Transfering from WD external hard drive??

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Hi guys, I picked up a macbook pro today and I am a convert from PC, I backed up all my files from my PC to a Western Digital external hard drive under the assumption I could then load the files straight onto the Mac......this is not the case as it seems!!

It wouldn't do an auto install from the device so i manually installed the driver, but now it is saying I need to download 'rosseta' for it to work!

I have no idea what rosseta is nor can i find it online.

Any suggestions would be greatly recieved.

Thanks

Simon
 

chscag

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First, you need to tell us exactly what it is that you're trying to transfer from your PC to the new Mac. As you probably have already figured out, Windows programs will not run on your Mac unless you install Windows using Boot Camp or VM software.

And, what format is the WD hard drive using? NTFS? FAT-32? Your MBP can read and write to FAT-32 but by default can only read from NTFS.
 
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I have no idea what format it is using it is a WD2500C032 if that helps?

There is very little in the way of documents, most of my files are Pictures and Itunes music.

On the western digital support page it says my drive is for use on Mac so I cant see it should be a problem.
 

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The drive can certainly be used for a Mac or PC but the format has to either be compatible or drivers are needed. Since you were able to copy files to the drive from your PC it has to be formatted to NTFS or FAT-32 not the Mac format. (A PC can not write to a Mac formatted drive without a special driver.)

Can you tell us what kind of errors it's giving you? Or what kind of problems you're running into when trying to transfer the files?
 
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When I first plugged it in I got nothing at all, so I tried to install the drivers from the wd site and got an error msg saying i need to install something called rosseta (no idea what that is)

I cant even see the drive let alone transfer anything.
 

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You do not need any drivers for the drive - so you can forget that part of it.

Where are you looking for it? Just on the desktop? And it doesn't appear there?

Open up a Finder window either by opening the MacIntosh HD sitting on the desktop or the icon at the far left side of the dock.

Does it appear in the sidebar there?

On the menu bar head for Finder - Preferences.
General tab - put a check next to External disks for it to show on the Desktop.
Sidebar tab - add a check ther for it to show in the sidebar.

Still can't see it?
Open up Disk Utility - found in Applications / Utilities. Does it appear there?

What Mac do you have (screen size and cpu speed)? Is this a new machine or bought used?
 
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I have a new Mac Book Pro 15" 2.2ghz

I tried the above and it is still not showing the drive, its not on the desktop or in my finder! it is as if the mac just cant see it....not sure what im doing wrong!
 

chscag

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Thanks for posting back details. Since the drive is formatted to FAT-32 it should be "seen" and accessible by both the PC and your new MBP.

(And as bobtomay stated above, WD drivers are not needed.)

Have you tried attaching the WD to another USB port on your MBP? Try a different cable? If Disk Utility fails to "see" the drive, there has to be a problem with either the drive or the way it's connected.

Is your PC still able to see the drive and access it? If it can, open a command prompt from Windows and check the drive. From RUN type in "cmd.exe" without the quotes, then "chkdsk /F E:" (or whatever drive letter it's occupying)

Let us know.
 
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Ok, so I unplugged the lot and plugged it back in again and ping...up it comes and works!!

Thanks for your help guys!!
 

bobtomay

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Ok, so I unplugged the lot and plugged it back in again and ping...up it comes and works!!

Thanks for your help guys!!

Now why didn't I think of that!!!

That's always the first thing I say to try with audio/video connections.
 

chscag

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Now why didn't I think of that!!!

And another difficult problem bites the dust. LOL!
 

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