HiDef Video files stuck on PC based external HD

[pen2paper]

Does anyone know the easiest way to transfer Sony Vegas video files from a PC based (Windows 7) external drive onto a Mac's hard drive? The drive was setup only in the PC format.

I had archived over 20 hours of HiDef miniDV tapes on the drive. I don't want to have to do that to my aging camera again, import from miniDV tapes. I don't have that pc anymore so I can't import and convert.

Do I have to buy Parallels (and Windows) and drag/drop into OS X?

I'm planning on editing on the mac with Premier. So I think once the Vegas files are on the Mac I can use a converter program to get into something premier will recognize if necessary.

Thanks for any help and I can clarify if needed.

 

[tmroper]

Have you tried just plugging the drive into your Mac? That should work (Macs can read Windows formatted drives, but not vice versa).

 

[pen2paper]

Have you tried just plugging the drive into your Mac? That should work (Macs can read Windows formatted drives, but not vice versa).

No, but that's b/c I've been playing with my new mac. Lion is awesome and I've just been too distracted by all the eye-candy; great stuff. I should have switched before archiving my videos.
But yes, that's an obvious thing to do on my part.

I guess I was also trying to see if anyone had ideas on what programs can read Sony Vegas video files. Anyone?

 

[cgbier]

Your clips should be readable by Premiere - your projects aren't.

 

[mutantteenager]

The two formats your drive could be are FAT 32 (read and write on a mac, though individual file size limit is 4GB) and NTFS (read only on mac, no limit to file size). If you need to read a mac drive on a PC use Mac Drive, which is awesome - I use it regularly and it works flawlessly.

When using Vegas you could have taken your files in using a standard file format (HDV, etc, so you should have no problem picking them up in Premier, but as cgbier said, your project files won't be readable. If you have an edit in progress, export an EDL from Vegas, and import that into Premier. That should put you back in business.