A thousand questions

First of all, hi all.

At present we're on a Windows PC with XP home SP3 with a desktop, that I'm fed up with !

We're expecting on Tuesday to receive a 21.5" iMac osX with Mountain Lion. I've already got a Super Drive burner and a third party external hard drive. I know the iMac has 1tb drive, but I've only got a 500GB one for back up.

I want to get "my Documents" which contains loads of files, pic's, music, etc transferred to the iMac. Can I get some help with this please. I also want to get emails and email address book and my bookmarks over if possible. If I'm asking too much, or stupid questions, let me know, I'm not easily offended, but I am easily confused when it comes to computers, so please try and be patient with an old fart.

There are at least 4 great ways to obtain information:

1. Review the "Sticky" threads in each of the Mac-Forums sub-sections. The "Stickies" are the threads at the top of list of threads in each sub-section.

2. Another great way to initially obtain information is to do internet searches on the specific topics you are interested in.

3. Search Mac-forums for specific topics/info. There are few topics that haven't already been discussed in at least the last 10+ years of Mac-Forums.

4. Post specific questions on Mac-Forums (after exhausting the other options)...especially when you have "1000" questions!

HTH,

- Nick

Thanks Nick. I did have a look at some stickies, but started getting bogged down. I'll have another look through.

If the old PC is still working this article about the Windows Migration Assistant should prove useful.

That's great skydude. Thanks. will an ordinary ethernet cable do it, or do I need a two way one ?

hoody said:

That's great skydude. Thanks. will an ordinary ethernet cable do it, or do I need a two way one ?

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Just make sure it's Cat6 Ethernet, it's not 'handed' ,just has fatter twisted pairs and an isolating separator between the pairs which give better performance over Cat5 with regards to speed and interference such as 'crosstalk' and 'attenuation'.

And run Migration Assistant BEFORE you establish an account on the new iMac. You'll be presented with that chance when you first fire up the iMac. That is the number one problem folks have with MA, they create an account on the iMac, play with it and then run MA. Their files end up in a new account, not the one they created. It's how MA works.

hoody said:

That's great skydude.

Click to expand...

Well, the k and the l are right next to each other on the keyboard.

toMACsh said:

Well, the k and the l are right next to each other on the keyboard.

Click to expand...

:Blushing:

Great tips pendlewitch and MacInWin, thanks. I'll let you know how I get on.

hoody said:

That's great skydude. Thanks. will an ordinary ethernet cable do it, or do I need a two way one ?

Click to expand...

Almost wish I had picked that as my forum handle.

Slydude said:

Almost wish I had picked that as my forum handle.

Click to expand...

When I saw that, I thought exactly the same thing. Great minds think alike!

Yeah, I might nick it as mine.

Well here I am, up and running on the iMac. **** of a learning curve for an old fart like me, but I'll get there in the end.

I think I did manage to muck it up with the migration from the pc, but I just ended up doing a lot of longhand stuff, so it's worked out alright in the end.

Loving the Mac and won't look back once I get properly used to it.

Way to go! If you run into a head scratcher, let us know.

Thanks, I will. Only problem is, I don't know where to start... only joking, but I'm bound to have a few questions.

Here's a few "good places to start":

Switch 101
Your local Mac User Group
The essay linked in my signature below
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual

Thanks Chas, great links.

Peter.