11-11-2011, 04:26 PM

Hi guys!

First time posting here in macforums but has been lurking in the site for awhile now. So i just need help with my new iMac that i bought yesterday; so before my iMac i owned a PC for about 3 years or so and had a lot of data and files there. Long story short, my PC finally ate the dust a couple of days ago but thankfully i have made a backup for it.

Now here's the problem, i left the backup inside my 1TB seagate external hard drive and whenever i use migration assistant it doesn't recognize my hard drive . I have a lot of useful programs there and I've come to the agreement that even if i do recover them i won't be able to use them because i own a mac now.

What i really need to recover though are my files such as resume, cover letter, university documents, and ESPECIALLY my iPhone's songs! i have about 6GB worth of songs i love and now idk how to recover them

Any input is welcome, thank you for your time and effort.

11-11-2011, 04:59 PM

OS X can read any Windows format (won't write to NTFS - but that's not required here).

Location of iTunes music (from Apple help page):
Windows XP: CDocuments and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\
Windows Vista: CUsers\username\Music\iTunes\

If you can't find/see the hard drive, you need to give us more detail on what you've done - how is the drive connected, can you see it in Disk Utility, etc.

11-11-2011, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by gsahli

OS X can read any Windows format (won't write to NTFS - but that's not required here).

Location of iTunes music (from Apple help page):
Windows XP: CDocuments and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\
Windows Vista: CUsers\username\Music\iTunes\

If you can't find/see the hard drive, you need to give us more detail on what you've done - how is the drive connected, can you see it in Disk Utility, etc.

thank you very much for your reply. Well truth is, my windows have been getting a lot of BSoDs for the past month or so, and its gone o a point where it would get about 6-15 BSoDs per day. So i knew that the day would come where my PC would just die. So i started to backup my PC every monday so when i buy a desktop, i can retrieve my documents.

My ext. hard drive is a 1TB seagate and my iMac reads it, and recognizes all the files that it contains. Now, going back to the backups, the way my PC formatted the backup i guess are through zip files. and when i run migration assistant to recover my documents located in the external hard drive, thats when my iMac can not read the backup files my PC made

11-11-2011, 09:46 PM

I'm suggesting you don't use migration assistant for the windows files.

11-11-2011, 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by gsahli

I'm suggesting you don't use migration assistant for the windows files.

ok, what would you suggest I use to retrieve (not all, only the important ones) the data i got?

When my PC made this backup, it made it all into zip formats and theres well over 300 of them. Going through one by one just to find the data i need would be a very big pain and complete waste of time.

Is there any way for me to retrieve the files i need? Maybe i can convert the backup files my pc made into a mac and then use migration assistant , bc then it would recognize my files and what not

11-11-2011, 10:35 PM

As far as I'm aware, Migration Assistant is purely for transferring files from one computer to another as it uses the bootable file structure(if that's the right phrase). You can use it to transfer files from a bootable clone on an external drive, but I'm pretty sure that it can't transfer files from just an ordinary external drive.

I think that you are going to to be doing it manually.

11-11-2011, 10:52 PM

Originally Posted by MightyGem

As far as I'm aware, Migration Assistant is purely for transferring files from one computer to another as it uses the bootable file structure(if that's the right phrase). You can use it to transfer files from a bootable clone on an external drive, but I'm pretty sure that it can't transfer files from just an ordinary external drive.

I think that you are going to to be doing it manually.

If i'm going to do it manually, would there be any app for macs to preview the zip file? or maybe i can do a keyword search within the external hard drive (thats where the backup is right now) that way i can pin point the exact zip file?

11-11-2011, 10:55 PM

HAHA!!!

FOUND EM!!!!

That's exactly what I did, went to the back up folder and did a key ]word search of the file s I'm looking for!

Problem Solved!!

Thanks for all your help guys!!