Bought new MacBook Pro, need some guidance please

At least you got 'er going......

Unless you need a wi-fi base station Apple's time capsule is overkill IMO. I'd simply go for a dual drive, formatted as RAID1 for redundancy and plug it in the Thunderbolt port (faster than Firewire). Then simply start Time Machine and tell it to use this new drive. Done job. [You may want to format it as two separate drives - One exclusively for TM use and the other to stash your VM backups.]

*However*, you do *not* want it to try and automatically backup your VM - Time Machine will "see" it as a single huge file that's constantly changing and try and backup the whole mess continuously. I haven't used VMWare but am pretty certain it contains a "backup" utility (probably automatic). Use it and move the archive it creates onto the 2nd partition on your backup drive.

Depending on how you've set it up, both the Mac itself & the VM should be able to "see" each others files etc - You shouldn't need to move stuff around.

Cheers,
Ian

 

There is e-mail (PST bridge) software that is far less than $89+ to recover your .pst file. I have been able to pull files as needed by using this application.

 

vmware is the only virtual box I use - unity mode sounds like it'd be worth it for you.

virtual machines are as fast as your PC...when I use to have a macbook I'd run a vmware penetration testing distro & it ran just like it was native to the HDD

 

What's unity mode? The machine seems to struggle most when it first starts up, takes around 15 minutes before you can access any program's. once working, it tends to hang when you close one, and try to open a second one, even to the point of simply ignoring your clicking a program, then five minutes later suddenly opening a second window of the application!

 

Unity mode is for "a fully integrated experience. Run Windows in Unity to run Windows programs without seeing Windows." FWIW, the other options are;

- Full screen view; A complete Windows experience. It looks just like a Windows machine.

- Single window mode; Run Windows in a single Mac window.

[Lifted from here; http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/overview.html]

Even if you're exaggerating - A lot - And really meant 15 seconds rather than minutes something is very seriously wrong. This is a pretty new Mac, right? How much RAM is in it? Even if it's only 4GB the thing should run pretty darn quick these days. Particularly with the apps you're using - It's not like you're running huge frame rate games or the like after all - This should be basic stuff.

A little experiment if you don't mind;

- Reboot the whole mess. [Ensures we're starting "clean"]
- Fire up "Activity monitor" [In Applications -> Utilities] Ensure "CPU" is selected.
- Fire up the VM and watch the activity monitor window - Report back what (if anything) is eating all the CPU.
-Select "Disk activity" and report what (if anything) is causing it to "thrash".

Seriously, even if it takes 15 seconds (*not* minutes!) to start I reckon you need to get your buddy back by saying it's completely unusable right now - I know it would be for me anyway......

Cheers,
Ian

 

I missed the part about the migration. That's probably the culprit. I'd gather your data files that are needed & then install windows fresh & reload all your stuff. Less stuff installed the better, but if you need Internet to work in the VM then you'll need an Antivirus, otherwise a spot check would work (online scanner, malwarebytes, etc).

I did a bit of Visio work when doing security work/play & it ran pretty fast too (I only had 4GB RAM; dedicated 1.5GB to the VM, rest to MAC OS)

 

I think it's getting my head around the file system etc. I have on my windows vm two folded on the desktop set up as'laptop' and 'mac', and in them, they show the files in each machine.

I have to spend time (I think) copying the files from laptop to mac in these folders, but each time I do I seem to lose files/they don't work for some reason.

For example, I have, in the windows machine, the normal 'documents folder, in which, there are a number of subfolders, including one I called daytonadocs, and that folder has the sub folders that really matter, such as 'exel' various word doc separation folders personal/business categories etc, videos, pics etc

Some of these again have sub folders, some don't.

Is there a simple way to simply lift the laptop files in their entirety and place them in the mac filing system, and have them copied exactly in readiness to work with the various apps, ie office for mac, QuickTime, etc?


You will probably laugh, but last night my iPhone needed the update on ios6, so I let iTunes download it, and then install it. The restore of the phone failed! I rang apple, who helpful as ever, didn't help at all, and spent 7 hours trying to restore a phone that simply had no way of working, via the vm (to which is has been syncing perfectly for almost a month), to the mac which I have never used to sync the phone as it doesn't sync with outlook properly in mac, and eventually to the original windows laptop I stopped using in January, which after 8 attempts, restored the phone as at January, and then a sync with the vm brought it back to date. I was tearing my hair out with it, thinking I would have to get a new phone, as it just wouldn't work at all, getting to the point of almost finishing before coming up with an error and going back to the 'connect to iTunes' screen

Does anyone have an email address for apple where I can complain about their service, as the people on the phone are absolutely no help at all. The girl last night just kept saying I should download the software again and call back in the morning, despite my repeating (and to her annoyance, keeping her on the phone), that I was in process of doing so, and had done on three machines at that point with no effect on the phone, and only had a few minutes to go on the latest download, so was there something else to try. Eventually she just told me not to worry, she was sure it would work, and cancelled the call!

