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transfer files to HD so they can be read in Windows 7..

N

nuno1959

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 19, 2009
56
1
Hi guys

i recently finished transferring, writing, encoding, editing & whatnot a whole bunch of movies my Dad & Uncles made when my cousins & i were kids at family gatherings, etc....
that plus A WHOLE BUNCH of childhood photos totals 2TB + & a few cousins asked me to make copies for them. problem is i seem to be the only Mac user in the family & they all have Windows systems...

now if i understand correctly i could format the drives ( most likely WD My Books w/ USB3 or something.. ) in FAT32 but that won't allow me to copy the whole drive's content in one go, am i correct ? FAT32 only allowing 4GB blocks at a time or something ?....

does anyone have any idea how i could do this so it doesn't take AGES - pretty much like using Carbon Copy Cloner or something ?

or even if i could use indeed CCC ( THAT would be ACE !!.. ) & they would have to install some software on their Windows systems that would allow them to access the data on their drives written by my iMac

any help would be greatly appreciated, i HAVE looked around but was unsuccessful at finding anything really...

regards to all

Nuno
 
FAT32 or exFAT would be your best choice.
And FAT32 can only have files not larger than 4 GB, but you can copy dozens of files onto a FAT32 formatted volume, even if the dozens of files take up more than 4 GB of storage capacity.


____________________________________________________________

Overview of the four major file systems (called "Formats" in Mac OS X) used on Windows and Mac OS X, compiled by GGJstudios. You can use Disk Utility to format any HDD to your liking.

Any external hard drive will work with PCs or Macs, as long as the connectors are there (Firewire, USB, etc.) It doesn't matter how the drive is formatted out of the box, since you can re-format any way you like. Formatting can be done with the Mac OS X Disk Utility, found in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Here are your formatting options:

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)

NTFS (Windows NT File System)
  • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
  • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
    [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
    • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion)
    • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
    • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
    • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36).
    • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
  • You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.

exFAT (FAT64)
  • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
  • Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
  • exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
  • Maximum file size: 16 EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
  • You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
    [*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
  • You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
____________________________________________________________
​
 
Hi S

& thanks for your input ! however as i read your post i could feel my eyes starting to melt away & my brain trying to jump out of my ears ;-)

so.....since i'm NOT that technically minded, i think i will try formatting the drive in exFat & use CCC to copy the contents of mine to the new one

if that works, FINE !...everyone will be happy

if not then i'll simply format the new drive(s) in Mac OS journaled, use CCC to create perfect copies & ....let my cousins install MacDrive & deal with it
i mean, it's not like i'm trying to back out of it or anything but compiling all this stuff took me ages & tons of effort, i'm more than happy to make copies for them but REALLY don't want to deal with installing software & learning this, that & the other or going through anything too complicated - let THEM do that :-b

next family gathering, they can gang up on me & kick my a** if they want to, i promise i won't run or fight back !!....LOL....

many thanks
 
You always....

can use a NTFS driver or software for your Mac and format the drives to that.No 4 GB limit and pretty stable. One caveat: You have to find out and try what solution works for you, if you want 100% free functionality.....:(


:):apple:
 
hi Phoenixsan

& thanks but...no thanks !!....LOL...i'll let THEM figure out who, what, where, how they need to do it to read the copies i'll make

i'm too old & too stupid to learn new tricks !! ;-)

cheers
 
What they other uses are saying is....you CAN use Fat32

The only situation which you cannot use Fat32 is when you have a SINGLE file that exceeds 4GB, for example a movie file. If your home movies and photos do not exceed that limit, Fat32 will work for you, just drag and drop!
 
the drive has got to be a 3TB since i have more than 2TB worth of files...doesn't that exclude Fat32 ?
 
dont see any benefit to using CCC, just drag and drop.

personally i always have a drive attached to my mac formatted as exFAT. this means i can copy anything onto it and it can be accessed by mac and bootcamp.

however if nothing over 4 gigs for a single file, fat32 will be fine too. only benefit i can see to fat32 over exFAT mind you is if you are going to plug the drive into a console or anything else non computery.

----------
phoenixsan said:
can use a NTFS driver or software for your Mac and format the drives to that.No 4 GB limit and pretty stable. One caveat: You have to find out and try what solution works for you, if you want 100% free functionality.....:(


:):apple:
Click to expand...

personally i had huge problems with both tuxera and paragon. admittedly this is probably 18 months ago so maybe they have improved or maybe i was really unlucky.

cant remember which way round i tried them but the first one i had a weird experience where i was using an external drive for a few things including my music collection. had it as ntfs because i wanted to access from bootcamp and i had backups including disc images which were bigger than 4 gigs. one day i opened itunes, worked as normal. saw my trash had something in it, hit empty and it came up with xx thousand files to delete. whole music collection went. thankfully IT department managed to get it all back.

so changed to the other one. think it was tuxera first and then paragon.

was copying a few big files to the drive. now it might have been due to problems with the drive, but it suddenly stopped copying with an error. drive wasnt mounted any more either. was completely unable to access the drive. again IT got it back working again but said something had completly wiped all the directory information.
 
I use Paragon NTFS and I have all my external drives and pen drives formatted to NTFS... It lets you have a single file with more than 4GB.. Problem here is that Mac doesn't write natively on to NTFS but it reads NTFS, so that's why you need a program like paragon NTFS or something similar
 
hi guys

& thanks again for your input, much appreciated !

however instead of installing software on my Mac i probably won't ever use again ( this is a first in seven years of using Macs.. ) i think i'll let my cousins install whatever it is they need to in order to read good old Mac OS Journaled formatted drives ! ;-)

cheers
 
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