Transferring Files; Diff. Formatted HD's ?

[Robert4]

Hi,

Thought it would be wise to ask here first, before I mess anything up.
Always get such good advice.

Have an external HD connected to my iMac. Let's call it A-ExFat
Formatted in ExFat.

I have another "Backup" external HD connected to a W10 pc that has lots of
room in it. Lets call it B-NFTS
Formatted in NFTS.

-If I take B-NFTS HD and plug it into the MAc, could I transfer a bunch of files
from the iMac (or A-ExFat) into it ?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Fishrrman]

Question:
Is the "target drive" going to be used only with the Mac?

In that case, the better course would be to ERASE the drive using Disk Utility.
Format it to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format.

The "best place" to keep Mac files is "on a Mac-formatted drive"...

 

[chabig]

If I take B-NFTS HD and plug it into the MAc, could I transfer a bunch of files?
from the iMac (or A-ExFat) into it ?

I agree with Fishrrman but the answer to your question is yes, just like you can move a set of papers files from a wooden file cabinet to a metal file cabinet. Files are distinct from file systems. However, the file system may contain metadata about the file that’s useful, such as date created.

 

[Robert4]

Hi,

Thanks.

Bob

 

[wardie]

I think moving files from exFAT to NTFS you may not lose any data associated with the files (meta data), as ExFAT is based on a very old (FAT) storage system and NTFS newer than that, and both Microsoft driven formats. However moving files from your iMac hard drove (which I assume is macOS extended format or even APFS) may mean you lose some of the macOS-specific meta data attached to the files (e.g. tags coloured dots, more sophisticated access permissions etc). But it won’t change the content in the files themselves.

 

[Zandros]

I'm fairly sure even recent versions of MacOS don't have native write support for NTFS drives.

 

[wardie]

I'm fairly sure even recent versions of MacOS don't have native write support for NTFS drives.

Good point I think NTFS appears as read-only (e.g. boot camp partitions)