Windows HDD to Mac, will it read??

I bought Detto Move2Mac to transfer files and had nothing but trouble. The program didn't work right, so I reinstalled it only to find that the program is only good for a one-time transfer and I couldn't activate it again!! What a joke. Called support and they said there's nothing they could do and I cwould have to buy another license for $19.99 Yeah right!

I tried networking the two together, which I've done many times with others Windows computers, but I couldn't get the networking to go on the Mac side.

Since I have a secondary internal (slave) drive, could I just load the files I want into that, buy an enclosure and connect it to my Mac to transfer?? Or is there a formatting issue that would keep me.

It depends on how the drive is formatted. OS X Tiger and Read and Write to FAT16 and FAT32, regardless. It can Read from NTFS, so long as there is no encryption on the drive and no security limitations on the accounts. Make sure all the files you want to copy are in shared folders just in case, not in 'my documents' etc.

Pretty sure I formatted NTFS. I just formatted the entire disk and copied files and folers over that I want to transfer.

I suppose buying an enclosure won't be a loss either way since I plan to get one and a cheap internal HDD for backup/media storage.

I had trouble seeing windoze shared folders/drives until someone pointed this out to me:

Go to finder, go, connect to server. Put in smb://the.ip.of.the windoze machine and then you'll get to pick the shared resource.

I don't know why you have to connect, then put smb:// before the ip address, its something no-one would know - the only stupid bit about macs I've found so far.


good luck

i missed some stuff out. first you need to go to system prefs, sharing and switch on personal file sharing and windows sharing.

As simple and easy as the mac is mostly, networking is a bit different to the pc way.

oh, and switch on yer firewall - it's off as standard

a1laserboy said:

I had trouble seeing windoze shared folders/drives until someone pointed this out to me:

Go to finder, go, connect to server. Put in smb://the.ip.of.the windoze machine and then you'll get to pick the shared resource.

I don't know why you have to connect, then put smb:// before the ip address, its something no-one would know - the only stupid bit about macs I've found so far.


good luck

Click to expand...

No point in buying transfer software when you can just connect the two devices via ethernet. It's simply the fastest way to do it. Unless you really need an external hard drive, just save yourself the money and do what a1laserboy said.

This is assuming you know the IP address of your PC. If not, then go to Control Panel, Network Connections, Right click on Local Area Connection, select Status, and then click on the tab at the top that says Support and you'll have your IP address.

Sorry if you already know this, I just wanted to save you the trouble/time of asking in case you didn't :headphone

I don't want to buy anything, but I've tried everything else. Ethernet is by far fastest and free, but cannot get my Mac to connect to my PC no matter what I do. I've set up sharing and my PC as a home network, got the IP, went to my Mac, tried to connect by typing in SMB://"every different way people say" and get nothing. I've networked my PC to other PC's many times, so there must be something wrongo n the Mac side.

Since I bought my Mac, I haven't used the Ethernet at all before this, so maybe there's a hardware malfunction on the Mac.

Are you using a router at all? Or just a cross-over cable?

If you're using a router, you have to make sure both computers are in the same workgroup or else it could give you troubles trying to see the other computers (in my experience with XP/OS X sharing)

On your Mac, go to Applications > Utilities > Directory Access

Once that's open, the bottom option is SMB/CIFS, double click it to change the setting.. This is where you set your workgroup, by default on Windows, it's MSHOME. If you've changed the name of your workgroup, do that here and quit Directory Access

Also, make sure your Windows PC is in the same workgroup as well.

Right-click "My Computer" > Properties > Computer Name tab > click "Change.." and enter the same workgroup name (again default to MSHOME).

Once these are set, you can open up a Finder window, click Network on the left side panel, and it might take a few seconds to show up, but you should see your Windows PC.

No router, just the 2 computers and cable.

fleurya said:

Pretty sure I formatted NTFS. I just formatted the entire disk and copied files and folers over that I want to transfer.

I suppose buying an enclosure won't be a loss either way since I plan to get one and a cheap internal HDD for backup/media storage.

Click to expand...

you formatted ntfs and were able to write to the drive from a mac?
afaik that shouldn't be possible.

Did you try everything punkr0x0r suggested? He is on the right track. Also be sure in the sharing tab in OSX Networking that both personal file sharing and Windows Sharing is checked. BE SURE both systems are in the same workgroup.

Yep, followed to the letter:

Set up network on PC
Transfered all files to shared folder
Got the IP address from CMD-IPconfig
Went to Mac sharing and checked everything to share on the Mac
Went to finder, Go, Connect to server
Typed in smb://IPaddress
and nothing came up

Even used bariations for IP like:
smb://IP/computername
smb://IP/workgroupname
smb://workgroupname/computername
smb://computername/workgroupname
and any other combination I could think of.

I'm getting very worried my ethernet card on my Mac is DOA since I haven't tried using it for anything else yet.

Can you connect to the Internet via ethernet on your Mac? If so, it's working and doing its job.

Also, you don't have to put everything in the Shared folder on your PC. Just right-click your desired "shared" drive > Properties > Sharing Tab > make sure that it is selected to be allowed to share the drive, and also if you want to make it so other users can write as well as read from the drive.

I'd suggest getting a cheap router, it makes file sharing so much easier.

fleurya said:

I'm getting very worried my ethernet card on my Mac is DOA since I haven't tried using it for anything else yet.

Click to expand...

Is the Windows Firewall turned on on the XP machine? Have you been able to network any other systems with your PC in the past?

It's working !!!!

Well, after a lot of frustration I finally decided to try eliminating variables. I tooks my Mac to a friend who has a PC and tried networking them and it worked! Which made me both happy and mad.

I came home and ripped my PC open to find the plug for the ethernet card on the mobo was loose, which is why it wasn't working. Since I moved recently and don't have ethernet right now, it must have jerked loose in the move and I didn't know since I haven't used it since. The strange part is I was getting the indicator lights on the ethernet like it was working!!

Anyway, thnks to everyone for trying to help me out. Hopfully this will be my last roublesome moment with my PC!