MAC FAQ

Can a Mac run Windows and Microsoft Office?

Yes. Microsoft Office is available for the Mac, and Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files created on a Mac are fully compatible with Windows. Most other popular applications are available for the Mac, too. But if you need to use a particular Windows-only application, you have a few options: Boot Camp comes with every new Mac, and it lets you run Windows natively — as if your Mac were a PC. If you want to run Mac OS X and Windows side by side, you can purchase Parallels Desktop for Mac or VMware Fusion. Install one of these applications, along with the Windows Installation CDs, and you can run the occasional Windows program right next to your Mac applications, without having to restart.¹
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Is a Mac safe from PC viruses?

Yes. The Mac OS X operating system isn’t susceptible to the thousands of viruses plaguing Windows-based computers. And although no computer connected to the Internet is completely immune to all viruses and spyware, Mac OS X has built-in defenses designed with your safety in mind. The Mac web browser, Safari, alerts you whenever you’re downloading an application — even if it’s disguised as a picture or movie file. And Apple continually makes free security updates available for Mac owners. You can even have them download automatically.
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Will my PC devices (cameras, printers, hard drives) work with a Mac?

A Mac has hundreds of drivers for peripherals preinstalled. Just connect your device and, in most cases, you’re good to go. And a Mac is smart enough to know what to do when you plug in your digital camera: It opens iPhoto and asks if you want to import your recent photos.
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Will my keyboard and my “right-click” mouse work with a Mac?

Yes. The Mac is compatible with virtually any keyboard and multibutton mouse, even the ones you use with your PC. Just plug them into the USB ports on your Mac and start working. You can also use the Multi-Touch Magic Mouse or multibutton Apple Mouse, which comes with every iMac and Mac Pro, respectively. And the trackpad on MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air offers “right-click” capability — just press the Control key when you click.
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Can I work with my existing documents, music files,
and photos on a Mac?

Yes. A Mac can open most files from your PC, including Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), PDFs, MP3s, iTunes songs, WAV files, JPEGs, GIFs, and more.
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Can I join Windows networks?

Yes. If you have a network at home or at work, whether wired or wireless, a Mac will fit right in. You can share files with any computer on your network, browse the web, and get your work or home email.
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What about Wi-Fi?

All new Mac computers are Wi-Fi capable. Available wireless networks automatically show up. Just select the network you want to join, enter a password if necessary, and you’re connected.²
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Is a Mac reliable?

When you buy a PC, you’re buying hardware from one company and an operating system and software from other companies. Not so with a Mac. Because Apple builds both the computer and the software that comes with it, they’re literally made for each other. This means that a Mac rarely freezes or crashes. Occasionally an application might quit, but it won’t affect the rest of your system. And Mac OS X resists most viruses, so you can do anything — without worrying about losing everything.
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What software is available for the Mac?

Thousands of titles are available for the Mac. You’ll find everything from Microsoft Office and Rosetta Stone to Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Creative Suite. A huge collection of games covering every genre is available for the Mac, including top sellers such as Age of Empires III, The Sims 2, Guitar Hero III, and many more.
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How do I move my files to a Mac?

The best way to transfer your photos, music, documents, and other files is to let us do it for you. When you buy a new Mac from an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store, simply add One to One to your purchase. One to One costs just $99, and it includes Personal Setup, a year’s worth of face-to-face training, and exclusive group workshops. It’s all designed to help you get the most out of your Mac.
If you like, you can transfer your files yourself. And it doesn’t require much work. Here are two ways to do it:
Copy files from your PC to an external hard drive, connect the drive to your Mac, and move the files over.
Use a local network to move files directly from your PC to your Mac. For detailed information on moving your files to a Mac,

Will my current email service work on a Mac?

Yes. You can access your current email in two ways:
View web-based email — such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and MobileMe mail — in the Safari web browser.
Use the Mail application in Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Simply enter your email account information and you’re good to go. If you have email messages in Microsoft Outlook on your PC, you can transfer them to your Mac using inexpensive third-party software.
No matter which method you choose, you can continue using your current email address.
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Which web browsers will work on a Mac?

Every Mac includes Safari, the fastest web browser in the world. You can also use Mac versions of Firefox, Opera, and others.
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Can I instant message on a Mac?

Yes. Every Mac comes with iChat, Apple’s instant messaging application. iChat supports AIM, Google Talk, and MobileMe. In addition to text messaging, iChat allows you to video chat with friends and family around the world.³ Microsoft and Yahoo! offer Mac versions of their instant messaging applications, too.
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What kind of support can I expect?

