Moving to a Mac.....Have a few Questions

[Valo]

I’m really considering moving to an iMac to replace my Windows desktop. I have a few questions though which I need an answer for before I can really commit to moving.

I have a home network which is made up of Windows machines one of which is a Windows Server which is running Windows 2008 Server in a workgroup and is used for file storage (Movies, Music and Photos) to my other Windows based HTPC in livingroom and my main PC. If I go-ahead and replace my main PC with an iMac will I still be able to access (Read and Write) to the network shares on the Windows server using OSX? Will I need to connect to them manually every time I want to access them or will they stay mapped once connected to them?

I have an iPhone and use iTunes on my PC can I transfer the iTunes data from Windows over to OSX easily, so I don’t have to wipe and reset my iPhone?

These may be the first of many questions!

 

[dav3evans]

Macs have the ability to join the same networks with little issue. There are a couple of options to check but you have to do regular things like make sure you have the right workgroup written in etc... but it's perfectly possible.

Everyone/thing else in my current house is PC except for my Mac and I don't have any troubles, the only thing you may have issues with is writing to NTFS drives, but I think that given you will be accessing over the network you should be ok as it's shared over the SMB protocol. If not you can get Tuxera NTFS to be able to write onto Windows partitions.

Apologies for being a little vague, networking is not my strong point but I know I tinkered with my setup for a while and it works fine =]

 

[dav3evans]

Oh also, on the phone front, if you get iCloud you should be able to sling all of your data onto the interwebbes and it will transfer to your iMac when you get it =]

 

[slinxy]

I’m really considering moving to an iMac to replace my Windows desktop. I have a few questions though which I need an answer for before I can really commit to moving.

I have a home network which is made up of Windows machines one of which is a Windows Server which is running Windows 2008 Server in a workgroup and is used for file storage (Movies, Music and Photos) to my other Windows based HTPC in livingroom and my main PC. If I go-ahead and replace my main PC with an iMac will I still be able to access (Read and Write) to the network shares on the Windows server using OSX? Will I need to connect to them manually every time I want to access them or will they stay mapped once connected to them?

I have an iPhone and use iTunes on my PC can I transfer the iTunes data from Windows over to OSX easily, so I don’t have to wipe and reset my iPhone?

These may be the first of many questions!

On the windows server front, its very easy in workgroup mode, just go to connect to server and that will map the drive, but you have to declare it to be a SMB connection, like previously said. You can add the connection to the favs list or if you want to connect it each time you log in, just drop the connection icon to your startup items in your account.

Connection speed to an SMB share is fine; we use a program called extreme-Z-ip at work which switches it to a AFP connection for Data Integration and speed improvements as they use a lot of video/graphics editing software which produces a lot traffic and big files.

Depending on your permissions setup on your sever you may come across some issues, but hey that's another story.

On the itunes front, if you authorise the new imac with your apple id before you plug the iphone in, it should see its the same account, and won't want to wipe it. Don't forget to de authorise the other machine first, if your not going to use it again. I've heard nightmare stories where people have authoised too many machines at once.