Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

chapter 5: five ways to transfer your files 135

chapter

5

A

huge percentage of “switchers” do not, in fact, switch. Often, they just add.

They may get a Macintosh (and get into the Macintosh), but they keep the

old Windows PC around, at least for a while. If you’re in that category, get

psyched. It turns out that communicating with a Windows PC is one of the Mac’s

most polished talents.

That’s especially good news in the early days of your Mac experience. You probably

have a good deal of stuff on the Windows machine that you’d like to bring over to

the Mac. Somewhere along the line, somebody probably told you how easy this is to

do. In fact, the Mac’s reputation for simplicity may even have played a part in your

decision to switch.

In any case, this chapter describes the process of building a bridge from the PC to the

Mac, so that you can bring all your files and settings into their new home. It also tells

you where to put all of them. (The next chapter is dedicated to the slightly hairier

process of getting your email and addresses copied over.)

As it turns out, files can take one of several roads from your old PC to your new Mac.

For example, you can transfer them on a disk (such as a CD or iPod), by a network,

or as an attachment to an email message.

Transfers by Disk

One way to transfer Windows files to the Mac is to put them onto a disk that you

then pop into the Mac. (Although