You're impressed that Janie
Porche saved Christmas with her Mac. If Tony Hawk
and Yo Yo
Ma use Macs, 
they must be all right. When
you heard Ellen
Feiss' testimonial, you decided: "I gotta switch!"
Your mind is made up. You visit the local Apple Store and bring home
the cool new 17" flat panel
iMac.
You're all dressed up, but you don't want to go without all the PC
files you have been hoarding ever since you bought your original 4.77
MHz IBM PC back in '81 - or was it '82? You really can't remember that
far back. How do you get all your files from the PC to the Mac? Detto
Technologies has recently released a program called Move2Mac that
promises to make the move a snap.
Does it deliver? We decided to find out.
The Promise
Move2Mac is software that is installed on both the Mac and the PC.
The package includes a special USB cable to connect the two computers.
Here is an excerpt from the promotional blurb on Apple's website:
- Move2Mac transfers files from your PC to your new Macintosh and
puts everything just where you need it. Tracks from "My Music" on your
PC go to the Music folder on your Mac; clips in "My Videos" move to the
Movies folder; images in "My Pictures" show up in your Pictures folder;
items in "My Documents" relocate to the Documents folder on your Mac.
Move2Mac places data from other locations in a folder you can browse at
your leisure. Move2Mac will transfer your Internet Explorer home page
and bookmark files, as well as desktop backgrounds and even your
dialup Internet connection settings.
Move2Mac cable Move2Mac includes software for both your PC and Mac, as
well as a special USB cable that aids in speeding the data transfer to
the correct locations. Move2Mac can transport 500 MB of data from your
PC to Mac in 15 minutes. The software even comes with a guide that
tells you how to prepare special files, such as Quicken data and email,
for use on your Mac. Move2Mac will move and convert the address book
and POP3 account settings for Outlook Express on the PC to Mac OS X
Mail. You can use most other files, such as Office documents, without
translation.
All in all, Move2Mac will greatly help in speeding your switch to
Macintosh.
The Test
For out test, we set out to move our files and settings from an AMD
Athlon 750 clone to an iMac DV+. Since we don't use the Athlon very
often - and certainly not for our everyday computing - it probably did
not contain as much vital information as it would have otherwise.
Nonetheless, we were satisfied that there was enough information on its
hard drive to give us a valid test.
The process begins with installation onto the PC. Next, you install
the Mac software, which starts up automatically after installation. You
are prompted to connect the two computers with the provided USB cable.
You can either accept the default selections or exercise a greater
degree of control over what is moved. We decided to accept the
defaults, which is what we believe most users would do.
Once the process starts, don't rush to the coffee pot. You may have
to enter your name and password on more than one occasion during the
move. The transfer time can vary greatly depending on the amount of
data being moved. We had roughly 400 MB, which took about 15
minutes.
How well does the process work? In our scenario, I would give it an
A-. Your actual experience will depend on a number of different
factors, such as the number and type of files you have, programs you
run, how well you have adhered to Windows standards in storing your
files, etc.
If you stored your documents in "My Documents," your graphics in "My
Pictures," and so forth, you will be very satisfied with the results.
If, on the other hand, you have tucked your files away in many
out-of-the-way places, you will have to sort through a generic catchall
folder that will be created on the Mac.
The Results
Here is a general summary of what happens:
- All files in "My Documents" are transferred to your "Documents"
folder in your home directory on the Mac.
- "My Pictures" are transferred to your "Pictures" folder.
- "My Music" is moved to "Music."
- "My Videos" go to "Movies."
- A folder called "Migrated PC Files" is created on the Mac, and
everything else goes there.
- Some programs, such as Quicken, require preparation on your part
before the move. For example, you have to export your Quicken data to a
.qif file.
- Move2Mac will move and convert the address book and POP3 settings
from Outlook Express on the PC to Mac OS X Mail.
Back when I used the Athlon more than I do now, Outlook was my email
client. It appears that Outlook Express is the only email program
supported on the PC side, and OS X Mail is pretty much it for the
Mac. It is possible to export your contacts from Outlook and import
them into the OE address book. Other than this, it appears that Outlook
users are out of luck (though there is a potential workaround described
below). Based on the limited entries we had in Outlook Express, the
process went smoothly.
Final Words
Move2Mac works just as advertised, and it works well. The variety of
email programs supported on each platform is limited. It is possible
that the list of supported email applications may be expanded in the
future. However, one workaround is to use Netscape as a go-between.
Import your PC email, address book, etc. into Netscape mail (it
supports import from a variety of formats). Move2Mac will copy these
files to the Mac during the move. Once these files are on the Mac, many
email programs will import from them. It's not the quickest solution,
but it seemed to work well in our testing.
We have listed some nitpicky shortcomings above, but all things
considered, Move2Mac is a phenomenal program given that it is
essentially a version 1.0 release. We highly recommend it to smooth the
transition for all our "Switchers!"
