Accessing data from Windows XP on external hard drive

Joined
Jun 4, 2013
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Backed up all documents from PC running XP Home Edition to external hard drive before throwing machine out the WINDOW (pun intended). Plugged external hard drive into iMac running OS 10.6.8 fully updated and APPLE computer wants to "format" the hard drive which would erase all data. Files are MS Word, MS Excel and Outlook. Is there a work around to save my files for access on the iMac?

Ta
Jim
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Is there a work around to save my files for access on the iMac?

It sounds like the external hard drive with your Office files has been formatted to NTFS. However, even if it is formatted to NTFS, your Mac should be able to read the drive and allow you to copy the Office files. Having said that, it may be that the drive is having problems. Do you still have your Windows machine? If you do, attach the external, and run repair on it. You do that from a command prompt by typing in "chkdsk \f d:" (or whatever drive letter the external has been assigned)
 
M

MacInWin

Guest
By "backed up" do you mean you used some application in WIndows to back them up, or did you just copy them to the drive? If you used some software to back up the files, you'll need to somehow get that software to extract them. If, however, all you did was copy, then all you have to do is connect the drive, then when it wants to format it for OSX say no (I don't have any NTFS drives, so I can't tell you exactly what the command for "no" is, but it should be there somewhere) and the drive will mount as read-only. You can then copy the files from the drive to your internal drive, or to a Mac-formatted external drive and use them as you want. If you want to keep the external drive formatted for Windows (NTFS) then you need a third party product to get OSX to read AND write to NTFS. Most of us here recommend Paragon NTFS for that purpose.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
:) Happens to me all the time. But your reply was needed anyway because it added additional information that I did not in my post. Good show.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top