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Hozie · Jan 19, 2003, 09:19 AM

Hi guys, don't really know whether this belongs in networking, but here goes:

I have a WinXP box and I'm getting a 12" PB soon and I was wondering if I could run a Firewire cable from my PC to the PB (in Target Disk Mode) in order to tranfer all my files form the PC to the Mac. As far as I understand, the only reason this won't work is that the PB's HDD is formated in a way XP won't understand, correct? Is there any way to make this work without resorting to tranfer via ethernet? (I don't want to go that way because I often have to tranfer large files and 100Mb ethernet is just too slow...)

ghporter · Jan 19, 2003, 11:10 AM

You can transfer data between PCs and Macs via firewire, but you're right that the data format won't work. There are some products on the market that make the process fairly easy, but since I haven't used any of them, I can't speak to how well they work or how successful they are.

bojangles · Jul 15, 2003, 03:25 PM

I know this won�t work with a PowerBook, but I’m going to be facing the same situation as soon as my work G5 gets here. Would it be possible to take the IDE hard drive out of my (yecch!) Dell and put it in the G5 as a second HD, then transfer everything that way? I assume the Dell’s hard drive would just show up as a PC disk, but am I missing something?

Thanks!

Scotttheking · Jul 15, 2003, 03:54 PM

Originally posted by bojangles:
I know this won�t work with a PowerBook, but I’m going to be facing the same situation as soon as my work G5 gets here. Would it be possible to take the IDE hard drive out of my (yecch!) Dell and put it in the G5 as a second HD, then transfer everything that way? I assume the Dell’s hard drive would just show up as a PC disk, but am I missing something?

Thanks!

It depends on the filesystem of the HD.

For both, I'd recommend just transferring over ethernet networking.

X-Ray · Jul 19, 2003, 02:06 AM

If you're using Win xp then the hd is formatted in NTFS which I don't believe the Mac can read. If the Dell hd is formatted in fat 32 then you're good to go.

bojangles · Jul 19, 2003, 09:16 AM

It’s Win2KSP4. I’m not at work right now, so I can’t check the filesystem, but I would assume it’s FAT32.

If I do it via Ethernet, would I need to get a specific crossover cable? I know Macs are auto-sensing, but how do Wintels handle that? (Or does it even matter, since the G5 will obviously figure it out?)

Thanks again!

ghporter · Jul 19, 2003, 11:55 AM

By default, Win2K installs using the NTFS file system, not FAT32.

X-Ray, NTFS is preferred by XP, but you can choose to use even plain old FAT if you want (but why? WHY?).

superlarry · Jul 19, 2003, 11:02 PM

1. Panther should have NTFS support :cD
2. You can use IP over Firewire if you're an Apple Developer (and you can sign up for free) - it's under the downloads section after you log in. XP has Firewire (1394) networking built-in.. Win2k may have some support for it too. The advantage here is speed (400 Mb/sec instead of 100), but the disadvantage is the cost of a firewire cable if you don't already have one, as well as the time you spend setting it up if Win2k doesn't have the required support.

MaxPower2k3 · Jul 19, 2003, 11:35 PM

Originally posted by bojangles:
I know this won�t work with a PowerBook, but I’m going to be facing the same situation as soon as my work G5 gets here. Would it be possible to take the IDE hard drive out of my (yecch!) Dell and put it in the G5 as a second HD, then transfer everything that way? I assume the Dell’s hard drive would just show up as a PC disk, but am I missing something?

Thanks!

this won't work... the new G5s have departed from IDE and now use Serial ATA for their hard drives. Dell, as far as i know, has yet to adopt this technology. Unless you have an external firewire case that can take a 3.5" drive, i'm afraid you're out of luck with that option. Perhaps spend the $30-$40 on a gigabit ethernet card for the dell so you can transfer at much higher speeds than even Firewire 800?