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repurposing ntfs harddrives for mac use! please help
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forumhound
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May 17, 2008, 02:29 AM
 
Hi, I am dismantling the last PC in our shop that has two hardrives with data i would like to keep and use in the mac world. one is 200gig and the other 300, both are over 60% full and formated for ntfs. So what to do? I have enclosures and macformatted drives free to play with, but not sure how I can get all the ntfs data off and onto them efficiently. A lot of the files are hugo video and audio ones, and we have a wired and wireless network to play with as well. Where do I start? thanks so much!

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seanc
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May 17, 2008, 09:43 AM
 
Well if you're going to be using them exclusively with Macs, pull the data off of them (Macs can read NTFS by default) to a HDD (or 2 to be safe (backup)) then format them to HFS and put the data back on.
If you want to use them with both Macs and PCs (read&write) then keep them as NTFS and leave the drives the way they are but install NTFS-3G or MacFuse so that you can write them. There are many tutorials around to help, you may need a bit of jiggery pokery to get it working. Like the tutorials say, always backup your data because NTFS-3G isn't necessarily trouble free.
     
forumhound  (op)
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May 17, 2008, 12:18 PM
 
Thanks Sean for that really clear answer. I am leaning towards option 1 but i gotta find that much free space to do the backup...our machines have TFS-3G and MacFuse installed but no one has used nor understands them. So I guess something like CCC would work to transfer the data? thx...
FD

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ghporter
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May 17, 2008, 01:21 PM
 
I think CCC would maintain the drive format along with the data... I'd just open the drive with Finder, and copy the files you want to a Mac-formatted drive. It'll take time, but it'll get your files moved.

You're talking about roughly 120GB and 180GB on those two drives, which equates to roughly 300GB. You could find a home for the 180GB on the larger drive, then reformat it. Now you can just move the 180gig back onto the 300GB drive, then move the 120 gig from the other one onto that. This takes longer, but it only requires the space for the 180gig you have on the larger drive.

You'll probably also find a lot of small files and various redundant files that you won't want to keep, so I expect you'll wind up with less than the 300 gig you are thinking of at the moment.

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forumhound  (op)
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May 17, 2008, 10:56 PM
 
glen, will do and report back. thx. again for the tips!!

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CharlesS
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May 17, 2008, 11:44 PM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
I think CCC would maintain the drive format along with the data
Last I checked, CCC was just a wrapper around the ditto command. So it'd definitely be copying the files, not the format.

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forumhound  (op)
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May 18, 2008, 02:47 AM
 
Well I am going to try CCC, as finder will not copy a file larger then 4gig or so: external drive mounted as NTFS-3G -> copy to -> external drive mounted as Journed HFS+ just hangs between 3.9 and 4.3 gig. Arg....hangs so bad u gotta BRS the poor thing...

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mduell
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May 18, 2008, 02:53 AM
 
dd will copy the entire volume instead of just files.
     
forumhound  (op)
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May 18, 2008, 04:21 AM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
dd will copy the entire volume instead of just files.
not sure what dd is, but CCC is going to take 4.6 hours to copy a single 111gb file with setup described.

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ghporter
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May 18, 2008, 09:15 AM
 
Originally Posted by CharlesS View Post
Last I checked, CCC was just a wrapper around the ditto command. So it'd definitely be copying the files, not the format.
I was just focused on the cloning aspect-I haven't played with CCC much, and have only really used it to clone a drive, so that's all I was thinking of. I hadn't considered its other capabilities, nor how it did its thing. Thanks for the info.

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forumhound  (op)
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May 18, 2008, 09:21 AM
 
this is turning out to be quite a chore. CCC dies somewhere in the middle of the cloning, and finder dies too. I am trying to transfer large amounts of data from one ntfs drive to an hfs one and its crazy! if a clone or copy dies, i have no way of knowing what was copied and what was not and have to start all over. using a tool like compare folders is useless, cause it dies too while trying to generate the compare tables, or takes hours to complete a compare, then i have to hand sift thru it all. there has to be a better way!!! thx.

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CharlesS
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May 18, 2008, 11:00 AM
 
Try Disk Utility's Restore tab, but make sure you don't check the "Erase Destination" check box, because that may cause it to do a block copy, which will clone the NTFS format over as well. If "Erase Destination" is off, it'll do a file copy.

