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star555

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 17, 2008
127
0
Cambodia - Thailand
Still Learning - Ive been given a fairly new SeaGate FreeAgent 320 GB USB external HDD thats been used on a friends PC , its using NTFS , there's about 35GB of files and photos on this unit my friend would like me to back up for him , ( his PC has just passed away ) and he will be getting a new PC in a few months and a new larger external HDD . what's the best way to copy and remove from this HDD the 35GB of items, so I can then pass the copy onto my friend in the future, after the files have been removed I then want to use this external HDD with my new iMac. Many Thanks
 
Well, you can do a few things really. What I would do is install NTFS-3G on your Mac, so it can read and write to an NTFS volume. Copy the data to your mac (but leave it on the external still), use the drive until he gets his new computer, then have him copy it back over.

Or, if he will be getting another external drive, copy the data off (no need for NTFS-3G if you are just reading), format the external... use it. when he gets his new drive format it as FAT32, copy the data over.
 
Thanks for the ideas, sorry I forgot to say that my friend sent this external HDD in the post to me , and he's now moved far away , so may be I wont get to see him for a long time ..? Thanks
 
I would copy the informations as is to the mac. Then reformat the drive to HFS+ to use with the mac and copy the informations back on the external drive, as a backup. Should one of the two drive fail you will have a copy.

Best thing would be to make two partitions when you format the external drive: one big enough to host the files of your friend and another one to use as you wish, for added security.
 
Thanks , for the comments, my problem is that as my friend has moved to another county to work and may be there for some considerable time before returning to see me, I was wondering if there was some way to get the files / photo's copy to him ...?

Thanks
 
Thanks for the replys, well it looks as if the DVD route is the only way I can really go, as I only have a dial up internet connection ( un less some one knows better ..? ) 9 DVD's does sound a lot :( ,
 
Ive just spotted this ... QuickShareIt

Drop multiple files onto the dock, and we’ll zip them for you. Now you can share last nights photos with your friend even faster!

I was thinking that the zip would make a difference to my dial up internet connection ..? , but I have just tried to download this application , and there seems to be a problem from the server ..

http://app.quickshareit.com/


Oh well back to the DVD's :(
 
Well ive just tried again to download QuickShareIt , and this has popped on screen ..
 

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The warning box appeared on screen although the download was only 11 minuets long which is not correct for the size of the application ..?

:(

The image got corrupted. Try downloading it again. I tried and the image is working fine for me.
 
Ive tried to download QuickShareit many times now using both Firefox and Safari , but still getting the same pop up warning box, any one have an idea why ?, :( Thanks
 
Hi , The download starts OK, but within 10 Minuets it all ways stops and I keep getting the pop up message, Ive tried to download other applications to day and they all download OK.? , ive looked for other places to download this application from but can't find any more.:(
 
I'm not sure how that service will help, you'll still have to upload the files over your dialup and that will be dreadfully slow, plus they limit you to 100mb at a time, so that will take around 350 separate uploads and downloads. If the files you're sending are mostly pics, movies or music then they probably won't even compress well with zip.

9 DVDs will only cost around 5 bucks and you can just drop them in a media envelope to mail them.
 
Zip it up thats the best that you can do or make a dmg on your desktop and keep it there. that will save up some room but your hard drive will be eaten up
 
Thanks for the advice , well it looks like its going to be the copy to DVD route , so as this is my first ever Apple Mac and as ive never made a copy DVD before could some one please point me in the right direction to may be a How To Guide .

Thanks
 
Well Ive got my new set of 10 DVD's and I have just tried this ..

Burning a CD or DVD .... The Finder can burn files to a CD or DVD



1. Insert a blank disc into the optical drive of your computer.

If you see a dialog, you can choose an action from the pop-up menu and select "Make this action the default" if you want the same thing to happen every time you insert a blank disc.

The disc appears on your desktop.

2. Double-click the disc to open it, and drag the files and folders you want on it to its window.

The Finder places aliases to the files in the disc's window. The original files are not moved or deleted.

3. Arrange and rename the files exactly as you want them.

When burning the disc, the Finder gives the items on the disc the same names and locations as the aliases in the disc window. After the disc is burned, you cannot change them.

4. Choose File > Burn Disc, and follow the instructions.

The files that the aliases point to are burned to the disc. In addition, if any folder you copied contains aliases, the original files for those aliases are burned to the disc as well.

I was hoping that I could just keep feeding in a new DVD each time until all the info was completely transferd from my external HDD to the set of DVD's,
but when I inserted the first blank DVD , I got this warning box on screen , Is there any way I could set up some thing so when the first DVD is full I get a warning on screen to tell me to eject the full DVD and insert a new blank DVD, until all the information is completly transfered to the set of blank DVD's ? , I do not know just how many files to remove that would fit on one DVD, so the above would help
 

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