If you are reading this article, there might be chances you have already bought a new MacBook or a Mac mini with the latest M1 chip. In that case, congratulations! Even if you are researching some future problems before making the purchase, this article will help you answer them.
Transferring data from your old PC to your new Mac is something that has affected thousands, if not millions, worldwide. Transitioning between devices is challenging enough. When you throw in two diverse operating systems, the task becomes more complicated.
If you are familiar with using tech, gadgets, smartphones, and digital platforms, this might not be a problem for you.
However, imagine an elder relative, your father or your mother, who can use a laptop or a desktop but are not quite technically proficient. Will they have a problem? You bet they would!
- What’s new about M1-powered Macs?
- Why is Moving Data between Windows and Mac Difficult?
- NTFS Files and why they are not macOS Friendly?
- What are the options in front of users to overcome this issue?
What’s new about M1-powered Macs?
The M1 chip was made to the public by Apple on November 10 at the release event, with Macs’ first shipping with M1 chips arriving on November 17. The M1 chip is said to deliver incredible performance, custom technologies, and unprecedented power efficiency. There are many aspects worth taking a close look at; let’s check.
1. Integration
Before introducing the latest M1 chip, your Mac device needs several chips to meet your needs, including the processor, input/output, security, and memory chips. However, the M1 chip combines everything on one single chip, achieving a new integration level. It packs 16 million transistors on a single chip. It also employs advanced 5-nanometer process technology.
2. Unified Memory Architecture
M1 features a unified memory architecture (UMA). As a result, you can access different memory without copying from one to another. This saves your time and boots up the efficiency. Users can now watch videos more seamlessly (3.9x faster), process images in lighting speed (7.1x faster), and get the device’s response in a much shortened time. That means the time an app takes to respond is considerably squeezed.
3. Task achievement with the least power
The 8-core CPU, including four high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, is said to be the highest-performance CPU built so far. It performs up to 3.5 times faster than the CPU while having the least power consumption. On the one hand, the high-performance core is designed to perform a single task efficiently while having the best performance. On the other hand, the efficiency cores take charge of lighter workloads with maximized performance, allowing the performance core to handle the big ones.
4. Fastest integrated graphics for PCs
Before M1, a personal computer typically uses a separate chip to deliver good graphic performance, consuming a lot of power. However, it’s not the same for the M1 chip. The M1 chip integrates all graphics, and at the same time, it consumes little power. It owns the 8-core GPU that is said to be the most advanced graphics processor yet. With this powerful processor, the M1-powered Mac can deal with up to 25,000 threads simultaneously.
5. The most potent combination ever
Along with the M1 chip, Apple also released a new operating system, macOS 11, two days later. The new macOS is designed to take full advantage of the M1 chip. It’s also the default operating system of M1-equipped Macs. Apple announces this combination is their most powerful software ever running on its most advanced hardware yet.
6. Incredible speed of machine learning
8-core GPU, machine learning accelerators, and the latest Neural Engine. These three things bring an incredible speed of machine learning for M1-equipped Macs. It delivers up to 15 times faster machine learning performance and can handle up to 11 trillion operations per second. Amazing, right?
Why is Moving Data between Windows and Mac Difficult?
To answer this question, let us break it down into smaller sections starting with the different companies and their ideologies.
As most of us know, Microsoft is a giant in the computing, digital, and tech worlds. Apple, too, is considered one of the biggest tech giants in the world.
While Microsoft has labored hard to make its products the mainstream and ensure cross-functional compatibility, Apple has taken a different approach.
Apple emphasizes the need to ensure that consumers start using the Apple ecosystem of software and hardware. While there might be commercial reasons behind this, Apple says that this helps promote safety, security, and a better user experience. As a result, Apple only provides read-support but denies the writing function for Microsoft-designed NTFS format.
However, many traditional hard drives, flash storage, and pen drives are formatted with Microsoft’s native NTFS file systems. Manufacturers assume that given the spread and reach of Microsoft and Windows, their devices stand a better chance of being used on a Windows device. Apple supports only ‘Read’ on NTFS files.
NTFS Files and why they are not macOS Friendly?
As we have already stated in the last section, Apple is not too friendly when supporting specific types of files. NTFS was created by Microsoft way back in 1993 as a file system, which was faster, more comfortable to use, and safe than older systems like FAT.
All the external hard drives and pen drives we use are all configured to run on NTFS. This means that when you move your data from your PC to your Mac, you will be able to assess them in a minimal form.
How limited, you ask- you will only be able to read the file without having access to edit them, rename them, or make any other changes. Here comes the question, what if you want to both read and write to the NTFS-formatted drive on Mac?
Of course, you can format the drive completely to support Apple’s macOS, but you will not be able to use the same on a Windows device again if you choose a file system that Windows doesn’t support, let’s say, APFS. What’s more, formatting means all your previous data will be erased. Guess not all of you are happy to lose the data, right? To ensure convenience, the NTFS software might be a viable option since it enables your device to work seamlessly on both operating systems.
What are the options in front of users to overcome this issue?
In this section, we will list two of the most common strategies, which are adopted by users:
1. NTFS for Mac Software
A free NTFS for Mac software, or a paid one, can help you effectively use the same hard drive on both operating systems. All you need to do is find a credible brand, which creates the software and download and install it on your Mac system. A good NTFS for Mac software is easy to use and offers excellent performance. What does excellent performance mean?
- Be compatible with the M1 chip. Though Apple just released the new Mac devices not long ago, it’s not hard to speculate that these devices will go lit in the future. However, as far as we know, only a few companies in the market provide NTFS for Mac software with compatibility with the latest Mac devices.
- Support the latest macOS. Since Apple releases its new operating system, macOS11, a good NTFS for Mac product should keep pace with Apple and offer compatibility with the new macOS.
- Support seamless reading and writing functions. It would be best to perform operations on the NTFS-formatted drive as you are using a native one on Mac. That requires deep integrity with the macOS, and again, only a few software is capable of doing so.
In simpler terms, you will be able to use NTFS files and change or alter them in any way you want on your Mac device. The hard drive will work on both Windows and Mac.
2. Migration Assistant
Apple has a cool nifty feature called Migration Assistant to help users move their data and files from a PC to a Mac. This is present in the ‘Other’ folder on your Mac device. You get three options:
- Transferring data from another Mac device
- Moving Data using the Time Machine Backup
- Transferring Data from a Windows PC
However, most users have the issue that there are just too many technical bits you need to deal with. For example, you need to have the Migration Assistant on your PC, where you want to download. You will also have to use the same network and enter codes to facilitate the process.
The Bottom Line
As you can see from the two options, using a Migration Assistant is not for everyone, especially when you can get a credible NTFS for Mac software free in the market. Users should note that being too technical when it comes to data movement might be difficult, which individuals unfamiliar will not do so. This is why most users opt for the NTFS for Mac software.