Transfer Time Machine backed up folders to external HD for transfer to a PC?

Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
mini
My daughter's MacBook was stolen; her replacement machine is a Windows8 laptop; we have her external HD with TimeMachine(TM) backups on it -- How do we get the pictures, music, and documents (about 50 GB?) from the TM backup disk to an external Hard drive that we can share/connect to the Windows laptop? -- I have access to a Mac Mini, but it only has about 4 GB of free space on its hard drive -- we have purchased a 1 TB Western Digital(WD) My Passport drive as her new "PC backup" drive, and wish to use it as the transfer mechanism -- The Mac Mini (OS X version 10.6.8) sees WD drive and the TM drive -- I've tried Migration assistant, but when I select all of the files that I want to transfer, I get a negative number in "Remaining Space" and therefore no option to "Continue" 00 any thoughts/help is appreciated.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
7,163
Reaction score
275
Points
83
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
You should be able to open the the TM backup in the Time Machine app. From there you'll be able to navigate the folder structure and drag files out of the TM backup onto your MacMini/new external drive.

Just as an aside the MacMini will run poorly with only 4gb of free space
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,595
Reaction score
1,071
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
Before you can transfer files onto the new drive that will be used with her Windows 8 Machine you'll need to install do the following:

1. Format the new drive that will be used with the PC as NTFS. This can be done on the PC if necessary.
2. Install software on the Mini that lets it write to NTFS drives. I recommend Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X software
3. Connect the new drive to the Mini and copy files from the Time Machine backup to the external drive.

You could format the drive as FAT 32 and avoid the software purchase but that has a limitation. No single file can be larger than 4 GB.
 

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