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naphtali
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May 18, 2008, 12:12 PM
 
Originally Posted by forumhound View Post
this is turning out to be quite a chore. CCC dies somewhere in the middle of the cloning, and finder dies too. I am trying to transfer large amounts of data from one ntfs drive to an hfs one and its crazy! if a clone or copy dies, i have no way of knowing what was copied and what was not and have to start all over. using a tool like compare folders is useless, cause it dies too while trying to generate the compare tables, or takes hours to complete a compare, then i have to hand sift thru it all. there has to be a better way!!! thx.
Could it be that something's corrupted on the source drive that's tripping the copy? I certainly hope not though.

Been wondering about the OP's second question too - is there a utility that will compare file contents across different drives? Sort of a checksum thing?
     
CharlesS
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May 18, 2008, 12:39 PM
 
Originally Posted by naphtali View Post
Been wondering about the OP's second question too - is there a utility that will compare file contents across different drives? Sort of a checksum thing?
That would be possible, but it would probably take a very long time to complete.

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seanc
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May 18, 2008, 12:40 PM
 
Originally Posted by forumhound View Post
this is turning out to be quite a chore. CCC dies somewhere in the middle of the cloning, and finder dies too. I am trying to transfer large amounts of data from one ntfs drive to an hfs one and its crazy! if a clone or copy dies, i have no way of knowing what was copied and what was not and have to start all over. using a tool like compare folders is useless, cause it dies too while trying to generate the compare tables, or takes hours to complete a compare, then i have to hand sift thru it all. there has to be a better way!!! thx.
Check the SMART status of the drive that you're copying the data from, if it's OK, stick it back in a Windows machine and run a chkdsk. That should fix any corrupted parts of the drive that can't be read and you should be on your way.
     
peeb
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May 18, 2008, 01:35 PM
 
Originally Posted by forumhound View Post
as finder will not copy a file larger then 4gig or so:
is this normal?
     
seanc
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May 18, 2008, 03:24 PM
 
Originally Posted by peeb View Post
is this normal?
As far as I'm concerned, no. I move DVD and HDD images around all the time using Finder and have no problems unless the hard drive is to blame.
     
forumhound  (op)
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May 18, 2008, 09:10 PM
 
Originally Posted by seanc View Post
As far as I'm concerned, no. I move DVD and HDD images around all the time using Finder and have no problems unless the hard drive is to blame.

Hi all, problem solved using updated Carbon Copy CLone Beta. Here is the deal, I have never been able to reliably move large amounts of data around using finder in Leopard, but I am talking about mixes of Directories and Folders containing tiny files up to 120gig image files - All at Once! No idea why, problems occur on all our machines which have a mix of harddrive configs (internal, external, and now NAS). But the most reliable way come to learn from this last hardrive swapping is that CCC works great with files, and with the new beta, works when you try and copy NTFS-3G mounted drives to HFS+ ones.

Cheers!
FH

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forumhound  (op)
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May 18, 2008, 10:06 PM
 
Originally Posted by CharlesS View Post
Try Disk Utility's Restore tab, but make sure you don't check the "Erase Destination" check box, because that may cause it to do a block copy, which will clone the NTFS format over as well. If "Erase Destination" is off, it'll do a file copy.
Charles, I just saw this interesting tidbit, not that I need it now, hope never to see another ntfs drive as long as i live, but just in case, is this a suggestion to change the format of the drive without moving or disturbing the files? ie. insert ntfs drive in enclosure, attach, and do as described above? that would have saved a lot of time if I understand ur suggestion! thx.
FH

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forumhound  (op)
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May 18, 2008, 10:10 PM
 
Originally Posted by CharlesS View Post
Last I checked, CCC was just a wrapper around the ditto command. So it'd definitely be copying the files, not the format.
As i understand CCC from the nice Bombich folks, since 3+ CCC uses ASR, & Rsync as well depending on the clone mode selected, for example it does do block copy if you want it too. I'm impressed. Cheers!

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CharlesS
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May 19, 2008, 12:17 AM
 
Originally Posted by forumhound View Post
Charles, I just saw this interesting tidbit, not that I need it now, hope never to see another ntfs drive as long as i live, but just in case, is this a suggestion to change the format of the drive without moving or disturbing the files? ie. insert ntfs drive in enclosure, attach, and do as described above? that would have saved a lot of time if I understand ur suggestion! thx.
FH
No, it's just another way to copy files à la CCC. The thing about Disk Utility is that it's made by Apple, which means it'll probably be trustworthy, and already installed on your system, which makes it convenient.

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