How to move data from PC formatted External HD to my new HFS+ formatted External driv

[desmotesta]

Hello all,

I have 385 GB of home video and pictures on a Windows formatted 500 GB external HD.

I have moved on to a MBP for the last year and have recently bought a 3 TB HFS+ formatted external HD hoping to use it as my new backup.

the problem is, I cant seem to find a way to move all of my old files from the Windows formatted external drive onto the HFS+ formatted drive, I seem to only be able to "read" data from windows external drive but NOT move/delete any files.

Is there a way to do what I am looking to do or am I pretty much screwed?

 

[MacUser2525]

Hello all,

I have 385 GB of home video and pictures on a Windows formatted 500 GB external HD.

I have moved on to a MBP for the last year and have recently bought a 3 TB HFS+ formatted external HD hoping to use it as my new backup.

the problem is, I cant seem to find a way to move all of my old files from the Windows formatted external drive onto the HFS+ formatted drive, I seem to only be able to "read" data from windows external drive but NOT move/delete any files.

Is there a way to do what I am looking to do or am I pretty much screwed?

Well then just copy the files if you can read them then you can copy no need to move/delete. As an added bonus once you get all the files copied over fire up Disk Utility re-partition GUID the old drive and format it HFS+ and you have new additional external storage for your Mac.

 

[teleromeo]

Copy or clone everything with superduper and reformat the drive when you're done.
If you want to write to that disk you'll need extra software.

 

[desmotesta]

Copy or clone everything with superduper and reformat the drive when you're done.
If you want to write to that disk you'll need extra software.

Just to confirm that I understand what you are saying...

"Superduper" will let me read/copy/clone a non HFS/Mac external drive onto a mac/HFS+ formatted external drive? (both connected to my MBP)

 

[g4cube]

Just to confirm that I understand what you are saying...

"Superduper" will let me read/copy/clone a non HFS/Mac external drive onto a mac/HFS+ formatted external drive? (both connected to my MBP)

OS X has the ability to mount and read your PC formatted drive. Most likely it is formatted as NTFS.

OS X cannot write to your PC drive unless you install a special third party driver.

However after you successfully copy your files to your new Mac drive, you can use Apple Disk Utility to repartition and reformat the drive for your Mac.

You can use drag-and-drop in Finder to copy the files and folders to your new driver, or SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, to name a few other apps.

 

[hologram]

The easiest way is to get NTFS for Mac. Install it on your Mac and you can read/write to Windows disks as if they were Mac disks.

The latest version even supports Mavericks.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Don't bother with backups or clones or reformatting with Disk Utility, just give your Mac the ability to read and write to Windows. It's easy!

 

[hallux]

As others have said, there is no need to write to the drive. All you need to do is copy the files. No extra software is needed to read and copy the files, Finder will do the job fine though SuperDuper may automate it a little better.