Help getting data to my new air via external HD

[SyncSpin]

Hello.

I just purchased my new Macbook Air 13 1.7g. I am migrating from my other computer which is a Win 7 custom PC. I need to get my data off my sata hard drive (500g worth) in the PC to an external HD that I will use on my mac.

My problem is that I was told I had to purchase a certain kind of external HD to work with the mac so I purchased a western digital that specifically said it was for MAC in the title. But, how then can I set it up on the PC first to get the data off the original machine?

I am at a loss here as I need all of this information.

Thanks for any help.

 

[res1233]

Format the drive as ExFAT. I assume this is a USB drive, right? Some "Mac" drives are firewire, but they usually have a USB port on them too.

 

[SyncSpin]

The hard drive is an external big HD not a usb drive. Like I said, I have 500g of data.

So format the external as that BEFORE putting the data on it? Then the mac can read it and so can the Winpc?

 

[res1233]

The hard drive is an external big HD not a usb drive. Like I said, I have 500g of data.

So format the external as that BEFORE putting the data on it? Then the mac can read it and so can the Winpc?

A drive is a generic term for the receptacle for persistent storage (possibly disk-based only though), and for hard drives. Anyway, yes. Format it as ExFAT and both the Mac and PC will be able to read it, before you put data on it.

 

[ZBoater]

You probably paid extra for it saying it was for Mac. For future reference any USB drive will do. That Mac label just means it was pre formatted hfs for use on a Mac, which as you found out makes it unusable on a PC (without hfs drivers, which cost money).

Reformatting the drive to exfat will make it readable by both systems. I have a 1TB WD Passport USB drive I use to carry my media around and I use exfat since most of the encoding I do on my Windows 7 PC. Seems to work pretty good.

 

[SyncSpin]

Great info thanks guys!

 

[SyncSpin]

Can anyone help some more?

I did all the above. The external is now exfat and mac sees fine. But when I attach it to the Win7 PC the hard drive shows in device manager, but under C: there is no hard drive listed.

Does the exfat thing not always work on PC?

 

[ZBoater]

Can anyone help some more?

I did all the above. The external is now exfat and mac sees fine. But when I attach it to the Win7 PC the hard drive shows in device manager, but under C: there is no hard drive listed.

Does the exfat thing not always work on PC?

It should work. When you say under C:. you mean under My Computer?

You may have to assign it a drive letter. Go to Control Panel, make sure you are viewing by icons, choose Administrative Tools, then choose Computer Management, then choose Disk Management. See if your external drive shows up there. Does it have a drive letter? If it doesn't, right click on it and select Assign Drive letter. From here on out it will do it automatically.