Can I transfer my MAC files to a new PC?

I have an old MAC with lots of files. I plan to purchase a new PC with Windows 98. Can I transfer my old MAC files over to the new Windows environment? How do I do that?

This question was answered on March 17, 2000. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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A software program that you can install into a Windows 9.X system that would allow you to directly read the floppy disks from a Mac is called Mac Opener It can be found at: http://www.dataviz.com/products/macopener/index.html

MAC floppies are compatible with PC floppies but transferring information on floppies would require a lot of time You may consider purchasing a ZIP drive which would cost between $100-$150 and would be much quicker as the ZIP drives as they store 100-250MB.

The specifications for a ZIP on a Mac are as follows:

Power Macintosh® G3 or iMac computer with built-in USB connection.

MacOS 8.1 or higher.

2x CD-ROM drive or higher

8MB of RAM.

31MB hard drive space recommended

HTML (Internet) browser to view electronic user's manual

Operating System Capacity Win 95/98, NT 4.0, Mac OS 8.1 and above.

Another option you have is to use a null modem A null modem cable allows two computers to communicate without a modem A Null Modem cable or Null Modem adapter simply crosses the receive and transmit lines so that transmit on one end is connected to receive on the other end and vice versa Null modem adapter are available at most computer and office supply stores for under $5

Please realize that a lot of the MAC files will not be useable for the PC Programs and games that run under the MAC will most likely not work for the PC On the other hand, some data files such as MS Word documents, pictures, etc will work on the PC Some picture formats, such as PICT, need to be converted to a PC image format, but there are many imaging programs out there that can do that.

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Posted by Ken Colburn of Data Doctors on March 17, 2000

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