I Ordered a new iMac 24” w/M1chip

[Jim Becker]

I've read Apple is trying to meld them, somewhat favoring iOS. My only exposure to Apple if requiring an iPad to run a certain very important app. In that market niche, iPad has at least 90% of the market, probably more.

I do believe that ultimately, MacOS and iOS will merge like you mention, although there may be some differences based on the particular device. They have already done some work in that direction with a certain level of app and feature support. I expect that is just the start of where things will end up. There is a hardware factor that's going to help Apple in this direction and that's the fact that they are moving toward all Apple silicon for processing and associated functions. If the computing hardware becomes all the same happy family, regardless of device type, the OS can also be unified.

[Bruce Page]

New 'puter update. I set the hardware up last Thursday and spent Thursday & Friday trying to migrate files from PC to mac. I was finally successful Friday evening after some headaches. I'm definitely not an IT guy, lol.
I have much more to do but it is less intimidating now!

[Jim Becker]

Diving in is always a great way to get a feel for things!

Migrations are sometimes challenging even between two machines that have the "same" OS...Mr Murphy loves those kinds of operations.

[Tom Stenzel]

New 'puter update. I set the hardware up last Thursday and spent Thursday & Friday trying to migrate files from PC to mac. I was finally successful Friday evening after some headaches. I'm definitely not an IT guy, lol.
I have much more to do but it is less intimidating now!

I don't use a Mac but think they're wonderful. My daughter bought a Macbook Pro in 2017 and has had no problems that she's had to pester me about. Except for one. She couldn't write to the USB hard drive she had. Turned out the drive was formatted with Microsoft NTFS filesystem. I had to point out what the problem was. She bought the Paragon software to fix it.

If you have existing external hard drives you might run into the same problem.

-Tom

[Scott Kilroy]

My only advice as someone who went from windows to mac a few years ago is remember when you close the last open window in a application (on mac) it's still running. command +q is your friend.

[Bruce Page]

Thanks for those tips. I bought a Seagate 1TB back-up drive for the Windows 7 PC that I plan on moving to the Mac. I will look into the extFS software from Paragon.
One of my biggest hurdles adopting to the Mac is the iOS Finder file system. I haven’t gotten a handle on it just yet.

[Greg Parrish]

We have both windows and mac machines. Had a 27" imac from 2010 until 2020. Then last year I bought one of the 24" M1 iMacs and like it overall. The only thing I dislike is the fact that I can't ever get the apple play on our yamaha receiver to stay connected to the imac very well. I've tried every hack and tip that can be found on the net and finally just gave up. I only use it to play music in our garage so ultimately I just switched over to using a Roku device to play music out there. But the nice thing with the iMac is it is simple and mimics the iPad and iPhone that I use, so it doesn't surprise me to hear they may be moving towards a single ios setup.

[roger wiegand]

Thanks for those tips. I bought a Seagate 1TB back-up drive for the Windows 7 PC that I plan on moving to the Mac. I will look into the extFS software from Paragon.
One of my biggest hurdles adopting to the Mac is the iOS Finder file system. I haven’t gotten a handle on it just yet.

Curious, my wife has the same problem and I've never been able to explain it-- to me the two file systems seem identical, a system of hierarchical nested folders. To her it somehow looks different and incomprehensible. She can't explain and I can't see why she sees them as being different.

[Jim Becker]

It very much is a hierarchical folder structure that's not really different than on Windows. The behavior of the Finder application on MacOS vs the equivalent on Windows (which is also constantly evolving) is where folks making the switch have to get used to the new. Apple also encourages use of the Search. But you do get used to it with use. I actually have to "think" when I'm manipulating files on Windows now...

[Keith Outten]

Commander One Free

Commander One Pro $29.00

I still use Finder for simple tasks but Commander One Pro does the hard work. I really like the dual pane window especially when working with external drives transferring lots of files.

[Curt Harms]

Thanks for those tips. I bought a Seagate 1TB back-up drive for the Windows 7 PC that I plan on moving to the Mac. I will look into the extFS software from Paragon.
One of my biggest hurdles adopting to the Mac is the iOS Finder file system. I haven’t gotten a handle on it just yet.

