine. Can a Mac Mini do this for me?

Addendum: It occurs to me that my 1TB external USB 2.0 drives are *probably* NTFS formatted... This presents a challenge that had not previously occurred to me.

1 - should work fine. I share files between windows and mac. There may be some issues if your accounts are different names or passwords but generally you can share with AFP and SMB so either Mac or Windows or Linux can see the file share.

2 - Should work - although I haven't tried it in a while. There is a Windows option under add printer - and I can see my Windows Workgroups there. There may be some driver issues if you can't access it as postscript.

3 - Should be fine - just share the external drive locations. This is setup under the share files.

4 - You'll need an adapter for VGA but the latest Mac Minis have hdmi out.
Apple - Mac mini - Technical Specifications

5 - Pretty much any speakers work. I have USB speakers that just work - if you are plugging into the headphone jack - everything should work also.

6 - Don't use - I have been backing up several Macs to time capsule shares through time machine. An offsite solution would be good but I don't have one right now.

Virtual Box is a free option to run a virtual machine. I like Parallels as I can run a bootcamp partition within a virtual machine (So I can reboot into windows or run a VM of windows off of the same partition) VMware fusion can do this too - IMHO Parallels seems to be faster and updates more often - others like VMware better.

A friend runs his Mini as a HTPC and a media server - and he has an old single core mini from back in the day. The new ones are plenty fast to support serving files/media.

EDIT: Due to your addendum - you would be better servered by backing up the drives - and reformatting them as HFS+ There are ways to use NTFS with Mac but I've found it is better just to use the Mac file system if I am directly connected to the Mac.

1) Yep, never had a problem. SMB handles the communication and the hose handles the reads/writes anyway, so the OS of the client (or server) makes no difference at all.
2) I've never had a problem,however.. the 1020 is ONLY a windows supported printer by HP (they didn't even bother to include their OWN PCL on that printer). There are third party drivers, they sort of work. This is 100% HP's fault btw.
3) Sure, but they'd better be formatted to something the Mac can write to.. if attached to the Mac.
4) Yep.
5) Should be able to
6) Donno, don't use it.

While I don't use Windows (at all any more actually), you can install either vmWare Fusion or Parallels, or even VirtualBox and run it in a virtualized machine.

Hrm. The printer issue may in fact be one. My wife is in grad school and wirelessly prints to that printer about 500 pages a month (I know by the reams of paper we use ). It's a work horse... I've run a few cases of paper through it.

I had a 1012, the biggest issue was the image quality. That said, replacing the thing with a networked brother, resolved a whole mess of other irritations (like having to have a 'host' for printing, and upping page print speed and printing in color, duplexing etc), when my wife went back to school again.

I found several posts online that say you can use the Laserjet 1020 using the 1022 driver for OSX Lion, available straight from Apple.... there is hope.

Suggestions for moving/converting a large quantity of files from an NTFS USB 2.0 drive, then?.... What about the third party NTFS drivers and just leaving it be?

You can do that, I'm told by a fellow Mac-Forum guru that the best driver is Paragon NTFS, which costs $20.

Dysfunction said:

2) I've never had a problem,however.. the 1020 is ONLY a windows supported printer by HP (they didn't even bother to include their OWN PCL on that printer). There are third party drivers, they sort of work. This is 100% HP's fault btw.

Click to expand...

Mike, I have a 1020 and the 1022 driver works for it. They are the same printer but HP wants you to purchase a 1022! When the 1020 came out people were beyond angry. The 1022 comes out with full apple support. I just downloaded the 1022 driver. Should still work but this was back in the Snow Leopard and Leopard days.

Another vote for Paragon for the NTFS driver! Works perfectly and gives you read/write for any NTFS drive.

Hi ZeroTx,

Why do you even want to spend the money on a mini, given your listed requirements (including running Windows)? As with any OS, there will be a learning curve and a concurrent level of frustration. Since you appear to be in a hurry, I would say just buy a Windows machine.
Just curious.

Mini_mi said:

Hi ZeroTx,

Why do you even want to spend the money on a mini, given your listed requirements (including running Windows)? As with any OS, there will be a learning curve and a concurrent level of frustration. Since you appear to be in a hurry, I would say just buy a Windows machine.
Just curious.

Click to expand...

Running Windows is not required, but I know that VM is an option and why not have it? Sometimes you come across software with no Mac version available.

dtravis7 said:

Mike, I have a 1020 and the 1022 driver works for it. They are the same printer but HP wants you to purchase a 1022! When the 1020 came out people were beyond angry. The 1022 comes out with full apple support. I just downloaded the 1022 driver. Should still work but this was back in the Snow Leopard and Leopard days.

Another vote for Paragon for the NTFS driver! Works perfectly and gives you read/write for any NTFS drive.

Click to expand...

Awesome! Well, that's the only hurdle I saw.. solved!

Looks like BestBuy has the nicer 2.5ghz mini on sale for $762.99 ... hmm.

I use iDrive for my Mini, but I don't use the autobackup function. I don't see why it wouldn't work though.