[printh]

Guys, need some inputs from you all. I am into buying a good, compact & reliable laptop and stuck between Lenovo x260 and 13 inch MacBook Air (customised to have top specs of course ). I am new to the world of Mac OS. Any suggestions? Is it worth moving away from Windows? BTW, it's just for entertainment purpose and not at all related to work.

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by printh

Guys, need some inputs from you all. I am into buying a good, compact & reliable laptop and stuck between Lenovo x260 and 13 inch MacBook Air (customised to have top specs of course ). I am new to the world of Mac OS. Any suggestions? Is it worth moving away from Windows? BTW, it's just for entertainment purpose and not at all related to work.

Hey friend,

I am afraid, its not an easy question to answer. What might seem value to me, might not seem value to you.

So, here are my thoughts:
Macbooks are generally very reliable, with good fit and finish and consistently good battery life for longer than most Windows based Laptops.

Also, the MAC OS, experience is very similar. Its simple, less cluttered and the OS performance stays fast and reliable for years.

One has to keep in mind though that MAC OS comes with a learning curve. Most of us have been using Windows for many years. MAC OS, its applications etc are different and some of them have a different Point of View. eg: In Windows most applications expose their back end folder structures, MAC and its apps like more workflow related approach. For eg: Winamp vs iTunes. iTunes wants you to add all your media in the iTunes library and do everything from iTunes UI. You wouldn't know that easily what happens in the backend in iTunes or how iTunes does it. In Winamp, you can store your media however you want and just add the links in the app for it to pick and play.

I wouldn't say one is better than other, its just preferences. But once you do get used to Mac, most people don't want to switch back to Windows.


Take your time, go to a MAC store, spend some time doing stuff you would normally do on your laptop on the demo machines.

CHEERS!!

Rachit

[joe1980]

I need some suggestions on recovering my data from my old MBP. All of a sudden my MBP would not log in anymore. I see a gray screen with a stop sign. I tried to enter into safe mode to see if I could recover my HDD. Unfortunately, I could not. Is there a way to get the data from my old HDD?

I got a new MBP and I now realize the importance of backing up data. I'm now considering to get a NAS device. Any suggestions and recommendations for a good NAS device that it compatible with a Mac?

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by joe1980

I need some suggestions on recovering my data from my old MBP. All of a sudden my MBP would not log in anymore. I see a gray screen with a stop sign. I tried to enter into safe mode to see if I could recover my HDD. Unfortunately, I could not. Is there a way to get the data from my old HDD?



I got a new MBP and I now realize the importance of backing up data. I'm now considering to get a NAS device. Any suggestions and recommendations for a good NAS device that it compatible with a Mac?

If you have a new Mac, try to connect your old MBP in target disk mode. That way, you could get your data. Or remove your hard disk/ssd and get help of data recovery services - costly option, but if data is critical, worth it.

Regarding backups, you can never have too many. Time machine is reliable. Takes hourly back ups. Next up, make daily/weekly bootable backup using superduper or carboncopy cloner. Back up your most important docs online (if not secretive) else on an encrypted pen drive. Also, don't keep all your backups in same location, if possible keep one backup at work/ alternate place.

The Nas solutions are mainly for storage, just for a back up you can checkout the Seagate Nas solutions.

[kkkkkaran]

Originally Posted by printh

Guys, need some inputs from you all. I am into buying a good, compact & reliable laptop and stuck between Lenovo x260 and 13 inch MacBook Air (customised to have top specs of course ). I am new to the world of Mac OS. Any suggestions? Is it worth moving away from Windows? BTW, it's just for entertainment purpose and not at all related to work.

Please have a look at the 13inch macbook pro while you are at it. For multimedia and entertaining, the retina display makes much more sense. Air is good only when you require the sheer portability on a budget.
If you are finding 128gb less, there are memory expansion options. Have a look at the transcend jetdrive lite.

[joe1980]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

If you have a new Mac, try to connect your old MBP in target disk mode. That way, you could get your data. Or remove your hard disk/ssd and get help of data recovery services - costly option, but if data is critical, worth it.

Regarding backups, you can never have too many. Time machine is reliable. Takes hourly back ups. Next up, make daily/weekly bootable backup using superduper or carboncopy cloner. Back up your most important docs online (if not secretive) else on an encrypted pen drive. Also, don't keep all your backups in same location, if possible keep one backup at work/ alternate place.

The Nas solutions are mainly for storage, just for a back up you can checkout the Seagate Nas solutions.

I will give the connecting my old Mac's HDD to my new one a try. My old HDD contains 4 years worth of books, images, videos and some important documents. I could not afford to loose them.

The reason why I wanted to go for a NAS solution is that I would like to use that as a private cloud and I can access it from anywhere in the world. I would at the same time use a part of the NAS storage to take backup's. I came across an interesting offer from Synology, the case containing 2 bays where I could plug in 2 HDD drives. It comes with a Web UI for all form factors, so that I can access it on any device.

[akshay81]

Hope your data is not encrypted else it may not work on other Mac.

I have been using NAS to backup my Macbook for a while and have tried a few brands. In my experience till date, Seagate is the worst and most unreliable one I have used. So far Western Digital is serving me well - can stream movies while Mac is backing up data. I have never used Synology given the mixed reviews and lack of service centers.

