I want to run a windows HD on my mbp to retrieve data..

[Trance]

I had a windows desktop and spilled water into the fan which killed the motherboard.
I would like to take the hard drive (500gb western digital (SATA) currently running windows 7) and somehow load it up on my macbook pro to retrieve music and photos Is there anyway I could do this without having to replace my windows desktop?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You could get an S-ATA dock/enclosure and put your 3.5" S-ATA HDD into it and then connect it via USB to your Mac and then normally be able to read the data, if the HDD is not kaputt.

 

[Trance]

You could get an S-ATA dock/enclosure and put your 3.5" S-ATA HDD into it and then connect it via USB to your Mac and then normally be able to read the data, if the HDD is not kaputt.

mac os x will read the HD even though it's running windows 7?
will it load up as windows or in files like a external?

 

[LiesForTheLiars]

mac os x will read the HD even though it's running windows 7?
will it load up as windows or in files like a external?

Macs can read Windows NTFS, it just can't write to it without a third-party driver such as this -> http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/33122/tuxera-ntfs

It's not going to load up like Windows, you put the hard drive in an enclosure and it'll mount to the desktop like any other external drive. From there you'll be able to copy your needed files.

 

[Trance]

Macs can read Windows NTFS, it just can't write to it without a third-party driver such as this -> http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/33122/tuxera-ntfs

It's not going to load up like Windows, you put the hard drive in an enclosure and it'll mount to the desktop like any other external drive. From there you'll be able to copy your needed files.

one last question, could I delete files from the hard drive like pictures, programs.etc?

 

[rocknblogger]

You may get a permission error when trying to delete. But if you copy the files you need you should be able to reformat it as an HTFS+ drive and just continue using it as an external storage drive or even for time machine backups.

 

[balamw]

one last question, could I delete files from the hard drive like pictures, programs.etc?

Without additional software Mac OS X can only read from NTFS drives. You could delete files by mounting the disk under a Windows VM (you can use Virtualbox or a trial of Parallels/VMWare Fusion and a trial using a free official ISO of Windows 7 if you don't have one).

Of you can install an NTFS driver that enables wire access like NTFS-3G or Paragon.

B