Biransider

Q: Need Help with moving to an iMac.

Hey,


right now I'm writing from my old PC, I've orderd the new iMac 5K with upgrades like 16 GB ram' 3TB fusion drive and intel i7 so it means it takes more time.


I've never had a Mac and I actually bearly used one, but since for the past 4.5 years I've been using iPhone and 2 years iPad and I really enjoy Apple's eco system and contuity feature I decided to make the switch.


but because I don't have a lot of friends with Macs and I never used one I have some questions:


1.) Can 'pages' show me a .docx files without make them look wierd as it does so on the iPad?


2.) I saw a lot of ways to move my files (which I really need since I'm a student) to the Mac but I'm really not sure which one is the best for me. I need to move a full iTunes library, word and powerpoint docs, photos, movies and my Explorer 'Favorites'.


3.) In my past computer (not these one the one before) I had a lot (a lot) of viruses so now I have East Nod32 8 and its protecting my computer fully. should I buy a liecence for the Mac or as I saw posts online Mac don't need an anti virus?


4.) I heard that there's going to be 'office 2016' for OS X so I really thinking about purchesing it when it'll come. is office for mac works ok or it is a waste of money?


5.) I would like to use 'BootCamp' to have windows since some of my software doesn't support OS X, how much space should I give it?


6.) As I wrote here above I've never had a Mac before, what should I know about the software and the iMac 5K hardware?


(sorry if my question is too long...)

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), New to the Mac

Posted on May 1, 2015 7:04 AM

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Q: Need Help with moving to an iMac.

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  • by Allan Eckert,Helpful

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert May 1, 2015 7:18 AM in response to Biransider
    Level 9 (53,732 points)
    Desktops
    May 1, 2015 7:18 AM in response to Biransider

    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.

  • by Biransider,

    Biransider Biransider May 1, 2015 7:18 AM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 1 (17 points)
    May 1, 2015 7:18 AM in response to Allan Eckert

    Thankes for the replay!

    I'm really excited about finally replacing to a Mac its something that I wanted to do for many time.

    1.) When you open a document with photos and stuff its look the same?

    2.) I understood Marigration Assitant is a bit slow and leave you with no computer for a few houres it that true? and if so is there's another way?

  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert May 1, 2015 7:26 AM in response to Biransider
    Level 9 (53,732 points)
    Desktops
    May 1, 2015 7:26 AM in response to Biransider

    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.

  • by Biransider,

    Biransider Biransider May 1, 2015 7:35 AM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 1 (17 points)
    May 1, 2015 7:35 AM in response to Allan Eckert

    Agin tankes,

     

    1.) I need to check about this software but it sounds great' although I think I'll try the Beta of 'office 2016' to see how is it that way I'll decide how to go in that subject.

     

    2.) It really depence on the day my iMac will come because I promised my sister I'll give her my PC since her old one broke and I have a few tests soon so I have kind of restricton of time... assuming I have a middle kind of internet and something like 150 (something like that) GB to move I'm not sure how it'll work with that I saw at Apple they suggest use the Etharnet cable and connect the computers each in the other side of it, will that give me an option to use miragration? or the same as using a hard drive (something that I have)? because I want to make sure I have everything on my mac since I have to do a restore to my PC...

  • by John0001,Helpful

    John0001 John0001 May 1, 2015 10:17 AM in response to Biransider
    Level 2 (340 points)
    May 1, 2015 10:17 AM in response to Biransider

    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.

  • by Biransider,

    Biransider Biransider May 1, 2015 10:15 AM in response to John0001
    Level 1 (17 points)
    May 1, 2015 10:15 AM in response to John0001

    Thankes,

    I didn't upgraded the GPU because I'm not doing video edit and bearly use 3D gaming…

    I need a way to import files on a thumbdrive to a PC since they use that where I learn… how to do so?

    I am planing to use my old 2TB HDD… I actually wanted to update the GPU but they said I would have to cancel and reorder and it might be a mess and since for me it wouldn't matter that much I gave up…

  • by rkaufmann87,

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 May 1, 2015 10:22 AM in response to Biransider
    Level 9 (58,746 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 1, 2015 10:22 AM in response to Biransider

    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/

  • by Biransider,

    Biransider Biransider May 1, 2015 10:24 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 1 (17 points)
    May 1, 2015 10:24 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    Thankes for the help,

    I saw this article bur there werenso many ways and I don't know which one is the best for me… thats way I'm checking with people that have an experince with it…

  • by rkaufmann87,

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 May 1, 2015 10:34 AM in response to Biransider
    Level 9 (58,746 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 1, 2015 10:34 AM in response to Biransider

    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!

  • by Biransider,

    Biransider Biransider May 1, 2015 10:41 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 1 (17 points)
    May 1, 2015 10:41 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    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?

  • by rkaufmann87,

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 May 1, 2015 10:47 AM in response to Biransider
    Level 9 (58,746 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 1, 2015 10:47 AM in response to Biransider

    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!

  • by Biransider,

    Biransider Biransider May 1, 2015 10:49 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 1 (17 points)
    May 1, 2015 10:49 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    Are you sure?

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

  • by rkaufmann87,

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 May 1, 2015 10:50 AM in response to Biransider
    Level 9 (58,746 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 1, 2015 10:50 AM in response to Biransider

    Biransider wrote:

     

    Are you sure?

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

     

    Yup.

  • by Biransider,

    Biransider Biransider May 1, 2015 10:56 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 1 (17 points)
    May 1, 2015 10:56 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    And one more thing… does it really matters that I stayd with the standard GPU because it's making me a bit nervous…

    about the mooving of files I'll get it and decide…

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