Every Mac comes with service and support that’s consistently voted the best in the business. If you have a problem in the first year of owning your new Mac, you can take it to an Apple Retail Store to get it fixed or figured out. And if you purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan, you extend your service and support to up to three years from the date of your Mac purchase. The Apple Retail Store also offers services like ProCare, which gives you priority support, and One to One, which provides personal training on your Mac. Each service costs $99 a year.
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Is it easy to learn how to use a Mac?

Every Mac is created with the guiding principle that computers should be easy to use, so you can spend more time doing what you love and less time figuring out how your computer works. If you’ve never owned a Mac, you may need a little time to get used to it. But within a week or two, chances are you’ll get along like old friends. And because all Mac applications are designed to work in the same, intuitive way, once you learn one application — iTunes, for example — you’ll quickly pick up iPhoto, Mail, or any of the other software that comes with your Mac.

What You Need To Know About Macintosh Data Recovery

For those who have their own Mac computer, learning how to do Macintosh data recovery is essential. Everyone who owns a Apple computers
think that they no longer need to worry because hacks and viruses can no longer get to them. But that is not always true because as time passes, viruses will be created. The Mac OS X in particular seems to have many weak spots. This is how data is lost in Macs same way as data is lost in Personal Computers
(PC). The fact that Macs statistically get less viruses does not mean anything. This is because as compared to the PC, there aren’t as many Macs in use out there.
What You Need To Know About Macintosh Data Recovery

Your precious eye candy Macintosh computer is still able to be attacked by viruses and hackers and lots of important data may be lost and destroyed in the process. The Mac hard drive may even crash. Also, some simple mistakes on your part will always lead to loss of data. Then there are also those inevitable physical shocks or damage to the PC that may causes data loss.

In fact when you look inside your Mac, you might be surprised to see many familiar parts that are also being used in any PC. There are viruses that target these specific parts. If that happens, your precious computer becomes infected. There are also specific viruses that will be able to infect specific applications in any kind of OS.

To protect your computer from such kinds of attacks, you should always keep a steady lookout for anything you are downloading as well as watching out for email attachments from unknown people. You should always make sure that you have a working and regularly updated anti-virus program. Finally, always backup your files.

There isn’t much difference between the process of recovering data from a PC and a Mac. In both, FAT or NTFS files in the hard drive can be retrieved. When deleting a file unintentionally, you can do a scan for these deleted data. Free data recovery software for Mac is also available online.

There are some data recovery software that is solely for the Mac operating system X. There are also those that have no specialization and can be used anywhere. Just make sure that you get the right one for you computer and for your needs. One can always call the Macintosh customer service in order to inquire on this subject and get leads on it. The manufacturer will of course always have the best of knowledge on these matters.

You should stop using the damaged or problematic computer. Download your Mac Data recovery software somewhere else. You will want to keep that computers data storage untouched so as not to overwrite on your lost file before you can retrieve it.

courtesy: http://www.articlesbase.com/data-recovery-articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-macintosh-data-recovery-1467690.html

Troubleshooting your Mac

The main thing to keep in mind is that the Mac works in a logical way. We take a very scientific step-by-step approach to solving problems on a Mac. If you are systematic, you will be able to fix virtually any problem short of a faulty electrical component (a very rare occurrence in most Macs). Identify the symptoms We usually break this down into four categories. No power Mac won't start up: blinking question mark ?   or crashes during startup process Frequent random crashes from many programs and/or the Finder Bad behavior from one program There are lots of other, more subtle problems, or problems related to a specific piece of hardware or software, but these four are the major ones that most Mac users might face. Identify possible causes Problems almost never appear on a working Mac all by themselves. Unless your machine is brand new, your problem was probably caused by some change that you have made to your computer. Have you added any new software recently or changed anything significant in your Mac's System — Extensions or Control Panels? Any changes to your hardware — new RAM or a new SCSI device? These can cause a variety of problems from failure to boot, frequent crashes, or just failure to properly copy data. What where you doing just before the problem first occurred? Re-creating the problem can help to identify it. Putting it all together OK, given the information above, you should be able to figure out what is wrong and fix it. Keep in mind that only very rarely does a working Mac develop a problem that requires a visit to an authorized technician. Usually you can either fix it yourself, or get an expert to help you fix it — by phone, e-mail, or on the Web. Power problem This is a hardware problem. Either you can fix it in 5 minutes or your Mac will need service. But first go through these diagnostic steps: Check if there is truly no power to the computer, or if the monitor is just not turning on — test this by checking if the little green light is on for the computer and for the monitor. Some monitors show an amber light when there is no input from the computer. Check if the Mac and monitor are plugged in. Check if there if the power is working in that outlet. (test with a lamp) Check the cables to see if the monitor is properly connected to the Mac — maybe you have moved the Mac or the monitor recently If everything is plugged in and the outlet is OK, but the computer's little green light is not on, then you have a problem with the computer's power supply. If you are confident about your technical skills — unplug the computer and open up the case to find the power supply (a big metal box) and jiggle it around a bit to try to set it more firmly into place.

