New Mac user (want to access external hard drive)

[downingp]

I finally talked my grandpa into making the switch to Apple. He just went out and bought a brand new 24" iMac.
My grandpa has an external hard drive he used with his windows machine. He has all of his documents stored on the external drive. When I plugged in the external drive, the iMac didn't recognize it? Did it not recognize it because it is in a different file format? How can I get the iMac to recognize the drive?

thanks.

[angelwatt]

Any external HD hooked up with firewire or USB should work fine. Maybe try a different port.

[GimmeSlack12]

The old drive is likely an NTSF format. This cannot be read by Mac, well, it should be readable, but not writeable. Possibly connect the External drive to a PC and transfer the files via FTP on your local network. You know how to do that?

[downingp]

The old drive is likely an NTSF format. This cannot be read by Mac, well, it should be readable, but not writeable. Possibly connect the External drive to a PC and transfer the files via FTP on your local network. You know how to do that?

I had to leave and return to my home in Arizona so I am not with him currently to help him out.
I was able to keep his network intact with his windows machine (i.e. see his documents from his external drive through the wireless network). However, I can't see his documents or external drive on the mac computer.
Any help?

[sbluetruck]

if the format of the external isn't FAT32 or HFS the iMac is gonna have trouble with those "windows specific" formats.