Mac users! Where are you?

[wase4711]

I think if you import those bookmarks into Firefox, then export them into safari, you should be ok.
By "Archives" you mean .rar or .zip files?
Mac can handle those without a problem, although to do .rar, you need 3rd party software, like unrar, or stuffit.

As far as doing redundant backups, its not a problem.
There are several good ones; I am using chronosync now, which allows for scheduled backups either locally, to an external drive, or to a network location.Another one I use is called super duper.

Time machine backs everything up to an external drive, or an internal drive, and set at default, it updates every hour, until it fills that massive drive of yours!
I would use disk utility to partition a piece of that 1tb drive, say 250 gigs of it, for you to use to store other crap.
If you allow 750 gigs for the time machine backup, you'll have every thing you want for a very very long time.

I still haven't installed any windows version on my machine, and, frankly, after 3 months, there was only 1 instance where I had to use my sons Vista computer, and that was to run an .exe file, since you can't run those on a Mac..
I'm sure there is an AC DSee version of for Mac..
I have been using Adobe Lightroom, and PhotoShop, and both work great, and, of, course, they open all your old windows created pictures and stuff..

[rikytik]

By Archives, I mean original files in such categories as Jpg images, Music and Documents. I've been taking digital photos since 1997 and scanned my 3,000 35mm slides of the kids growing up, so that I could trash the slides, give away the Kodak Carousel trays, projector and screen. I've scanned many key old family photos, as well. In 2004, I converted my 300 LP collection to MP3 and sold the LP's. I'm not young and this is called downsizing. I have a lot of family documents scanned and family history things.

All that is what I call "Archives", all on NTFS partitioned HD's. I keep a redundant copy on another HD, thus the need for a sync program. Don't know Chronosync, but will check it out.

As I understand it, OS/X can read, but not write to NTFS. So, what I figure is to move all that data to FAT HD's so that they will be R/W on Mac as well as Windows, since I consider all this stuff something my daughter will one day "open up" on whatever computer she has at the time.

Ok on the book marks, sidelined for the moment. I'll get back to it. Meanwhile I'm creating new ones in Firefox on an as needed basis.

I bought a WD Book (Studio) external drive that has Firewire/USB and eSATA interfaces. I'm using it for Time Machine via Firewire.

My sister discovered "Mac the Ripper" which solves another issue. btw, her iMac 24" is scheduled to arrive July 10. She's using her MacBook exclusively and has disassembled her desktop to dispose of in an environmentally safe way!

Got myself a Bluetooth KB and mouse and things are beginning to settle down. I turn on the Windows box only when I need access to some files I need to move over to the Mac.

I have Parallels installed in the Mac. Got WinXP STudent Version as the OS. Don't really need it now, but it's there if I need it. Manily what I need is the Address Book I have in Outlook 2003 to which I sync my PDA/Cell phone. Strange, but Entourage in Office 2008 cannot import contacts from Office 2003 or 2007. you've got to play around with vCards, or delimited text stuff. I find I'm losing notes and things that way.

There is an old ACDSee version for Apple, not maintained. you can get it with a Google Search free. I haven't yet tried it.

I didn't know Lightroom was available for Mac. Cool.

Man, I'm telling you---I'm having a ball with this new setup!

[wase4711]

Well, I gotta tell you, I have two external HD's networked to this thing, and they are the same as they were for my years in Windows, and I did NOT have to do anything to them; I am able to read from them, and save new files to them, and I did NOT format them, or anything like that; now, they are NETWORKED in my house, via my router, so everyone has access to them, both mac machines, and a vista machine..I think you only need to re-format them if you attach them directly to a OSX machine, via usb/firewire...

The BEST proggie for processing all video "stuff" is called VisualHub; it coverts, compresses, changes from PAL to NTSC AUTOMATICALLY, and blows away anything I have used in Windows..

Its so much easier to have "fun" with these machines, 'cause you don't waste hours every day/week fixing and cleaning stuff!!

BTW, there is a free proggie called "Onyx", that does about all the maintenance stuff you need on a Mac..

[rikytik]

Hi Wase,

When you say two external HD's networked, what do you mean? Are these NTFS HDs? Networked how?

I took a trip downtown to the Apple Store and quizzed a guy about this and he confirms that if you hook an NTFS HD to a Mac directly, you can read it, but not write to it. However if the HD is on a server, a PC for example, you can read and write from the Mac.

I have a D-Link DNS 323 Server. Little box that holds two SATA HD's, run by Linux firmware. Ethernet wired to the router. Trouble is you have to format the HD's in Linux first. It has a primitive ftp program in the firmware. It's good for that or as a server for a Multimedia Player.

I found a driver for Mac that claims to enable writing to NTFS: Paragon NTFS4Mac 6.5, but I'm not ready to venture there yet.

Thanks for the tips on Chronosync and VisualHub, both of which are installed. I downloaded OnyX, but haven't checked it out yet.

This thread is turning into a FAQ. Wase, you helped me get off the ground on my adventure to discover Apple, the forbidden fruit! . I sure appreciate the time you gave me. So far, this baby is stable as a rock and I can't believe I'm doing this all on a little teeny weeny Mac Mini with a WD Studio Book, hanging off the side for Time Machine. I'm having a ball!

[wase4711]

Well, they are what you call NAS,(Network attached Storage) devices; basically, external hard drives with an ethernet port to connect to your router..that way, anyone who has access to your network can also access the files..and yes, they were originally formatted as NTFS hard drives, so that has not changed...I can read the files, write to those drives, and they were INSTANTLY recognized when I hooked up the new Mac machines!

Apple is no longer a "forbidden" fruit; I bet if 20 of our "buddies" here tried a Mac machine for more than a day or 2, 18 of them would switch immediately..
You gotta love the fact that there are NO MORE BLUE SCREENS, REGISTRY PROBLEMS, and REBOOTS!

I swear, I just reboot this thing every 10 days or so, just because I think I should...

Glad to help you out; there are lots of great resources out there, so, the more you read about these things, the more amazing stuff you find out you can do!

[rikytik]

That's what my D-Link box is: NAS. Holds 2 SATA dries, but reformats them to Linux partitions when you first crank it up so all data on them is lost upon installation.

[wase4711]

well, I have a WD world book, 1 TB NAS, and it did not format to Linux when I first installed it...
the newer stuff doesn't do that anymore; I have a older Buffalo 650gig NAS, and that one did format to linux when I first put it in service about 2 years ago...

[rikytik]

Ah Ha! I didn't know about the World Book version. I have the WD Studio Book edition that comes formatted with Apple Extended. It has the USB/Firewire/eSata interface. I'd like to swap that for a World version.