Mac files downloaded on a PC first...

[AppleWorking]

Hello,

If I download and burn mac applications on a pc CD with win2k will a new MBP be able to read the disk and use the application installers without a hitch? From what I remember, don’t PC’s add an extra bit or something that corrupts the file somewhat? I also have an old Mac with OS9 on it, should I just download the apps on there and burn them with it instead? I need to make sure I have these apps available the day the MBP arrives, so I wanted to know the best way to go about it. All I have is an old Pismo with OS9, and an old pc with win2k.

Thanks for your help.

 

[mkrishnan]

Burning them on a CD-ROM (CD's are burnt in an ISO standard -- at least, nowadays they are -- so that modern Mac and PC CDs don't differ) should be fine. I'd avoid including the OS 9 Pismo in the process.

You should also be able to just keep them on the Windows computer and access them over the network, but certainly you can burn them to a CD.

The issue isn't "corruption" of bits, certainly not with things like DMG image files or ZIP files. The issue that you sometimes run into is file permissions -- the file must be executable in OS X using the POSIX execution permission. I think if you're on an NTFS system it should be fine automatically, and if you put it on a FAT or CD volume, it should also be fine automatically....

 

[AppleWorking]

Thank you very much for your help.

I also have a another question... I have a lot of work files on a blue and white mac running OS 8.5 that I want to transfer to a new MBP. The blue and white does not have wireless. What would be the best way to transfer these files over to the new MBP? Should I burn all of it on a CD? The file names are quite long and I would prefer to preserve the names instead of shorten them. I think the computer has an old version of retrospect on it, should I burn them as mac files and folders? Or should I try to see if the old mac can burn all of the files in the ISO format?

 

[Consultant]

Use external harddrive or thumbdrive to transfer is probably easier than burning, if you cannot figure out how to network them.

 

[mkrishnan]

With respect to the Blue & White, you can do that, or you can use a thumb USB drive as mentioned, or else you can just plug an ethernet cable between the two Macs and they will establish an ad-hoc network (does the B&W run OS X? It definitely should if it does, if it runs OS 9 I'm less sure) and then you should be able to open the B&W from the MBP and copy files over.

 

[AppleWorking]

With respect to the Blue & White, you can do that, or you can use a thumb USB drive as mentioned, or else you can just plug an ethernet cable between the two Macs and they will establish an ad-hoc network (does the B&W run OS X? It definitely should if it does, if it runs OS 9 I'm less sure) and then you should be able to open the B&W from the MBP and copy files over.

The B&W is very old and only has 8.5 on it. I'm almost afraid to use a thumb drive on it thinking it might have a fit and lock up. LOL Will a thumb drive even work on a machine this old, and with an OS that is ancient by today's standards? What format does the thumb drive have to be in to make this work? Also I have no idea how to network them with an ethernet cable. All I do know is that a lot of the extensions have been turned off in the B&W. If I hook up the cable between the two will they automatically see each other? Do I have to change any ethernet settings on the B&W and on the MBP to make this happen.

Thanks again for your help.