Back up your PC

Moving from Windows to a Mac? Here’s how to safeguard your data the right way before you do

MIGRATION ASSISTANT WORKS on Windows too — although unlike Macs it isn’t already there on your PC. To get it, go to bit.ly/mac362wma on your PC to download the Windows Migration Assistant for Big Sur.

This works in much the same way as it does on the Mac. Close everything on your Windows PC (using apps such as Acronis True Image or Macrium Reflect Free), run Migration Assistant on your new Mac, and run the Windows Migration Assistant on your PC. You can then choose what data you want to carry across from your PC to your new Mac.

The biggest difference between the Windows Migration Assistant and the one on your Mac is that it can’t copy your apps across: Windows apps don’t run in macOS. But you’ll usually find that the apps you need are already on your new Mac, and if not there are either Mac versions or very good Mac alternatives. For example, you can work on Word documents in Apple’s Pages as well as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and many more. Many apps are cloud–based too, so an Apple Music, Spotify or Dropbox account just needs you to download the Mac version.

The Windows Migration Assistant expects to find your content in specific folders, so in the case of a user account called John Appleseed it would give you the option to transfer the Music, Pictures, Movies, Desktop and Documents folders from Users > John Appleseed. It can also transfer Outlook email and contacts, Windows and Windows Live Mail, browser bookmarks, and any iTunes media. It can also find and transfer files (but not

system files) from the Windows and Program Files folders. That’s not the only way to migrate data, though. If your new Mac has an Intel processor rather than Apple silicon, you can still run Windows 10 in Boot Camp or in a visualisation app such as Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion, so you might want to create a clone of your Windows drive using an app such as Macrium Reflect Free and then install that clone in Boot Camp. M1 Macs don’t have that option. Boot Camp is only for Intel processors and, at the time of writing, apps such as Parallels are not M1–ready yet. If you’re moving to an M1 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro or Mac mini you’ll need to migrate data manually or do it via the Windows Migration Assistant.