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JBen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 18, 2007
14
0
I turned opened my Macbook Pro this morning to a dark screen. Unfortunately, my Macbook has one of the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT cards. I tried using an external monitor to no avail. I realize I should have backed up, but I didn't. My question is, what is the easiest way to transfer a few Word documents from my Macbook to an XP machine? All of the PCs I have lack a firewire port. I've also turned off file sharing in my System Preferences so grabbing them through my network is out. I've never transferred anything from a Mac to a PC before, so I'm not sure how to do this. Any help would be appreciated!
 
Take out the hard drive, hook it up to an open SATA port inside your PC, buy MacDrive for Windows (so that it can even READ your hard drive) and copy files like that. Then put your hard drive back and take it in to Apple.

There MUST be an easier way than this. Someone with more knowledge care to simplify?
 
Take out the hard drive, hook it up to an open SATA port inside your PC, buy MacDrive for Windows (so that it can even READ your hard drive) and copy files like that. Then put your hard drive back and take it in to Apple.

There MUST be an easier way than this. Someone with more knowledge care to simplify?

Although I am out of my warranty, I am leery of opening up the case. I'd rather use that as a last resort.


so it works, except for the screen?
Yes, the laptop works, I just can't see anything.
 
Use target disk mode. You need a firewire cable to connect your Mac to whatever it is you're connecting it to. Keep the Mac turned off until you're all hooked up. You can use HFS explorer (free) or macdrive (free trial) to read the target disk.

Connect the mac and the other machine via firewire. Turn on the mac and immediately hold down the T key until... well you're supposed to see a firewire icon. Hold down the T key until you don't feel like it needs to be held down any more. You should not hear the sound that dings when you boot into OSX. Windows should notice that you connected a drive, if you have macdrive installed anyway. If you have HFS explorer, you need to mount the drive manually with it. There's an autodetect button, use that.

You should have full view of all your files on your mac. You can't do anything but copy files with HFS explorer, so if you need to delete things, use macdrive. You should eject the mac before turning it off, but I don't know how to do that on windows.

Good luck.
 
I'm sure you could copy your files to another drive just by key presses, be quite a complicated one to do though!

I remember doing this about 10 years ago with a PC i messed up the graphics on :D
 
Use target disk mode. You need a firewire cable to connect your Mac to whatever it is you're connecting it to. Keep the Mac turned off until you're all hooked up. You can use HFS explorer (free) or macdrive (free trial) to read the target disk.

Connect the mac and the other machine via firewire. Turn on the mac and immediately hold down the T key until... well you're supposed to see a firewire icon. Hold down the T key until you don't feel like it needs to be held down any more. You should not hear the sound that dings when you boot into OSX. Windows should notice that you connected a drive, if you have macdrive installed anyway. If you have HFS explorer, you need to mount the drive manually with it. There's an autodetect button, use that.

You should have full view of all your files on your mac. You can't do anything but copy files with HFS explorer, so if you need to delete things, use macdrive. You should eject the mac before turning it off, but I don't know how to do that on windows.

Good luck.

None of my PCs have a firewire port.
 
None of my PCs have a firewire port.

Then find a friend. Its the only way you have to go if you don't want to open the case.

Or you could trust Applecare to take care of your stuff, and wait it out.
 
From switching on

Shift + Command + A will open Applications
Right arrow
'T' to bring up first item with 'T'
Up arrow to get last item with 'S' - hopefully System Prefs
Command + 'O' to open
Type 'sharing' - this will select it
Down arrow
Enter
Shift x2
Down arrow x2 to file sharing

Arrgh, how do I check a box????
 
From switching on

Shift + Command + A will open Applications
Right arrow
'T' to bring up first item with 'T'
Up arrow to get last item with 'S' - hopefully System Prefs
Command + 'O' to open
Type 'sharing' - this will select it
Down arrow
Enter
Shift x2
Down arrow x2 to file sharing
Command + Fn (if Function keys are not enabled) + F5 - voice over now on
Tab
Space

File sharing is now on :)
 
In fact if you switch voice over on at the beginning it will talk you through it all.

Once in Sys Prefs and down arrow x2 to get to sharing, press tab to select check box, then space to turn it on.
 
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