Bruce, is this of any help?

https://www.infopackets.com/news/106...mac-format-hfs

in part:
How to Fix: Convert Windows Disk to Mac (Format HFS+ on Windows)

There are two ways you can format HFS+ on Windows: either use Paragon Partition Manager Free, Community Edition (CE), or by using diskpart.exe in Windows. The latter requires to you to use a command line interface, while the former uses a graphical user interface. For all intents and purposes, Paragon Partition Manager free is the most intuitive option.

As per comments below - there is a third option if you decided to format HFS+ on Mac: simply take the NTFS disk and insert into the Mac, then use "disk utility" to format. From what I'm read, Mac also supports reading NTFS volumes natively but not writing to them. So if you wanted to backup your NTFS data locally (from the NTFS volume to another HFS+ volume) before wiping the NTFS drive, it would certainly work.

Should you decide to format HFS+ using Windows, there are a few caveats before we continue:

Both Paragon Partition Manager Free and diskpart are destructive, which means that all data on drive will be lost once you convert (format) from NTFS to HFS+.

If you wish to retain your data currently on the drive prior to the conversion (format), you will need to backup the data first, wipe the drive using HFS+ filesystem, then copy the data back to the HFS+ volume. That leads us to the next caveat.

Once the NTFS drive is converted to HFS+, it won't be visible or usable under Windows unless you install a third party application to use HFS+ volumes in Windows. At the time of writing, the only utility I know of that can achieve this is HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software and it costs $19.95 USD.

I think HFS is an older Apple file format but I'd be disappointed if new Apple devices weren't able to read and write it.

[Bruce Page]

Great info Curt. I haven't taken the final decommissioning step of my Win7 PC, but I'm getting close.
I am getting more comfortable with the iOS file system.

[Jim Koepke]

The first important information when asking user questions about a Macintosh Computer is to have the pertinent information about the computer. Under the Apple logo on the left hand side of the screen should be a selection, About This Mac:

About This Mac.png

Selecting this option should display a window similar to the one above. The serial number and other parts of the image have been cut off. Anyone who knows about the Macintosh knows my machine is getting long of tooth and running an older 32 bit OS ’nuff said.

The Mac search feature may be confusing to those accustomed to other systems. Notice the difference between these two windows:

Finder Search Windows.jpg

The left window shows all files and/or applications with chisel handle in their name or content and the words do not have to be in order. The right hand window shows the content displayed when the Name Matches: chisel handle option was selected. (a down arrow followed by return does this on my machine)

In the left window A Box From Firewood has been chosen. Double clicking it to open, then searching will find it has both the words chisel & handle in the text:

Finding the Word.jpg

The word handle is a few lines below chisel.

At the bottom of the search window is the path to the file. Any of the folders in the path can be opened with a double click. If you want to keep the search window open hold down the Command key (the one with the Apple or Cloverleaf) when double clicking a folder.

To narrow the search, notice as the search term is being entered below the search window is an option to limit the search to file name. It will show every file with the words chisel & handle in the name.

A search for content is also possible:

Searching Content.png

Content Search.jpg

This is one of my favorite parts of the search feature when looking for a particular passage, quote or other known text content.

Another feature about the search function is part of the OS:

Using the Space Bar.jpg

An Adobe file is selected with a single click, then press the Space Bar.

The option to open it in its parent application is in the upper right corner of the document.

What is even better about using the Space Bar to view a file is one can then press the up, down, left or right arrow to view the other files in the search result window. Sadly the folders have to be opened on their own to reveal their contents. Press the space bar again to close the viewing window.

Hope this helps anyone new to the world of Macintosh. Please remember my OS is a few generations behind the time, So remember:

YMMV!!!.png

jtk

[George Yetka]

My insight is if you are curious how something is done, think about how you would do it and do the opposite. Not to be a hater I love their hardware and have a macbook pro. But this method actually works for me more than it doesnt.

[Jim Becker]

JTK, there have been some changes and updates to Finder in the intervening OS versions since your particular release, especially in the more recent ones so as you note, "YMMV". Bruce's machine is M1 processor based and is running Monterey (v12.1 or greater)