I need to move my data off my NTFS external HD to new hfs+

Picked up a Macbook this afternoon along with a 1tb external drive. I need to move about 500 gb off my NTFS WD World Book onto this drive so I can format it HFS+ to use it as my backups backup.

Is this as simple as drag and drop or do I need an application to do this.

Thanks,

Dean

PS. Soooooo happy to be here, finally!! I am also very exited to be able to dedicate my old PC to Linux!

If the new 1TB drive is formatted to NTFS or FAT32, you should be able to use your PC to drag and drop from the 500 GB drive to the new one. Once all the data from the 500 GB has been moved, you can then use the Mac to format it to HFS+.

Another way to put that is that the Mac can READ any PC drive format, so you can move files FROM the drive to the Mac. To WRITE files to the PC formatted drive, it is best to reformat the drive to the Mac's format.

chscag said:

If the new 1TB drive is formatted to NTFS or FAT32, you should be able to use your PC to drag and drop from the 500 GB drive to the new one. Once all the data from the 500 GB has been moved, you can then use the Mac to format it to HFS+.

Click to expand...

But can I use the Mac to do this? I don't trust the PC to get it done. It's rather flakey which is why I bought the Mac.

The problem with doing it with your Mac is that all the files will be dragged over and locked. NTFS files are read only from the Mac. Use your PC to drag and drop the files as I stated above. Or, use Paragon NTFS ($19.95) from Paragon Software as that will render the files both read and write.

chscag said:

The problem with doing it with your Mac is that all the files will be dragged over and locked. NTFS files are read only from the Mac. Use your PC to drag and drop the files as I stated above. Or, use Paragon NTFS ($19.95) from Paragon Software as that will render the files both read and write.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

The laptop will periodically shut down for no reason and occasionally not boot up.

My PC isn't recognizing the Mac formatted hard drive. Not recognizing peripherals is a common issue with this.

I am going to shut down and re-boot. If she will let me.

Solved!

Solved!!!!

I used the Mac to move everything over. I ended up moving a single text file to the HFS+ drive, changing it, then re-saving it to that drive. All was well!

Now I need to figure out how to keep my iTunes folder on the Mac but the music and videos on the external drive. But that is for another post.

Thanks to everyone who replied!

D