Ethernet connection from iMac to pc transfer question

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tal1971 Author

Level 2

302 points

Ethernet connection from iMac to pc transfer question

I'm going to be getting an iMac shortly.

I currently have a Windows PC.

I'm sure I read somewhere that its possible to connect a Mac and a Windows PC together with an Ethernet cable.

What I'm wanting to do is, rather than transfer my music, photos, documents and other stuff to an external hard drive (plus the time it would take to copy the stuff to the external hard drive) and then copy the stuff onto my iMac, I was wondering if there is a way of been able to connect the iMac and the PC together with an Ethernet cable and have both the machines switched on and basically use the Mac to access the hard drive on the Windows PC to then copy the desired information over to the iMac.

I know there is a Migration Assistant application, but I would rather just copy the stuff over that I'm wanting, then at least I know what's been copied over.

If its possible to connect a Mac and a Windows PC together with an Ethernet cable and from there access the information on the Windows PC's hard drive and copy it over to the Mac. If its possible, could someone provide me with the instructions on how to do this please?

Thanks in advance.

Windows Vista, iPad (3rd Gen) 32GB iPhone 5 32GB

Posted on Jan 3, 2013 7:00 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,483 points

Jan 3, 2013 1:26 PM in response to tal1971

Hello, should be easy, just enable File/Folder shating on the PC & the Mac User is allowed, then...

On the Mac...

Then in finder, select Go menu>Connect to Servers..., then on the Mac, type in smb://ip.of.the.pc, like...

smb://10.0.1.5

smb://192.168.1.3

But Migration Assistant I think is a far better choice. 🙂

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Answer 2

tal1971 Author

Level 2

302 points

Jan 3, 2013 1:54 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for the help BDAqua.

The Migration Assistant you mentioned.

Would this allow me to pick the files and folders I was wanting to migrate over from the PC to the Mac or is the Migration Assistant automated and it would choose itself what was migrated over?

I have a number of folders that I created with different files etc in them on my Windows PC. So if I used Migration Assistant would I be able to specifically pick these folder, files and migrate them over to the iMac?

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,483 points

Jan 4, 2013 2:46 PM in response to tal1971

MA doesn't allow you to choose, it migrates the whole User I believe, but I still think it'd be easier, then remove what you don't need from the Mac.

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Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,856 points

Jan 4, 2013 2:52 PM in response to BDAqua

MA does provide some very limited choices. It will migrate Settings, Data, Apps, etc.. and you can select just Data or any of the other's mentioned however it will migrate all data, not specific files and folders.

My suggestion to the OP is to get an External HD, move the data you want to that EHD. One you have bought your iMac and migrated the data from the EHD to the new iMac then reformat the EHD (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and use it as a Time Machine Backup drive. You will need to be backing up anyway so just invest in the EHD now and get double duty out of it!

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Answer 5

tal1971 Author

Level 2

302 points

Jan 4, 2013 11:50 PM in response to tal1971

Thanks for the help everyone, really appreciate the help 🙂

I already have an external hard drive that would hold everything. Its just I thought it would take a while to copy the stuff over from my Windows PC onto the EHD, then copy the stuff back off of it to my iMac, and thought if I could have linked the iMac and the PC together, the copying would only need to be done once.

I had an idea yesterday. I have a 3.5 inch hard drive caddy/enclosure. My Windows PC is very easy to get into has its got a full side access panel which removes with two thumb screws. I thought I could remove the drive from my Windows PC, place it in the caddy/enclosure and then connect the caddy/enclosure to my iMac, I could then simply access the information and copy it over to my iMac. This would allow me to copy only the required stuff, I would only be copying stuff over once (rather than twice if I were to copy from my PC to a EHD and then to my iMac). The drive would be in the NTFS format (as its been used on a Windows system) but from my understanding Mac can read drives formatted in this, it just cannot write to it without third party software. Would the removing drive, placing it in a caddy/enclousure idea work OK?

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Answer 6

Jan 5, 2013 1:40 AM in response to tal1971

The drive would be in the NTFS format (as its been used on a Windows system) but from my understanding Mac can read drives formatted in this, it just cannot write to it without third party software. Would the removing drive, placing it in a caddy/enclousure idea work OK?

Yes, it's a great idea. And you won't risk any data loss, because the internal PC disk is write protected from a Mac perspective.

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Answer 7

tal1971 Author

Level 2

302 points

Jan 5, 2013 1:50 AM in response to Alberto Ravasio

Alberto Ravasio wrote:

The drive would be in the NTFS format (as its been used on a Windows system) but from my understanding Mac can read drives formatted in this, it just cannot write to it without third party software. Would the removing drive, placing it in a caddy/enclousure idea work OK?

Yes, it's a great idea. And you won't risk any data loss, because the internal PC disk is write protected from a Mac perspective.

Thanks for confirming this Alberto, I think this is the method I'll use then for transfering the desiried stuff over to my iMac with.

Thanks for the help everyone, its much appreciated 🙂

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Answer 8

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,856 points

Jan 5, 2013 8:20 AM in response to tal1971

tal1971 wrote:

Thanks for the help everyone, really appreciate the help 🙂

I already have an external hard drive that would hold everything. Its just I thought it would take a while to copy the stuff over from my Windows PC onto the EHD, then copy the stuff back off of it to my iMac, and thought if I could have linked the iMac and the PC together, the copying would only need to be done once.

I had an idea yesterday. I have a 3.5 inch hard drive caddy/enclosure. My Windows PC is very easy to get into has its got a full side access panel which removes with two thumb screws. I thought I could remove the drive from my Windows PC, place it in the caddy/enclosure and then connect the caddy/enclosure to my iMac, I could then simply access the information and copy it over to my iMac. This would allow me to copy only the required stuff, I would only be copying stuff over once (rather than twice if I were to copy from my PC to a EHD and then to my iMac). The drive would be in the NTFS format (as its been used on a Windows system) but from my understanding Mac can read drives formatted in this, it just cannot write to it without third party software. Would the removing drive, placing it in a caddy/enclousure idea work OK?

Yes that is a great idea, I'd recommend going that route!

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