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How to transfer files from failing PC with XP

G

gibboIU

macrumors member
Original poster
May 18, 2008
43
0
Richmond, VA
I am thrilled to say that my new iMac came today and I am having a blast playing around on it. Now comes the fun part of transferring files from my old PC to my new mac.

The main problem is that my PC has almost died. I say almost because it still boots and runs small programs like IE, but when you do anything that takes some thinking it freezes. I have directions on how to transfer files over a network, but every time I go to make my C: shared the computer crashes.

Is it possible to use a kit to make the hard drive an external and then plug it into the mac and transfer the files that way? Or will that not work since the hard drive is formatted for windows?

Thanks for any help possible!
 
Yes. Just order a 3.5" hard drive enclosure from Amazon (or get one locally). Remove your hard drive from the XP machine, install it into the enclosure, and plug it in to the iMac. It won't freeze, because it won't be running any programs as you do the copying.
 
Oh thank god. I was dreading having to install the drives into my wife's old computer and then transferring.

Thanks. I am starting to love this board.
 
Not trying to be smart, but have you plugged it into the wall? If so, can you hear the drive spin up?
 
Yeah, definitely plugged it in. Light turns on and the drive is spinning. I have also tried all the jumper settings. Started with it as a primary and then a slave. Nothing seems to be working.
 
Make sure it is correctly installed (the power and data cables are firmly seated, and any drive jumpers are set per the enclosure's instructions, as some require cable select and not master or vice versa), and that the lights come on and the drive spins up when you turn it on.

If the lights come on and you hear the drive spin up and move the heads (some clicking or ticking noises), you should be able to plug it into the Mac.

It will show up on the desktop. Windows formatting makes no difference, as OS X can read both FAT32 and NTFS drives. If it is not showing up on the desktop, check Disk Utility to see if the drive is detected at all. If it does not show up there, check System Information to see if the USB device is detected. Report back with your findings and we can go from there.
 
I am stumped. The power is on, light is on, drive is spinning, have tried all possible jumper settings (primary, slave, primary w/ slave, etc), and have the drive plugged into usb port on back. But it still doesn't show in disk utility or on desktop.

I have even tried the other hard drive from my computer. Nothing.
 
gibboIU said:
And yes, the USB is detected. In fact the printer works from all the different USB ports.
Click to expand...
Not your USB bus. System Profiler should report a USB mass storage device if it is connected.

If the other drive also fails to show up, chances are you got a lemon enclosure. You might have to go exchange it--have you tried plugging it into another computer?
 
It doesn't show anything on the mac. However, I plugged it into my laptop with XP and at first nothing happened. I waited about five minutes and nothing happened.

Here is where it gets weird. As soon as I hit shutdown to turn off my laptop, I got the little indicator saying "mass storage device detected". Unfortunately, it shut down before I could do anything. But when I start up again, it still doesn't show.

I am about to throw this thing out the window.
 
gibboIU said:
It doesn't show anything on the mac. However, I plugged it into my laptop with XP and at first nothing happened. I waited about five minutes and nothing happened.

Here is where it gets weird. As soon as I hit shutdown to turn off my laptop, I got the little indicator saying "mass storage device detected". Unfortunately, it shut down before I could do anything. But when I start up again, it still doesn't show.

I am about to throw this thing out the window.
Click to expand...

Maybe it is just slow to report its connection status. Have you tried leaving it connected to the Mac for 15-20 minutes? Cheap enclosures sometimes have this problem.
 
Ok, well I just found the drive under USB in device manager. But it says "No drivers are installed for this device." Then shortly after it goes back to "Currently this hardware device is not connected to the computer. (Code 45)"

And back and forth over and over. So I am guessing that I just have a lemon?
 
I'm doing the same thing. I bought a cheap-o $10 2.5" enclosure off of the web and am scanning, diagnosing, and backing up a drive from an XP laptop using my Mac. I was even able to use Drive Genius to make an image file of the entire drive before I began.
 
Well, the first hard drive was a success. But the second one is recognized but I get the error:
"Disk Insertion
THe disk you inserted was not readable by this computer."
I then am sent to disk utility and repair isn't an option. I hit verify, and then am told that the "volume failed: Unrecognized Filesystem."

Not even Disk Warrior 4.0 can even recognize the disk after multiple attempts of switching cords and usb ports. Any suggestions?
 
Sorry for not giving specifics. The second drive was a slave drive on my old machine. It is just movies, music, and other media. No encryption or proprietary software. Just your standard second drive in a windows tower PC. I am going to try and hook it up to my windows laptop and see if I can access the files that way.
 
gibboIU said:
Sorry for not giving specifics. The second drive was a slave drive on my old machine. It is just movies, music, and other media. No encryption or proprietary software. Just your standard second drive in a windows tower PC. I am going to try and hook it up to my windows laptop and see if I can access the files that way.
Click to expand...
Make sure you move the jumpers back to Master or Cable Select before installing it in the enclosure. If it's still set as slave, the controller will not be able to access it.
 
Yeah, it is set to master. Not exactly sure what cable select is, but I have tried all the different jumper settings.
 
Looks like this drive is on its way out.

Can you hook up the external drive to a working Windows computer, and run CHKDSK on it to see what it says?

Windows will read NTFS filesystems, but not write or repair them. There is a third party tool to allow Macs to read and write NTFS, but I would only trust it on healthy NTFS drives, and not to repair damaged ones.
 
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