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Transfer my Mac Itunes library to use on PC

J

jtwrace

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 17, 2009
25
0
I use a Mac Mini with itunes and have all my music uploaded in the AIFF Encoder format. I have over 1TB of music.

I want to purchase another HD and copy my music onto that drive for use with my PC.

I think I would have to format that drive using "FAT32". Right?

What's the best way to copy my music over to that drive?

PC is Windows 7.
 
jtwrace said:
I think I would have to format that drive using "FAT32". Right?
Click to expand...
NTFS would be better than FAT32.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
  • Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
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: Install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free)
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx 33USD).
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended)
  • Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
  • Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner backups of Mac internal hard drive.
  • To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
  • To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
  • Maximum file size: 8EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 8EiB
jtwrace said:
What's the best way to copy my music over to that drive?
Click to expand...
Drag and drop.
 
Last edited:
Drag & drop 1TB of music is OK to do? Can I drag and drop the whole itunes folder?

Gotcha on the format...NTFS

I use SuperDuper! now to backup but it can't be used with any Windows format. :(
 
jtwrace said:
Drag & drop 1TB of music is OK to do? Can I drag and drop the whole itunes folder?
Click to expand...
Yes, just drag and drop the folder. It doesn't matter what the size is, as long as there's sufficient space on the drive to receive it.
 
Just a quick point. Drag-n-Drop won't work on a NTFS drive connected to the Mac since Macs can't write to NTFS volumes.

If you ever intend on using the new HDD with the Mac, you're better off with FAT32.

If you have reasons to use NTFS, then you'd need to put the Windows PC on a Network and copy the files from the Mac to the PC/HDD over the network. This can be very time consuming, depending on your network speeds.

ft

Whoops - I miss the part on GGJ's post about adding plug-ins on the Mac to write to NTFS drives.
 
Last edited:
ftaok said:
Just a quick point. Drag-n-Drop won't work on a NTFS drive connected to the Mac since Macs can't write to NTFS volumes.

If you ever intend on using the new HDD with the Mac, you're better off with FAT32.

If you have reasons to use NTFS, then you'd need to put the Windows PC on a Network and copy the files from the Mac to the PC/HDD over the network. This can be very time consuming, depending on your network speeds.

ft
Click to expand...

Good point. Thanks!

The only time this drive will be used with a Mac is to move the music files as the Mac drive grows.
 
OK guys you've got me more confused now.

BTW-it's Windows 7 enterprise edition
 
jtwrace said:
OK guys you've got me more confused now.

BTW-it's Windows 7 enterprise edition
Click to expand...

Yes, you can format your external drive NTFS. FAT32 would restrict your maximum file size to 4GB.
Yes, you can read and write to NTFS from your Mac, using NTFS-3G for Mac OS X, as described in my first post.
Yes, you can drag and drop your music folder from either your Windows 7 PC or your Mac to the NTFS-formatted external drive.
 
Music files, even uncompressed, do not approach 4GB FAT limit.

FAT is fine for this purpose, unless you want to install NTFS drivers.
 
One more quick question.

Can I transfer files from an NTFS drive to a FAT32 drive?
 
jtwrace said:
One more quick question.

Can I transfer files from an NTFS drive to a FAT32 drive?
Click to expand...

Same way... drag and drop.
Consultant said:
Music files, even uncompressed, do not approach 4GB FAT limit.
Click to expand...
True, but there's no reason to use a format with that restriction, in case that in the future the OP wants to add movies or other files to the drive that may exceed the 4GB.
 
GGJstudios said:
Same way... drag and drop.
Click to expand...

Cool. I just didn't know if those two formats would play nice. I've ordrered my OWC drive (OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 'Quad Interface' 7200RPM 32MB Cache) so this will be next weekends project.
 
jtwrace said:
Cool. I just didn't know if those two formats would play nice. I've ordrered my OWC drive (OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 'Quad Interface' 7200RPM 32MB Cache) so this will be next weekends project.
Click to expand...

I have that exact drive. Love it!
 
GGJstudios said:
Yes.

Yes. If you want to format it NTFS, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (link in my first post), then reboot and NTFS will be one of your formatting options in Disk Utility.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I think I'm going to use FAT32...this is all for a dedicated 2 ch audio system. The 4GB file size is not an issue for me. The only limitation could be the 2TB drive size but I'll deal with that when the time comes. I'm sure I'll have to replace the drive before then anyway. I figure 3-5 yrs on a drive...

I'll post and let you iknow how it goes. :)
 
The good news is that I formatted the drive and transferred all the music.

The bad news is when I reset the directory in itunes to test the drive on my Mac (FAT32) it doesn't work.

What am I doing wrong?

TIA

Oops. I bet it's the File > add to library.

Yes?

Why do some albums show two of the same songs? Some are double of the whole album?

I'm really confused now. Errrr.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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