 

The next question is, you have told me to get a backup drive with raid, which is by the sound of it a good idea, having read up on it and looked at some drives. I am, as you know, not a tech, so, in order to create backups, if I buy one, say 1tb, drive, does the drive automatically create a 'partition' to allow me to backup the mac on one side, and the virtual windows on the other?. Or is it better to buy two drives, sticker one mac and one windows, and keep the backup separately

There is a WD my book live duo machine available, which looks interesting, but is it what I'm looking for, or should I get the two as I think? It says files can be accessed from any mac or pc on the network, so could I potentially use that, simply backup up both sides, and somehow access the files I want on the vm machine through the backup drive instead (but I assume that then changes the file held there, but won't update the copy on the vm)

 

when you back up your mac using time machine, the entire computer is going to be backed up, including vmware with the associated virtual computer.
so all you really need for a backup is a hard drive formatted in mac os extended.
that being said, it is easy to create a dual partitioned external drive.
the "mac side" should be formatted in mac os extended.
the "pc side" should be formatted in ntfs.
to do the partitioning:

applications
utilities
disk utility
select the external drive
and then partition.

 

Please explain a little more - I was under the (misguided/outdated?) impression that you do not want to do that - Reason being TM "sees" the running VM as a single, huge, constantly changing "file". Ergo, it tries to backup the whole thing, which then changes under it and it starts again. etc. Eventually it'll just thrash itself to death.

Haven't used VMWare, but I'd guess it's pretty much the same as Parallels - The "Control console" (where you build new VM's etc) will have a "backup" option - Probably supporting incrementals too - Use this and tell it to move the backup onto the (non TM partition on the) backup drive. Doing it this way it does't matter if it goes to a Mac or NTFS formatted partition either.

As I said above, it is possible to share a TM partition, but you really don't want to - Give it an entire partition a leave it the hell alone! Format a second partition (MacOS, extended, journalled) for the VM backups and use the utility in VMWare to dump the backup onto that

Cheers,
Ian

 

You do not want to do that! - It's a recipe for disaster as you'll have multiple versions of the "same" file laying around etc. One of the beauties of the VM environment is that both "sides" can see, and hence access, the other.

Having a poke around at their site does suggest that you need to install the optional "VMWare Tools" - Fire this up and it should be easy to tell it which "folders" you want to share between the two. Should be pretty simple.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I went in the apple store yesterday to ask them about backups, and they told me they couldn't 'tell' me what I could buy, but it would be down to me. I asked if they could set it up for me, and they said they could give me advice if I paid, but they wouldn't set it up for me. What a way to run a computer business. I'm sure in the US they must be more helpful as I don't thnk you guys would put up with it.

Anyhow, I do have the vm tools, and my chap set up folders on my desktop so I can see both machines files. What I am wanting to do is to put all the files (mainly word docs, exel, jpegs, PDFs etc) onto the mac directories themselves so that if I lose the vm somehow (since its slow and tedious and doesn't give me tons of confidence yet) all my files a safely backed up under the mac

 

Surprised to hear that - I do know they're not allowed to make "recommendations", but that "attitude" doesn't sound right. Did you get Applecare? I thought that included some "one-on-one" time? If not, they're right - You pay for the time I believe.

Again, you really don't want to do that! VMWare calls it a "Snapshot" - When you tell it to take this snapshot it asks where you want to store it - Preferably out on your handy-dandy backup drive partition. Done job.

Cheers,
Ian

 

ian:
recommend "suspending" vmware whenever you are done using the "winows" side of the mac.
and then it is safe to do a global backup with time machine.
i have used this technique for years with no problems or issues.

 

OK, gotcha, thanks.

You don't allow TM to simply do it's thing - Which is fine of course - Just not the way I'd do it.

Cheers,
Ian

 

+1

This is also the time I'd take the (possibly incremental) "snapshot" from within VMTools. Dump that to a RAID1 and yer' good IMO.......

Cheers,
Ian

 

Right, I think I got it. I will buy two raid drives today, mark em up, and then do the snapshot of one drive, and tm the other.

Yesterday I managed to copy all the files I want from the vm (as I have been doing letters etc on there since the original install) and replaced the ones on the mac from before, so both have the same info.

I can now pick which office machine to use, and simply copy the updated files from side to side later, all the while backing everything up regularly.

Back to apple, yep, I have AppleCare, and the reason I want apples number is to get them to refund it, as clearly, if they don't care, i don't want it. The uk is a bit different to the us mind you, that's why I love the US. People are not naturally helpful, respectful or even empathetic in shops and businesses in general, once there's a problem, it becomes too much trouble for them. It's a pleasure to shop in the US, in the UK it's a chore mostly

 

Whoa! You can do that - Both Firewire ad the new "Thunderbolt" interface support "daisy-chaining". However, you only need one RAID1 array (two drives in a single case) - Partition half for TM and the other half for "other".

OK. If you're happy that's all that matters I guess..... I still think you're going to screw up somewhere along the line. You may want to check out "Dropbox" (free) - You install it on all machines and when you put anything in it it gets automatically copied to any other machine and the Cloud - Just the one file that as long as you always save to Dropbox will be the same everywhere.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I got hold of apple today. They were incensed at the service i had had, and are sending me a time capsule backup drive, what an awesome response! The tech is going to call me when I. Have it, and set up the backups I need..... I really hope it all works out as then I will be able to use the mac properly.

