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tkmd · Dec 21, 2005, 11:03 AM

I have about 12 GB of pictures I want to transfer to my gf computer which is running XP. I was wondering if there is a way to do this quickly. I don't have a DVD burner so that option is out and using SAMBA would be brutally slow considering the amount of data. I have the pics backed up on an external drive (it has a USB 2 port ) but is XP going to recognize the external drive since I think its formatted in hsf? Any suggestions ?

CaptainHaddock · Dec 21, 2005, 11:15 AM

Letting the files take a day to transfer over a network is probably your best bet, even though it would be a pain.

A more creative approach would be to make a Linux boot disk (say, Knoppix or Ubuntu), boot into a Linux desktop, and then transfer the files from the external drive to the PC, since Linux does support HFS. However, your Windows drive would have to be FAT32 and not NTFS, since Linux support for NTFS is read-only.

CaptainHaddock · Dec 21, 2005, 11:16 AM

The marvellous forum software duplicated my post for me.

burnsey · Dec 21, 2005, 08:24 PM

if you have an ipod with enough space, i'd enable disk mode on it, throw the pictures on it, and then throw them on her pc. in all likely hood you haven't reformatted the ipod to HFS, and I believe most of them are formatted fat32 from apple. i could be mistaken though, it wouldn't be the first time (or the last).

CaptainHaddock · Dec 21, 2005, 10:19 PM

I was under the impression that iPods are HFS by default but reformatted to FAT32 by iTunes if you set them up on a PC.

Wiskedjak · Dec 21, 2005, 10:40 PM

bah ... Samba is not totally slow for this kinda application. Network the two together and control the transaction from the Windows box. Windows has an easier time seeing the Mac than the Mac has seeing Windows. At most, it should only take an hour to transfer (probably alot less), not a whole day.

robby818 · Dec 21, 2005, 11:11 PM

Networking a mac and a windows xp pc in order to share files. Lots of ways ot do it, but the way I do it is:
1. connect both computers to a router (handles ip address assignments and makes networking a lot easier)

2. on the windows xp machine run the "network configuration wizard" it will make the necessary settings so that you can see the windows machine on the mac. your windows machine will cerate a default netork of MSHOME- just use that name. reboot both machines.

3. on the mac click on "network" and you should see MSHOME and inside of that folder you'll see the windows xp machine and you will then be allowed to mount the my documents folder on the mac. (10.4.4 really improved the reliabilty of seeing windows machines on the network)

CaptainHaddock · Dec 22, 2005, 02:52 AM

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak

At most, it should only take an hour to transfer (probably alot less), not a whole day.

I'll admit a day is an exaggeration, but based on experience, it would take 3 hours for me to copy 12 GB over my 802.11g network. A good, hardwired 100 Mb/sec network might be faster, and an 802.11b network would be slower. Plus, a single network error can cancel the operation and you'll have to start over, trying to figure out what's been copied and what hasn't.

bernt · Dec 22, 2005, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by CaptainHaddock

I was under the impression that iPods are HFS by default but reformatted to FAT32 by iTunes if you set them up on a PC.

You are right up until the iPod nano/video. Now, the iPods are formatted as FAT32, and reformatted by iTunes upon first use on the mac. Understandable move since the majority of iPods sold are used with wintels.

walkerjs · Dec 23, 2005, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by CaptainHaddock

I'll admit a day is an exaggeration, but based on experience, it would take 3 hours for me to copy 12 GB over my 802.11g network. A good, hardwired 100 Mb/sec network might be faster, and an 802.11b network would be slower. Plus, a single network error can cancel the operation and you'll have to start over, trying to figure out what's been copied and what hasn't.

I recently transferred about that amount of data over my samba shares with the goal of backing up the data onto a DVD hooked up to my windows laptop. Granted, this was a Linux -> Windows transfer since Tiger seems to have a problem getting to shares with the ancient version of samba on the old linux box, but the times are about right. My network is 10mbit wired (nothing special) and I transferred the files over in 4 gig chunks with each transfer taking about 45 minutes. On the last few folders I got the aforementioned network/permissions error which aborted the transfer about 2.5 gig through a 4 gig transfer.

The solution to that was to zip (or in my case tar) the offending files/folders up to transfer just the one big file. A network error could have still aborted the transfer, but with one file you eliminate permission issues and it's either all or nothing. The Mac can then un(archive)zip the files and the .zip can be trashed.

A Windows -> Mac transfer over the network would be similarly simple.

Cadaver · Dec 23, 2005, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by CaptainHaddock

Letting the files take a day to transfer over a network is probably your best bet, even though it would be a pain.

Or about 1 hr over gigabit ethernet. I actually just sent 5.6GB from my Mac to my PC over a switched gigabit network in about 20-25 minutes.