Transfer files from PC to MacBook Pro

[seven7seven]

I have a basic PC with XP and I am getting a MBP 13" tomorrow.
I have an external hard drive... Can I just put the stuff onto it (only like 40gb) and then transfer it to the Mac easily?
Or is it complicated...?
I don't care about being able to use it back and forth regularly. I just want a one time transfer.

Thanks!

 

[-tWv-]

I have a basic PC with XP and I am getting a MBP 13" tomorrow.
I have an external hard drive... Can I just put the stuff onto it (only like 40gb) and then transfer it to the Mac easily?
Or is it complicated...?
I don't care about being able to use it back and forth regularly. I just want a one time transfer.

Thanks!

No it is not complicated. Make sure the external drive is formatted in NTFS before you put the files onto it though, If you make it FAT32 you can't copy files over 4GB. The file system just can't handle it for some reason. If you only want a one time transfer then it is very simple. Just manually drag the files over to where you want them to go on your new mac.

 

[i.shaun]

If it's formatted as FAT32, then there is no problem, but it can only hold single files that are no greater than 4GB in size. Groups of files totaling more than 4GB is alright, as long as no individual file exceeds 4GB.


If it is formatted NTFS, you will need some programs called MacFUSE & NTFS 3G installed on your mac to allow it to write to an NTFS volume.



Of course you can still READ from it without the third party support, so copying files from it to the mac shouldn't be a problem, you just can't edit, or change anything without the MacFUSE/NTFS 3G



In windows, right click, and select "Properties" to check the file system.

 

[-tWv-]

Here is the link to the ntfs-3g driver. This automatically installs macfuse as well. I use this to write to my bootcamp partition directly so I don't have to hassle with putting files on a usb and then booting into windows and copying them.