Tech Tails issue number 185, September 2003 featured an article on transferring data to your new mac, for the complete article visit our archives link here, but for now take a moment to revisit memory lane, though admittedly some of these steps and information are still both useful and applicable today.
Mac to Mac, or PC to Mac Transfer:
Direct Ethernet Connection If you have both computers in the same location, you may be able to use an Ethernet cable to connect both computers together and copy files between them. You may need an Ethernet crossover cable depending on which model Macintosh you own. This method has the advantage of being fast and being able to transfer any amount of data. Once connected by Ethernet, turn File Sharing on (Control Panel in OS 9, System Preferences in OS X). Once file sharing is active, share the contents of one of the hard drives. You’ll then need to connect to the shared drive as you would connect to a server.
Portable Hard Drive or Storage Device If your computer has either FireWire or USB, you can use a portable drive to transfer data. Portable FireWire drives provide the fastest transfer rate, and are widely available. However, unless the computer has a FireWire port, which is not as common on PC computers, you will not be able to use a portable FireWire hard drive. A portable USB hard drive can be used, but USB transfers can be slow.
Note: While the faster USB 2.0 standard is available on some PC computers, some Macintosh computers only work with USB 1.1.
CD Burner or Other Portable Media Creating a CD of the files on your computer is one of the easiest methods you can use to transfer any amount of data. This method provides the added benefit of creating a backup of your data.
Using portable ZIP, Jaz, magnetic optical (MO), or other forms of portable media, is similar to burning a CD. Also, as long as the media device can be used on both computers, this method provides an excellent way to transfer any amount of data.
Email For small amounts of data, such as word processing documents, pictures, or small application data files, using email to send data to yourself as an attachment is another option. However, if the data files are over 1 MB in size, or if you do not have a high-speed Internet connection, you should try other methods before using this one.
Note: Some Internet service providers (ISPs) place restrictions on how large email attachments can be, so you may not be able to use this method with large data files, even if you have a fast Internet connection.
iDisk If you have a .Mac account, you can use iDisk to transfer data. Since the iDisk is used through an Internet connection, using this method for large data files without a high-speed Internet connection takes a long time. You can also purchase various amounts of drive space on a yearly basis, which provides additional data storage flexibility.
OSX to OSX
Carbon Copy is a great utility to duplicate existing OS X volumes. Carbon Copy Cloner will retain file permissions and copy all of the hidden files.
PC to Mac Transfer:
Apple has made it really easy for PC users to switch to Macintosh. Move2Mac is a kit that includes software and a USB cable to connect from the PC’s USB port to the USB port on your new Mac. Detto technologies estimates that it will take approximately 15 Minutes to move 500 MB of data. The software allows you to select what folders and files to move. Move2Mac does not translate files or translate PC applications into Mac Applications. For instance, if you wanted to run Microsoft Office, you would need to get the Mac Compatible version. Most files will not require any conversion to operate in the Mac environment. The one major exception to this is Quicken. Quicken files need to be reformatted to be used on the Mac.
When transferring data, most of the information that you have created is stored in your home directory. This is in the Users directory at the root level of your hard drive. There are some files in your Library that will not transfer by hand. The files that you will want to get for sure from your (the tilde ~ character is a UNIX symbol for the home directory) ~/Library are Addresses, Application Support, Favorites, Fonts, iTunes, Mail (if you are using OS X Mail), Preferences, and Safari. There are other files in the Library folder at the root of your hard drive that you may want to move depending on your configuration.