Possible to put my time machine backups onto a pc?

[tomtucker]

I searched online and didn't get a good answer to my question. I have a 2008 Macbook Pro that recently stopped booting up for me. I try to turn it on and it makes a sound like its going to turn on then makes a whimper and shuts off. I tried it with a new battery since the old one was starting to crap out but that didn't help. I am going to make a Genius Bar appointment and let them take a look at it. If its a goner or if the repairs are too expensive, I might look to buy a cheap pc laptop. Ideally, I would like to purchase a new Macbook Pro but they are out of my price range and I can get a cheap pc laptop for around $300. I had been regularly backing up my macbook pro onto an external harddrive with time capsule. Would I be able to transfer any of that information (word documents, music, pictures etc.) onto a pc? Or would it not be compatible with Windows 8.1?

 

[tomtucker]

bump

Anyone?

 

[niteflyr]

Migration assistant will transfer from PC to mac, but I don't think it works the other way. Check the windows forums.

 

[drambuie]

A PC won't be able to directly read the Time Machine backup. If you have access to a Mac, you could copy the files from the TM backup drive to a FAT32 formatted USB flash drive for use on a PC. If you have your Windows laptop, you could also use a LAN or WiFi connection from the Mac to the PC. The file types you mention would be compatible with Windows.

The PC wouldn't be able to read transferred iWork files, but Pages and Numbers can export to Word and Excel formats. Photos and video could be copied in JPG and MOV formats.