Help Required Please switching from Mac to Windows 10 Laptop

[Paul Brown]

Hey Guys...

I am soon to Sell My MacBook and buy probably a Windows 10 Laptop. I have a few questions I need answered please if anyone can help me out. This is the spec of my MacBook....

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15 inch, Mid 2014 Processor 2.2 GHZ Quad Core Intel Core i7 with 6mb L3 Cache (Turbo Boost up to 3.4Ghz) Memory 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3 SDRAM 256GB Flash Storage Graphics Intel Iris Pro 1536MB Built in FaceTime HD Camera Two Thunderbolt 2 ports, support for high speed I/O and Mini DisplayPort devices. SdXc card slot, HDMI port, two usb 3 ports.

Firstly, Our IPhoto and ITunes are Backed Up and Run off an external Hard Drive. How can I transfer all of our photos safely to the Windows laptop or still keep the photos and iTunes running from the External Harddrive to save space on the laptop. Also would this External USB hard Drive also work on a Windows machine?

Secondly, Security/Viruses, with the Mac didn't really need to worry about this so much, but going back to Windows I know I will need some, could anyone recommend a free virus/malware protection.

Thirdly, I am UK based, could anyone recommend a Windows 10 Laptop of a similar spec to the Mac, for around £300-£400? We don't use it our Mac for Gaming, Just for browsing, CV's, Banking Online, Downloading Music, Storing Family Photos. But want something speedy to use, that's capable of running a lot of programs at the same time should the need arise.

I appreciate any help on this people.

Paul

 

[Tim Locke]

I suspect that your external Passport drive would need to be reformatted to work on a PC.

I am not familiar with UK prices but I bet that a laptop with an I7 would be more than 400 pounds and you won't get display port nor thunderbolt...which may not matter, nor will you get a retina type display which may matter.

 

[Paul Brown]

I suspect that your external Passport drive would need to be reformatted to work on a PC.

I am not familiar with UK prices but I bet that a laptop with an I7 would be more than 400 pounds and you won't get display port nor thunderbolt...which may not matter, nor will you get a retina type display which may matter.

Thanks for your reply. If I sell the MacBook before buying the Windows laptop so effectively left with the backups on the hard drive how would I transfer the pics and music files at this time? Or do I prepare the hard drive prior to selling the Mac to transfer over and any idea how I do that.

 

[Tim Locke]

I am not familiar with the Mac file system but I bet Windows cannot read a Mac formatted drive. The Mac drive CAN be reformatted Fat32 or NTFS but that loses the data. Perhaps get a couple of big thumb drives and copy all the individual files...but you have to format them ExFat on the MAC and there may be a limit on the size of the thumb drive.


I would keep the MAcbook myself!