Mac to PC

[pastorjeffcma]

I am replacing my iMac 20 with a new HP P6520Y. Therefore I am selling the mac. Could someone in plain non-technical language explain how I can transfer the files from the mac to the PC and then what I need to do to get the mac ready to sell (format, reinstall, etc.)? I am running Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Also, I have a Toshiba external drive which is formatted to the mac. Will it ever be useful for the PC? That is a lot of info, but I would be appreciative of any help. Thanks.

 

[2048Megabytes]

The Macintosh operating system uses the HFS+ filing system. Windows cannot read how the Macintosh operating system writes data and therefore you are going to want to transfer your data that you value to a storage device that is formatted in the "FAT32 format." Windows and Macintosh can read and write in FAT32 format. I would get a flash drive or an external hard drive formatted in FAT32 to do the data transfer from the Apple to the personal computer.

Edit: One limitation of FAT32 is it has difficulties with files of size larger than 4 gigabytes.