Switcher question....

J

Jones!

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Hi guys....

Well on my current PC laptop, all of my files etc are stored on an external Western Digital Hard Drive, which itself is compatible with Macs also.

Is it possible to simply unplug it from my laptop and plug it in to my shiney new Mac and transfer the files across or will it have to be reformatted when it is plugged into my Mac??

Therefore, if reformatting is the case, whats the best way to transfer files from my pc to mac without having to buy software. If both my computers are on a network, can I do it this way and will the files work?

Files are office files (I will have MS Office for Mac) and also holiday pictures etc.

Cheers people,

Jones! :D
 
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i would plug it in and try it. it should ask you before it formats. i dont think it will want to format it. if it asks you then unplug it.
 
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Is this USB 2.0 or Firewire? If so, you should just be able to plug it in to the Mac. I've done this myself with my external drives (I have two enclosures and three drives). I did have a problem where one very large directory wasn't seen by the Mac. The name of the directory was netscape so I don't think that the name was a problem but the directory contained well over a GB of files.

I just created a new directory and copied the files that I needed to that directory and the Mac saw it when I plugged it back in.

I suppose that you could do it using an FTP client as well. But I have all of my machines firewalled off on the home network (don't want any Windows viruses to jump from one machine to another).
 
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J

Jones!

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Cheers guys, will give it a go and see what happens.

The drive is firewire for data transfer. Will let you know what happens.

Jones! :D
 
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Tel

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I've just tried my old external hard drive but it isn't even recognising it. Any idea why not?
 
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Tel

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Ignor that last post, its just started working, I think its because the hard drive is old and cheap!
 
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xthisisRomancex

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Ok if the external drive is formated in FAT32 then it will work. on the opposite f the drive is formatted to NTFS then it wont work.
if it is formated in NTFS then take all of your files from your external harddrive and then back them up some where ( on your PC or dvd disk or somewhere) and then format your external drive and thenput the files back on there and then it will be compatible with the mac and the PC
 
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Tel

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My external HD is NTFS and its working fine, I am using Tiger though, maybe it wont work with an older OS
 
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it's not external, but when I plugged in my older 80 gig main I used on my old PC, the mac read it just fine and I could see every file and folder (let me recover some old stuff! :) )
 
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it must have worked.
 
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Jones! said:
Hi guys....

Well on my current PC laptop, all of my files etc are stored on an external Western Digital Hard Drive, which itself is compatible with Macs also.

Is it possible to simply unplug it from my laptop and plug it in to my shiney new Mac and transfer the files across or will it have to be reformatted when it is plugged into my Mac??

Therefore, if reformatting is the case, whats the best way to transfer files from my pc to mac without having to buy software. If both my computers are on a network, can I do it this way and will the files work?

Files are office files (I will have MS Office for Mac) and also holiday pictures etc.

Cheers people,

Jones! :D


What I have heard is that Mac will recognize an NTFS volume, but for read access only. So you should be able to copy files off onto your mac (or onto CDs or whatever) and then reformat to FAT32, which both computers should recognize.

Let me know how you get on, I'll be trying this soon when my new computer comes in the mail!
 
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Tel said:
My external HD is NTFS and its working fine, I am using Tiger though, maybe it wont work with an older OS

Actually, OSX can read NTFS but can't write to it. If you are just transfering files to the mac this obviously wouldn't be a big deal.
 
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J

Jones!

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Thanks guys.....my Mac hasnt arrived yet, should be arriving tomorrow or the next day....or the next day.....or the next day.....

Anyway, will let you know how I get on but it sounds like it should work a treat.

Cheers,

Jones! :D
 
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djmitch

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I plugged my Lacie 80GB USB 2.0 drive into my Mini yesterday and transferred files without a problem, and they were originally on my Windows 98 Hewlett Packard. As an earlier post advised, "I would plug it in and try it", then ask for advice if it doesn't work.
 

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