Windows to Mac migration Q's

Mac Mini arriving tomorrow. Question about ext. HD formatting.

Tomorrow my Mac Mini arrives.

I currently have a Windows XP machine with a 1TB Firewire drive plugged into it, full of media.

The file format of that drive is NTFS. My understanding is that the latest versions of OSX will read NTFS, but not write to it. I will therefore need to reformat the drive. Do I reformat to FAT32? Or is there a "Mac" format they use? Interchangeability between Windows and Mac is a benefit, if possible.

I have the data from the 1TB drive backed up onto two USB 500GB drives. I'm a little scared of wiping the main drive though! When it is reformatted, can I simply copy and paste the data from my USB drives back over the the Firewire drive?

At the moment I use a little piece of free software for backup called GoodSync. It is basic and just analyses two drives, and updates the newest files from one to the other. Is there something similar for the Mac?

Also, I run "TightVNC Server" on my Windows machine. Is there an equivalent for Mac, so that I can log into it remotely from my Windows laptop??

Thanks.

Darren,

The default file system for OS X is HFS+, which is a proper journaled FS and more reliable than NTFS. Windows can't read this, but OS X supports Windows SMB networking, so you could allow your Windows PC to access your Mac (or vice versa) for file interchange.

For backups, just use the 'Time machine' feature of OS X. This just works transparently in the background, and backs up everything.

Chris.

Hi Darren - For remote control RealVNC is a cross platform tool that works well. Play around a little with OS X screen sharing and the check box to allow VNC clients. TightVNC may allow you the full functionality you need. Let me know if you're not getting the control you want and we can dig into this one.

Hi

I am up and running. I reformatted my two 500GB USB drives to HTFS and copied the data from the 1TB drive to them.

Next I reformatted the 1TB and copied data back. Sadly I get experiencing an error when trying to reformat it to HTFS, so had to settle for FAT32!

I'm enjoying my Mini. It's small, beautiful and silent. Front Row is excellent for navigating films and photo through the TV.

I have a few more Q's...

Why is everything called "i"? The calendar named "iCal" takes it too far!!

To view my films in Front Row I made an alias to the movies folder on my external drive. However, this doesn't work with photo?

Do I have to use iPhoto for pics to appear in Front Row?

If so, can Front Row monitor a folder or must I keep manually adding?

Is there much I can do about aspect ratios? I mis-encoded some widescreen films to 4:3, and when played in Front Row I get borders top, bottom, and to the side!

VNC isn't working yet but I need to play.

I took some pics...

Darren,

Re: "Next I reformatted the 1TB and copied data back. Sadly I get experiencing an error when trying to reformat it to HTFS, so had to settle for FAT32!"

Try running Disk Utility (in Applications / Utilities). This can check for errors or permissions and repair them.

Chris.

Thanks.

I was using Disk Utility to "Erase" my 1TB to HTFS but it kept failing. When I'm on my Mac this evening I'll look for repair options.

I think I've seen this before.

Create a partition on the drive and use the Guid option, not MBR. Once partitioned you'll be able to erase the whole thing and format HFS+.