Stu has a machine that gets moved around a lot and occasionally needs a hard bang on the power supply to get it properly connected.

If this doesn't solve your problem, then you are probably going to need a new power supply — take the Mac to the nearest Authorized Dealer. Startup problems Crashing during startup This is a classic case of an Extensions conflict. Try restarting with all Extensions off by holding down Shift key during restart. If this solves the problem then visit our Extensions conflict clinic to take you through the complete procedure for solving this problem. If restarting with Extensions off doesn't solve the problem, then you are going to need to do a Clean System Install — visit our Clean Install clinic, we'll walk you through the complete procedure . The blinking question mark   ? This is your Mac's way of saying that it cannot find a valid System Folder. If it only blinks for half a minute and then starts up normally, then this can be fixed by going to the Startup Disk Control Panel and selecting your hard drive. Most often, this problem is caused by a corrupted disk driver on your hard disk. This can be caused by installing a System Update or messing around with disk formatting utilities (including drivers for external drives such as Zip drives, Syquests, etc.). Sometimes a disk driver gets messed up for no apparent reason. Sometimes you can fix a corrupted disk driver with the Apple HD SC Setup program — its comes with the Apple sytem installer (check your CD). To use this, you will first need to boot your Mac with something other than the system on your hard drive. Any of the following will work: a System CD-ROM, a Disk Tools floppy disk, an external hard drive, a Zip disk with a functional System installed on it (my favorite Mac fix-it tool). If your Mac stubbornly refuses to recognize an external system, then you will need to force it to ignore the System on the internal hard drive — this will take some keyboard gymnastics during the startup process. The key combination is: [Command + Option + Shift + Delete] — while also hitting the Power button on your computer! This requires at least 3 hands! It can be done by holding the [Command + Option + Shift] keys with one hand, hitting the Power button with the other, then quickly hitting the Delete key when the startup chime sounds (or take your shoes off and get some toes free for those extra buttons). Once you have the machine booted up from an external system, launch Apple HD SC Setup and hit the "Update" button. Then try to restart your machine. If this does solve the problem, you will probably need to reformat the hard drive. This means completely erasing all data (all files and all applications) on the drive. It may be possible to rescue everything off the hard drive by first booting from an external system like we just described. You can then use Apple HD SC Setup (or a third party disk driver such as the FWB Hard Disk ToolKit) to reformat your hard drive. Visit our Reformat HD clinic for details. Frequent random crashes from many programs and/or the Finder This is a classic sign of a bad System Folder — with the slight possibility of being an Extensions conflict or SCSI problem. You can narrow it down with this procedure: Disconnect all SCSI devices and Restart with Extensions off by holding the Shift key down. If the problem persists, you have a corrupt System. Rather than messing around with all of the complexities inside your System Folder looking for the ultimate source of the problem, just perform a clean System Install. Visit our Clean Install clinic for a step-by-step guide. If disconnecting the SCSI cables fixed the problem, then check out our guide to SCSI Voodoo. If turning off all Extensions corrected the problem, then you should check out our Extensions Conflict clinic. Bad behavior from one program This is almost always due to problems with Preferences. Just delete the Preferences file for that program from the Preferences folder in the System folder. Beware, certain programs store serial numbers and other key information in their preferences files — be sure that you have these numbers on hand or copy them down from the program before you delete the Preferences files. If this does not solve the problem, then you may have a corrupted program or an Extensions Conflict. Trash the offending program and all of its associated Preferences and Extensions, then reinstall the program from your master disks. If you still have a problem, look for an Extensions conflict between Extensions installed by this program and something else on your System. Check out our Extensions Conflict clinic for help on solving this problem.