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Switching to Mac

leonAzul said:
Sorry, that's a detail I somehow overlooked. Your ultimate intention is to replace a Vista laptop with an Apple MBP. Connecting the two is just a means to an end. Do I get it now?
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Arth, if you do get rid of the old machine, be sure to hand it down to someone who can use it. Preferably after zeroing out the drive properly.

In that case, setting up a so-called ad hoc WiFi connection between the two is dead simple -- there are built in routines for that on both machines. For ~$20, the virtual NTFS software for Mac OS X I mentioned above will work to use your current external drive directly with the Mac until you can get a second one -- something you'll want to do anyway just for the sake of redundancy.
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Ah, now I get what you were talking about with the sparseimage on an NTFS drive. Do you use this software yourself, and is it reliable?

I'm not sure that Time Machine will recognize a virtual drive, but it will recognize an HFS+ formatted drive from an image file. A drive image file is just a document written to look like a physical drive to the operating system. The standard format for Mac OS X image files has the name extension ".dmg". The name extension ".sparseimage" refers to a file that starts out small and expands in size as more is written to it, unlike most formats which take up somewhat more hard drive space than their stated capacity whether they contain anything or are just empty space.
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Another strategy would be to make a fixed size dmg to reserve the space. In any case you need to give even a sparseimage a sensible maximum capacity to avoid headaches later on. Again, a good size for Time Machine, is very dependent on what you need to back up. If you keep your media manually backed up, for example, there's no need to have Time Machine manage it on the same drive.
 
leonAzul said:
Sorry, that's a detail I somehow overlooked. Your ultimate intention is to replace a Vista laptop with an Apple MBP. Connecting the two is just a means to an end. Do I get it now?
Click to expand...
That's it.

leonAzul said:
In that case, setting up a so-called ad hoc WiFi connection between the two is dead simple -- there are built in routines for that on both machines.
Click to expand...
Then that's probably the method I'll use.

leonAzul said:
For ~$20, the virtual NTFS software for Mac OS X I mentioned above will work to use your current external drive directly with the Mac until you can get a second one -- something you'll want to do anyway just for the sake of redundancy.
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If I can make the Buffalo work with the Mac, that will probably be sufficient.

leonAzul said:
There's more than one goal for backing up. Something like Time Machine, which automatically maintains incremental backups, is excellent for restoring damaged or accidentally deleted files or entire folder structures.
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Not that I'm trying to downplay the need for regular backups, but in all the computers I've owned since 1995, I have never once needed to restore a damaged or accidentally deleted file from backup.

Guess I'm just lucky, eh? :D

ThatSoundAgain said:
Arth, if you do get rid of the old machine, be sure to hand it down to someone who can use it. Preferably after zeroing out the drive properly.
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Oh yes, it's already spoken for. :)
 
arthwollipot said:
Not that I'm trying to downplay the need for regular backups, but in all the computers I've owned since 1995, I have never once needed to restore a damaged or accidentally deleted file from backup.

Guess I'm just lucky, eh? :D
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There are two types of computer users: Those who have experienced data losses, and those who will.
 
arthwollipot said:
Now I bet I've jinxed myself. I really shouldn't tempt fate like that.
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Just remember, it's copy, check, delete.

And not the reverse like I tried at work once, losing about 1 month of project material from the document management system.

We were lucky to only lose that too, I had a personal backup just in case. The infrastructure team couldn't restore anything since the official backups failed every evening. The infra team knew about this but it wasn't in their instructions to tell anyone!!
 
arthwollipot said:
Not that I'm trying to downplay the need for regular backups, but in all the computers I've owned since 1995, I have never once needed to restore a damaged or accidentally deleted file from backup.

Guess I'm just lucky, eh? :D
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Goodonya!

Unfortunately, in the same time span I vividly remember at least 7 drive failures, several instances of data rot, and 2 mutilated laptops, the latter due to the gentle ministrations of the TSA. No doubt the differences in experience are due to differences in behavior -- there were several years in the late 1990s when I averaged 3 commercial flights per week, and I am still reaping the frequent flyer rewards.

You also had/have the good sense to focus on support at the application level, rather like a retailer of packaged goods in the meat market. I, OTOH, chose to provide support at the systems level, thus like a butcher I needed to deal with how the sausage is made. Neither is a better POV, just different.

arthwollipot said:
Now I bet I've jinxed myself. I really shouldn't tempt fate like that.
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:bgrin:

Chalk it up to extreme testing. ;)
 
A backup is not a backup until it's been tested as one.

Always ALWAYS test your backups. I cannot stress this enough.
 
My current laptop has a regular backup to the Buffalo (btw, I have no idea why it's called that, it's actually a LinkStation LS-CHL00A but we've always called it the Buffalo. It's very reliable.), and I expect that if I can work out how, I should be able to use it with Time Machine as well.
 
arthwollipot said:
My current laptop has a regular backup to the Buffalo (btw, I have no idea why it's called that, it's actually a LinkStation LS-CHL00A but we've always called it the Buffalo. It's very reliable.)
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I suppose because it's made by Buffalo Technology...
 
Tomorrow I get to buy a Mac!

I've been waiting both for available funds in the bank account, and a good deal. For the standard listed price for a 13" MacBook Pro, I get the computer itself with a 3-year warranty, plus for $30 extra a 1Tb external drive.

Whee!
 
Well, I has it. I'm posting this from my brand-new 13" MacBook Pro. It's sweeeeet.

I'm finding that there are a few keyboard peculiarities that are different. For example, there are no Home and End keys. I need to use Control-arrow for those.

I'm going to look through that list of keyboard commands and try to memorise as many as I can. :)

ETA: What's Firefox like on the Mac platform? I'm finding Safari a little unsatisfying.
 
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arthwollipot said:
Well, I has it. I'm posting this from my brand-new 13" MacBook Pro. It's sweeeeet.

I'm finding that there are a few keyboard peculiarities that are different. For example, there are no Home and End keys. I need to use Control-arrow for those.

I'm going to look through that list of keyboard commands and try to memorise as many as I can. :)

ETA: What's Firefox like on the Mac platform? I'm finding Safari a little unsatisfying.
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What do you find lacking in Safari? Note that there are extensions. I have AdBlock and ClickToFlash, to name the two most important.

FireFox is okay, since the latest update. Still takes a looong time to start up (while at the same time appearing to be fully up and running). It's also less stable than Safari. Has more trouble running Flash than Safari or Opera.
 
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arthwollipot said:
It may be just unfamiliarity. I'll check extensions and see if I can find a few nice ones.
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When I first bought my Mac, i didn't like Safari. I was used to IE.

Over a short time, I adapted and now prefer it. I do have Chrome and Firefox, but rarely use them.

YMMV.
 
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