But consider NAS only if you have an Ethernet connection (preferably Gigabit) or a super fast wifi between your Mac and the router. Alternatively, you can have a dedicated portable HDD which will cost you much less and will be much faster option except that you may lose on cloud.

[joe1980]

I ended up getting a Synology NAS with a 2 TB Seagate HDD. What I like with NAS backup's is that it can be configured to run automatic over the network without the need to connect the device to my Mac. This is ideal for lazy ones like me. Anyway, I'm backing it up now to multiple locations.

My old SSD when tried on my Windows desktop would just not read. I then tried it on my Mac and it would just show as disabled. Any ideas how to get the data out of it? I could not say if the SSD is damaged. Could it be the reason as to why it would not show up when plugged.

[akshay81]

What does the Disk Utility on Mac show after your connect the drive?

[sgiitk]

I am an old Microsoft hand (since DOS 2). Now I have two Windoze laptops but am planning a foray into the Mac world, with the idea of ultimately switching.

I need 13" or 15" and cannot decide between the MacPro and MacAir. Both the MacAir 13" and MacPro have the additional ports I need, USB 3 and SD card reader. I guess if needed, I can always attach an external DVD writer.

Now which one do I get, I have decided on 256MB. Being Unix origin I take it that the MaOS will be faster, and more compact. What do I get, MacAir or MacPro? Based on my PC experience i5 should do. As it stands my iFlex 14 with 500GB has about 100GB free.

What has been the experience of making the Apple dual boot (Win as the second OS) or does Wine suffice for most work. I expect my Win10 Laptops to last for another few years, as I slowly move over.

Please advise, what do I get, and experience of running Win/Wine on a Mac.

[abs182]

Well I don't have any experience on dual boots nor running a Windows OS on Mac but I can tell you from personal experience of last 1 yr plus go with the MBP either 13 or 15 inch. Its a gem of a machine and you won't regret it. I believe Air is a bit of a mainstream laptop from Apple. For the well heeled technologically speaking I'd any day recommend MBP series.

Hope it helps.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I am an old Microsoft hand (since DOS 2). Now I have two Windoze laptops but am planning a foray into the Mac world, with the idea of ultimately switching.

I need 13" or 15" and cannot decide between the MacPro and MacAir. Both the MacAir 13" and MacPro have the additional ports I need, USB 3 and SD card reader. I guess if needed, I can always attach an external DVD writer.

If you absolutely need the convenience and mobility of a laptop and you don't intend to use it for games, music, video and movies I would suggest going with Mac book Pro 13" (much better than the Mac book air which is sleek/bling stuff), more than enough. Also, think through if you really need 256GB, will work out pretty expensive as it's Flash Storage.

If you don't need the mobility, do look at the Mac Mini, value for money. All you need additionally is a monitor and keyboard and they need not be exorbitantly priced Apple products

Not sure about the dual boot part, should not be a big deal as it's unix based.

[sgiitk]

@abs182; @NPV; thanks for the response. Since I have retired over two years ago (from IITK) prince does matter. I am thinking of 256MB since then I may not need a backup storage. Let me see if I can still get the academic discount! Most brands allow it. I think I can lay my hand on most of the software I need, I may start up with Thunderbird (my current package, I hate Outlook) for mail, and MS Office.

On my Windows Machine I have 100GB for the OS (55+ free) and software, 100GB for the work files (10 free) and 120GB for archive (20+ free). So even here after almost three years, I think I have stabilized. I can assume the work files will occupy about the same, and archives will become much smaller as I need not keep copies of all Windows software. Thus 256MB should be enough to remain totally SSD based. Also, any advantage/disadvantage between the Air and Pro.

One point, how much space do the OS and basic software like Office, Mailer, and Browser (like Chrome) require! Unix based software should be much smaller. Also, how does one get an HDMI output from the system.

[girishv]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

What has been the experience of making the Apple dual boot (Win as the second OS) or does Wine suffice for most work. I expect my Win10 Laptops to last for another few years, as I slowly move over.

Please advise, what do I get, and experience of running Win/Wine on a Mac.

Earlier I used to dual boot, but now, I just use parallels to boot into windows. I bought late 2012 MBP and upgraded the ram to 8GB and replaced the hard disk by SSD. Moved the original hard disk to dvd drive. My MBP flies with these two changes at fraction of cost of the new MBPs as I got it on sale from amazon.

If you still want to dual boot, mac has a very good support for it. Use "boot camp assist" and it sets up the dual boot along with all necessary drivers.

Girish

[kkkkkaran]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

What has been the experience of making the Apple dual boot (Win as the second OS) or does Wine suffice for most work. I expect my

Please advise, what do I get, and experience of running Win/Wine on a Mac.

Stick to the macbook pro range. The air is good only if absolute portability is a concern.
I had managed to get an MF840HNA (the model you are interested in) for 89k on amazon during diwali last year for my sister.
The macbook pro 15 inch is retailing for 1.35l post academic discount, a friend just bought one yesterday.

Coming to dual boot, i havent tried using wine, but setting up windows is very easy. The inbuilt software called bootcamp does everything for you, all you need to do is allocate it disk space, and point it to the iso or disk. Restarting and booting into Windows takes me less than a minute on my 15 inch pro, so never bothered with wine or any virtualisation software.