Move iMovie library to new drive with PC

[UNCMo96]

tl;dr I have my iMovie library on an external drive formatted in exfat. It's rather large (700gb). If use a Windows PC and copy the library folder (it shows up as a folder in windows) to a new external drive also formatted in exfat will I be able to access it on my MacBook running Big Sur with the latest version of iMovie.


A bit of a comedy of errors here. I have have a relatively new external drive that I am using for my media files where I keep my iMovie library. Something got screwed up where I can't mount the drive although I see it on disk utility. I think I disconnected it prematurely. I panicked since this is my only copy of those files at the moment. (I use backblaze but I switched to a new computer and ended the plan on the old one and started backing up the new HD). I tried a few things from reading online to mount the drive but so far have been unsuccessful. (new cable, different port, different usb c adapter, even a different mac, also tried some terminal commands to force a mount) I can access the files on PC. Before I keep tinkering I'm copying the drive to an extra external drive I have lying around. I wanted to see if worst case I can use the other drive?

Thanks!

 

[chscag]

Big Sur can read/write to exFat, so you should be okay there. However, a word of caution if you value your movies... Format exFat is a non journaling file system and prone to errors and bad sectors. You would be wise to copy those movies to either HFS+ or even APFS as both of those file systems are safer. Even NTFS is better but really not for use with a Mac.

 

[UNCMo96]

Big Sur can read/write to exFat, so you should be okay there. However, a word of caution if you value your movies... Format exFat is a non journaling file system and prone to errors and bad sectors. You would be wise to copy those movies to either HFS+ or even APFS as both of those file systems are safer. Even NTFS is better but really not for use with a Mac.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. Do you think copying my iMovie library via windows will corrupt it. Worst case the movies are still there and my exported movie projects are saved elsewhere. I wish it allowed reference files like my photo software.

 

[chscag]

I wouldn't attempt to copy them via Windows unless you plan on copying them to an NTFS drive. You could certainly do it by copying them to exFat again, but that can be a problem if you run into corruption or bad sectors. I just do not trust exFat for things like movies, videos, and valuable photos.