So...here's one I've been wracking my brain with. We are planning to pilot a number of Macs to our organization in the coming months. Windows Machines bound to AD using Network accounts, all have data on them, being migrated to piloting Macbook Airs also AD bound using same network accounts. Need to get the data migrated in a simple way that even the users can follow directions and not screw up...Nothing I can think of is easy enough. Any suggestions?
Solved
Migrating Windows Users to Mac
+4Best answer by calum_rmit
have the users put their data on a windows network share
mount said windows network share on the mac, copy data to local home folder on mac.
Or have them use an external drive to copy the data across if it is extremely large or you dont have sufficient space on your network storage. You can use ExFAT/FAT32 partition schemes for cross platform (note 2gb file size limit for fat32)
Mac Os X can also read NTFS formatted volumes so this may also work for your needs
+5have the users put their data on a windows network share
mount said windows network share on the mac, copy data to local home folder on mac.
Or have them use an external drive to copy the data across if it is extremely large or you dont have sufficient space on your network storage. You can use ExFAT/FAT32 partition schemes for cross platform (note 2gb file size limit for fat32)
Mac Os X can also read NTFS formatted volumes so this may also work for your needs
+9The simplest options I could provide are these:
- Setup network home drives in AD so that the data is accessible on both systems at login
- Have the users transfer their data using Migration Assistant. Migration Assistant is a built-in OS X utility and there is a windows client available for download on the apple support site which will help facilitate the transfer
I hope this helps!
+4We've discussed all these as possible solutions. The higher ups want some sort of automated solution and unfortunately, the Migration Assistant doesn't play nice with Network Accounts (they don't even see them). Right now, we're leaning toward having users transfer their data using Flash Drives or external drives.
+31The best automated solution may be to install a cross-platform backup tool where the users can manage their own restores (like Crashplan) on both the Macs and PCs and get at least one good backup of the Windows machine before you move them to Macs.
Once migrated, the users can restore onto their Macs whatever they want from the backup of the Windows machine.
+6so all their account/user data is on a network drive?
+4If you're moving data manually, I wouldn't bother with network shares or flash drives. Just have both machines on the network at the same time, have the user login to the mac to create a profile, and connect to the pc and copy the files directly from the pc to the mac. To make it easier, I will usually export their IE bookmarks to an html file before transferring to make importing easier on the mac.
+4We're going with the external drive solution and providing them with instructions on what they should transfer. I have to separate myself from being the IT guy to being the user and while most of the suggestions here would work for someone with a basic knowledge, the user base's level of knowledge leaves something to be desired.
+15From the Penn State Mac Admins Conference 2012
Strategies for Migrating from Windows to Mac OS X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DTFUnkUYT4
Hope it helps.
Eric
Reply
Most helpful members this week
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.