Switching to Mac, questions about moving files

[lifeboy001]

I am about to switch over to mac, but I am a little worried about my files: can anybody answer these few questions:

I have all of my video/music on an external hard drive. Will I need to reformat that drive to view/copy files on my new mac? How about if I want to put more files from the mac on the disk? I am currently running XP and the drive is NTFS.

Other question, will I be able to save all of my iTunes information (playcount, ratings, etc.) when I put my music on that machine?

Thanks in advance

 

[shadowguy]

While I dont have a mac just yet, I have been told that Mac OS is capable of recognizing NTFS, FAT32, and many other file systems. So yes you can get your files from the external drive.

 

[slu]

Question 1: Yes

Question 2: I don't know. You should be able to import your iTunes Library and Playlists, but I don't care about ratings and play counts, so I am not sure if those get imported.

 

[mduser63]

The answer to the first question is not quite a straight yes. You'll have no trouble copying your files onto the Mac from the external drive, as Mac OS X can read NTFS drives. However, write support is limited, so if you want to put files from the Mac onto the external drive, it'd be best to reformat it as an HFS+ (Mac format) or FAT32 (for Windows compatibility) both of which OS X fully supports.

As for your question about iTunes, the answer is yes.

 

[mkrishnan]

Wait, this thread just reminded me...none of the 10.3.9 docs said anything about NTFS write support. Didn't everyone say it was supposed to include it? Does it? I don't think I've got an NTFS disk handy to check.

 

[mad jew]

Wait, this thread just reminded me...none of the 10.3.9 docs said anything about NTFS write support. Didn't everyone say it was supposed to include it? Does it? I don't think I've got an NTFS disk handy to check.

I'm pretty sure that was just a misinterpretation of the combo updater. Someting like 10.3.3 gave us better access to NTFS or something (sorry 'bout being vague, but I can't remember exactly) and someone saw it and then the rumour mill started rolling and before we knew it there were claims that 10.3.9 would include write capabilities. It'd be great, but I'm almost positive it was just a misinterpretation.

 

[baummer]

If you have an existing external drive, and it's connected to a Windows machine via USB, you can easily share this drive with the Mac. This is what I've done with my old PC now that I have my mini. My PC is basically a server now. Make sure your external drive is mapped to a drive letter. Then, all you have to do is share that drive, and checkmark the box that allows users to read/write. Then go to the Mac, make sure Windows Sharing is enabled, as well as SMB, and then use the IP address of the PC followed by a trailing slash (SMB://iphere/Driveletterhere) to connect via SMB. Mind you it won't be the fastest solution in the world, but it will maintain readability between both platforms. Just make sure if you ever need to reboot the PC, drag the icon to the trash (on the Mac) to disconnect so as to avoid error messages.

I'm sure some of this doesn't make sense, I can clarify if you have any questions.