In the meantime Ian, it worries me that you are worried I might lose files? In what way, I can't rule out the human error side, cos that's me, but do you think there might be a technical reason why I can't copy from laptop copy vm to the mac side? The way it is set up, on the vm desktop, there are icons for laptop documents, a link demonstrating my vm stored files such as PDF, word, exel etc. a second icon is marked mac docs, and in the file, I can see the 'shared files' which are on the mac side. I have done things by picking a folder on the mac, say, exel files, and deleting what was in that folder, then opening the laptop icon, opening the exel files, copying them, and then pasting them in the mac folder, thus creating an up to date copy of the vm stored document on the mac. When I close the vm and open exel on the mac (or thru finder), the updated document is available to me

Sorry to be a pain, I am so untechnical. I don't really understand what I have here, here the issues I get.

For example, my iPhone and iPad sync by wire to the vm version on iTunes. I don't dare try to sync with the mac versions of iTunes (although it is installed of course), as I am worried it will destroy the phone/iPad memory. However, everyone says just use iCloud, then it's wireless, and both versions of iTunes will be kept up to date anyhow, along with the iPad and phone.. However, they have around 27gb on them each, and I thought iCloud was 5gb, plus, I utilise outlook for calendars, notes and contacts, and the mac version of outlook doesn't look much like the windows version........ If I try to migrate iPad and iPhone onto the mac side (which would be way faster to sync etc) or use iCloud, do you think it will work, or might it all go wrong.

My ultimate goal is to use the mac for word, exel and most Internet stuff, and only have to use the vm windows for certain programmes I use for work, and Internet sites I have to visit using Internet explorer, which in finance is pretty common here, and maybe the odd video or photo file that is in a format not available on the mac. I just wish I knew how to achieve what seems to most people I guess a pretty straightforward thing but I think in my case I had so many issues with the thing so fa, I'm now frightened to try some stuff!

 

S-w-e-e-t!..... Faith (somewhat?) restored in Apple - Did you ask for your Applecare subscription back? Or just tell 'em how upset you were? I'm actually really surprised at that. Just goes to show how much latitude these guys have when "pushed".

Not lose files per-se, but rather get confused as to which is the latest and where you stashed it.

As I said, if it works for you, no worries! I still believe you should be able to "see" any file in either direction and thence open it in either environment. You shouldn't have to deal with all that moving/copying/pasting is my point.

No problem - We're getting there......

My 02c;

- The Mac version of syncing is much less likely to cause you grief than the Windows version - Although I understand your (bad!) history with it. Note;

- Once you have a good backup in the Windows world (test it with a restore if you're serious about it!) try going doing the same in Mac land to build some confidence.

"Once bitten, twice shy". Again, I understand.

As for the "IE only" sites, here's how to run Safari and make it appear to be IE;

I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Ian, you are a star, I will try all that shortly

Where I apple is concerned, I told them I wanted my apple care money back, because I paid them to apple care, not to apple don't care! The guy was pretty put out, but once I told him the list of things that happened, the final straw for him was the weekend where the apple store guy was an arse to me and couldn't even be bothered to sow me the backup drives they sell and attempt to help me buy two

Above you said I can see files from both sides of the computer - in vm I can using the folders I mentioned, how would I see the vm docs from the the mac side?

 

Sorry Ian. tried the developer tool you mentioned, set at IE 7, 8 9, no dice. Home. Once set the dev tool, tried to hit the login, got to the right page, and keeps telling me needs IE 5 or greater, go to toolbar and shows 'default' again, not IE. It seems when system opens a new tab, new tab defaults back, cant see how to set it to stay in the mode

 

I thought that with the VM running it showed up in the Finder as a mounted drive that you can access in the normal fashion. (?)

If I'm mistaken (! ), I strongly suggest checking out Dropbox - That'll put everything everywhere for you!

Hmmph! I was wondering what the link above was - So clicked it and upon attempting to login do indeed receive the dreaded "IE only" message. Seems you're correct; They open a new window which returns to the default, "automatically chosen". Which sucks!

I'll have a poke around and see if I can figure out how to "permanently" change it.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Yeah, there's a few similar situations with other UK lenders and insurers.... Same message. On the plus side, just got Dropbox, so things may start going my way. After spending a whole night finding out about iCloud and setting up across everything, I am getting there. Was able to do most things on the mac yesterday, used windows for what was necessary only, and was a reasonable day! Just awaiting arrival of the time capsule, and at least then the thing will be backed up as that worries me and stops me totally playing with the machine in case it goes pop

 

Understood. The "good" news is it seems they only look at the UAS, and I remain confident we can "fool" that.

Gotta be honest, I'm an iCloud neophyte... But I *love* Dropbox......

Progress! Sounds like you're;

a - Sticking with it
b - Starting to "get it"

As I said before, we'll get there.

Roger that. Another cool thing about Dropbox is if you stash your "working" files there, in addition to automagically getting to all your 'puters they're also in the Cloud; You can **** up with impunity!

Cheers,
Ian