It’s me again. Sorry to bother you, but I want to make sure that I know what to do when my new computer arrives.
Ok, I’m still running 98SE & use Windows Media Player 9 for all my music. The problem is I can’t burn data files because I can’t get the plugin to do so… because I don’t have XP.
I’ve looked at cnet for some burner software, but the reviews are horrible. Do you have any clues on how I can transfer my stuff to my new machine? The thought of spending hours upon hours reloading my CDs onto the Mac makes me want to curl the fetal position and cry.
Buy an external HD and copy your files to that. Then copy the files to the new computer. You can then use that external HD for periodic backups which are a good idea no matter what kind of computer you have.
Buy an ethernet cable. Depending on how much you have it will be cheaper than burning CDs. All new Macs don’t require crossover cables because they can detect if they are connected to a router or another computer. If you know about networking. I can’t say how hard it will be to do that, but if My memory serves me correctly, all you need to do is go to your windows 98 machine and…
Now I’m doing this from memory, but if you poke around the various settings you’ll be able to find the right thing.
Go to Network Settings and make sure that File and printer sharing is enabled (it’s called File and Printer sharing, but you don’t need to share a printer) Now from there you may be able to determine which folders you share and set a password if you want. Oh yeah, disconnect from the internet before doing this (physically).
Then go to my computer and right click on your C: drive and go to properties and enable it to be shared.
Then hop on your mac, and go to the network, and look for your computer and access the files that way. You may need a password, but it will be your windows password.
But if you only need to burn a single CD, there shouldn’t be a problem with software. Download Nero Burning Rom. I believe this will give you a free trial. I think it’s produced by a company called Ahead.
Nero is probably one of the best burning suites available for windows. And, if you can’t get a copy that works with 98, just hop on over to www.oldversion.com
I just checked it out and it said that it was expired, but I’m not totally sure of that. Set your computer’s clock back to (well, why no 1998?!) and download the oldest version and see if it works!
Or better yet, put your existing internal HD into an external FireWire case, hook it up to the Mac, and there’s your entire elderly Windows98 environment available to you from the world of MacOS!
You might even be able to BOOT the Windows98 volume under Parallels although I would not swear to that.
Ok first off, Hey You!- All the external hard drives I see are for Windows 2000 or newer and dude, I just shelled out a thousand-grumble bucks on an iMac. (don’t take this as me being snotty- I’m not aiming to be).
2gigch1- I don’t have an ethernet card. I don’t think.
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Merkwurdigliebe**- I know nothing about networking. Or computers, for that matter. I’m still trying to decipher some of your post. Thanks for the welcome.
AHunter3- I don’t think your idea would jive with just the Mac OS. I didn’t order parallels or XP along with OS 10.
I never anticipated having to have both the old computer and the new one linked at all. I was planning to rip this one off my desk and getting the new one up and running. I’m starting to think that will indeed have to load my music disc by disc. I’ve already sent my important documents to my gmail account so they’re stored safely.
This thread and my last one about converting to Mac sorta ended up the same way- I ask a question and then I go my own way after y’all make suggestions. Sorry about that. I don’t mean to be a turd after you’ve taken the time to help me. Please accept my apologies.
I’d go to Circuit City and drop $30 on a 1 or 2 gig thumb drive… it’d save ya some CDs and come in really handy even after the transfer, and would certainly be faster than the burning of CDs but no more complicated.
Do you have a broadband (DSL or cable) internet connection? Or do you use a dial-up modem?
If you have a broadband connection you have an ethernet card. Then the next question would be: do you have a router? If you do, this is going to be real easy.
The Parallels comment was probably an aside. You can absolutely do what he said here: plop your Win98 drive into a cheap FireWire enclosure and then plug that into your Mac.
You will then see it as a new drive on the Mac, complete with your entire drive full of Win98 stuff. You can then copy to your heart’s content.
It wouldn’t be wasted $$$ either – when your toy budget recovers a little from the Mac, you can buy a fat drive to put in the enclosure to give you peace of mind as you copy all of your photos and music to the external drive and store the drive elsewhere.
I had an old computer like this and it didn’t even have USB.
If it’s like that, then the hard drive case is the best option IMO - think you can get USB or Firewire versions. No need for dual boot or anything - just open the old PC, take out the drive, plug it into the HD case and plug that into the Mac. Then simply browse the disk and find the files, and drag them to the Mac hard drive. Then trash the rest of the files and folders and you’ve got an external HD for your pleasure.
I’ve done this on PC-PC transitions for years (though usually I use the secondary HD IDE plug - not sure if that would work on a Mac).
If the Mac in question has an unused IDE plug, that should also work, yes. I’ve never done that. (In fact, I have yet to own a desktop Mac with ATA/IDE hard drives. My last desktop Mac was long enough ago that its internal drives were SCSI). Due to my ignorance, I could not say whether you’d have to deal with those “master vs slave” issues I’ve heard about with regards to IDE buses (?), and if that would be a factor, you’d be free of that with the external-enclosure solution. But ultimately ATA is ATA and what works on a PC as far as attaching and using the things is usually also what works on a Mac.
When I was assimilated by the collective that’s how I transferred my data from my old computer to my PowerMac G4, however the new iMacs use SATA/150, not IDE drives. Other World Computing sells bare Firewire/USB enclosures. Here’s one for $67.99. You can probably get one at Fry’s or Comp USA too.
This is a good idea with a couple of potential flaws.
Firstly, as jjimm mentioned, make sure your old computer has USB ports.
Secondly, Windows 98 doesn’t have built-in support for USB hard drives. Go to the drive manufacturer’s website before buying and see if they have a Windows 98 driver available. Some do and some don’t.
How many music files do you have (i.e. how many GB)? A cheap/easy solution would also be to transfer them a little bit at a time using a USB thumb drive.