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Rzfan · Dec 27, 2005, 12:20 PM

My wife surprised with a new G5 Power Mac for Xmas for my home studio. However, while I was able to load all the software, I have a lot of stuff on a Maxtor 300 GB ext hard drive. I can simply copy data onto cd and then upload to Mac, however, there is a lot of stuff. A couple of questions (and sorry if this is wrong forum, would love to be directed to the right one):

1)Is it possible to hook drive to MAC and have it recognize the files? Is there a conversion program or something? Mostly pics and Pro Tools Session files.

2)If not, the tech rep at Apple said I could access it across my home network, but did not knwo how to do that?

3)Once I have everything off, I am assuming I can reformat the drive to be compatible with MAC. I just hate to go buy another drive.

Once again, thanks in advance for any help.

Rzfan

demibob · Dec 27, 2005, 12:38 PM

when i moved from windows to mac i transfered all my video, music, picture and word files wirelesly via my ibooks airport extreme without any problems at all
im not sure whats not working for you

harrisjamieh · Dec 27, 2005, 12:45 PM

Your Maxtor ext HD will be fully recognised by your powermac, just like in windows (so long as the drive isnt formatted in NFTS (i think)). This means you can just access your HD right from your mac, so you can drag and drop stuff etc etc.

Pictures will be instantly viewable on your mac, but your Pro Tools Session files will not be able to be opened on your mac unless the program is made for mac, in which case you will have to buy it.

Rzfan · Dec 27, 2005, 01:26 PM

Do you have any idea how I check for the NFTS???I plugged it in and it recognizes it as plugged in, but then does not recognize the files themselves?

chefpastry · Dec 27, 2005, 01:39 PM

Your Mac can read NTFS and read/write FAT32. Once it's plugged in to the Mac, you should not have any problems.

Yes, once you're done copying everything, you can reformat the drive for use with your Mac.

Big Mac · Dec 27, 2005, 01:42 PM

Macs can read and write to FAT formatted PC disks, and they can read but not write to NTFS formatted disks. So yes, you should have no issue connecting your external drive to your Mac and at least reading the drive to transfer its contents. You can get more information from this article.

seanc · Dec 27, 2005, 01:42 PM

NTFS can be read on a Mac - accessed and files copied from it but it cannot be written to.

I don't know what Pro Tools is so can't help you there but you'll need to purchase that program for the Mac if it is made or else just keep your pc around for that and maybe gaming too.

Yes you can format your drive to HFS (Apple standard format).

Have fun,

Sean

MichiganRich · Dec 27, 2005, 02:17 PM

What a laughable collection of misinformation and half-truths this forum has devolved into...

Big Mac · Dec 27, 2005, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by MichiganRich

What a laughable collection of misinformation and half-truths this forum has devolved into...

Uh huh. Care to expound on that thought?

seanc · Dec 27, 2005, 03:07 PM

I agree, if someone is wrong then you could at least correct them. No need to be nasty.

mduell · Dec 27, 2005, 04:46 PM

Originally Posted by seanc

Yes you can format your drive to HFS (Apple standard format).

FAT32 is a better choice if he wants to be able to use the drive with OSX, Windows, and Linux boxes.

G5man · Dec 27, 2005, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by Rzfan

1)Is it possible to hook drive to MAC and have it recognize the files? Is there a conversion program or something? Mostly pics and Pro Tools Session files.

2)If not, the tech rep at Apple said I could access it across my home network, but did not knwo how to do that?

3)Once I have everything off, I am assuming I can reformat the drive to be compatible with MAC. I just hate to go buy another drive.

Once again, thanks in advance for any help.

Rzfan

1) It is possible to hook the drive to the MAC. There is no need to convert pictures. What format are the pictures in?
2) Yes you can access your home network, however you have to access computers separetly, here is where you can find out how.
3) The drive you can reformat the drive, it is already compatable with the Mac, I was able to use my external drive from my XP machine and get files off it and onto my Mac.

I hope this answers all your questions

seanc · Dec 27, 2005, 06:07 PM

My answer about the format of the drive was as if he was Mac only.
If he were to use a pc as well then FAT 32 would be a wiser choice.

booboo · 04:59 AM

If your external hard drive is USB or FireWire, just plug it into your Mac and copy everything over. All files will be readable, but obviously you'll need Mac versions (or equivalents) of your Windows 'programs' (or 'applications' as we call them on the Mac . . . )

Your Pro Tools sessions will be directly readable by the Mac version of ProTools. (Free cross-grade?)

After your done - you can reformat the drive to HFS+ but do this only when you've verified all your data is transferred.

Edit:

P.S. Nice wife!

chefpastry · Dec 28, 2005, 07:24 AM

Originally Posted by MichiganRich

What a laughable collection of misinformation and half-truths this forum has devolved into...

What an ass-et.