Need Help with moving to an iMac.

1, Pages opens docx files for me. Somethings there are some minor changes to the format but nothing very dramatic.

2, The is a Setup Assistant for PC which help to move everything possible over to the Mac.

3, No AV software is not required. It is more of a problem then a help.

4, I don't use anything from Microsoft. Instead what I use is LibraOffice for those rare instances where Pages doesn't work. It is free.

5, While I don't use Windows or Boot Camp the suggested size is 50 GB more is better.

6, It is a great computer with great graphics.

1, The more of the fancy editing tricks that are done in Word, the more difficult Pages has to display everything correctly. Hence the reason I suggested LibreOffice. It is more capable of handle the fancy editing functions of Word then Pages. It is free.

2, The time for Setup Assistant to do a Migration is usually dependent on the amount of data to be migrated and the speed of the connection between the computers. The good thing about Setup Assistant is that it is not just a copy. Rather it looks at what is being migrated and only does what will work. It can take some time but assuming a good connection and you are not move the whole world it should not take too long.

Hey Biransider,

I’m in the same boat as you; recently got rid of all Winders boxes and opted for the iMac 5K and I picked up that new 12” macbook. However, this is not my first mac, and had a 2010 MBA for the past five years. I also already received my iMac 5K and it's just plain great!

I’ll skip the obvious ones already answered.

2) You can try the migration assistant (never bothered) but with your specific requirements you can do this all with a simple external HDD or even thumb drive. The biggest thing with storage you have to understand between Winders and Mac is they use a different file system. Winders = NTFS, MAC = Mac OS Extended format as defaults for anything this century. You Mac can read NTFS formatted drives, but cannot write. There is middle ground; FAT32, a very old file system, can be written and read from both Winders and Mac, however it does not support a single files that are over 4GB in size (single 4GB+ file). So do you have an external HDD lying around? It’s likely formatted in NTFS for Winders. Just copy your files there and your Mac can copy them over. When you’re all done with Winders, I would reformat that external HDD with Mac OS Extended (journaled) so you can read/write to in going forward.

3) I’ve never once purchased antivirus software for my 2010 MBA and used it daily. Winders, I would not let it join the Wi-Fi network before it had AV

4) Office 2016 is currently in FREE preview mode right now. http://products.office.com/en-us/mac/mac-preview I have it running and it’s 100% free until they go live in June. I would not get the current Office 2011, get the free preview for now, and just buy the license in June; no reinstall needed, just buy the license in June.

5) the Drivers and software Apple used to make bootcamp work so well puts the HDD size requirement well above Winders “minimum system requirements” I believe it burned 55GB just for the Winders 7 on my iMac.

6) Did you also upgrade to the graphics card to the Radeon M295X? From a GPU processing standpoint, that is a big upgrade from the standard M290X it has by default. If you plan on doing ANY modern 3d gaming or video editing I highly recommend you update your order and get the updated GPU. Honestly, unless you plan on running a bunch of virtual machines at the same time on your iMac, I’d dump the memory upgrade for the GPU upgrade.

Biransider,

You are way over thinking this. Millions of PC switchers have gone before you, including myself. Migrating is incredibly simple if you just follow the instructions Apple provides in:

https://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/migration/

As stated, you are over thinking this. Simply use Migration Assistant. That is the most direct and simple method. In most cases a migration is completed within a couple of hours max! Simply read the directions, download MA to your PC and you are in business. It's really that simple! Heck I'm a 60 year old, old-fart and I did it!

Biransider wrote:

But there are things like settings and stuff that I don't want to move to my iMac because they are Windows Junk…

Isn't mooving with HDD is easier?

Nope!

Biransider wrote:

Are you sure?

even when I switched PCs I used my HDD to move files…

Yup.

Biransider,

you're too much like me... I have these exact same concerns when getting a new computer and do not want to transfer "all" my old junk over just using some "user easy" assistant, but i bet rkautmann8 is right here.

YES, you can copy your Winders stuff to that external HDD you have and you can copy it from there to the Mac. It's likely formatted in NTFS, so you will not be able to write to it from the mac, but at least you can get your files over.

Further, go ahead and try the migration assistant. If you dont like the outcome, just restore to factory settings; its not like you'll lose anything the first few days you have it. Apple restore is simple, but to wipe to factory setting you do need to erase the HDD manually (not the recovery partition!) while in the recovery system; dont assume it does it like a Winders box does. Further, if you have a small HDD sitting around, do an Apple backup using Time Machine; worlds easiest backup system and works very well to my standards.