Transferring large files to a PC... quickly.

[trev]

Here's the story,

I needed to make 40 dvd's.
My burner is burnt out on my mac.
I've created all the dvd's as iso files with iDVD.
Now I need to transfer them to my PC that has a functioning burner.

SOOOO... transferring 81.5 GB of data over a network will take days. Having said that, I'm using an unsecured network that drops out frequently. (I just moved in, it'll be weeks until the phone company can hook up my internet... we just had a hurricane and they're busy with repairs).

Next idea, use a flash drive. Most of the iso files are bigger than 4Gb - so FAT32 is out. What's left?

I heard about this program: http://www.xs4all.nl/~loekjehe/Split&Concat/
which sounds promising, but once the files are split, how do I join them back together on my PC?

Oh, and did I mention that this job is for a client and they're waiting on it. STRESS!!

Any suggestions would be helpfull

Trevor

 

[maflynn]

You could put it on an external drive and then hook that drive up to the PC. The speed will be limited to the interface, usb2, or FW, or esata.

Another option is to pull the drive out of the mac, and into the pc, as a secondary drive and pull the files over that way.

 

[Hellhammer]

Install NTFS-3G and your Mac can write to NTFS volumes. Then just use external HD that is formatted to NTFS

Another option is to pull the drive out of the mac, and into the pc, as a secondary drive and pull the files over that way.

Won't work if the HD is in HFS+ format (if it's the boot drive, it's in that format), unless OP spends 50 bucks on MacDrive

 

[spinnerlys]

You can use HFS+ and the client downloads the MacDrive trial, which will give Windows 7 days to read from HFS+ formatted volumes, be it on a flash drive (although slow write speeds transferring files to it) or an external HDD.

Btw, when you say network, you mean the internet and not a LAN or W-LAN, don't you?

 

[MacDawg]

I would say a portable external drive would be the way to go
They aren't that expensive and it would probably come in handy again

 

[maflynn]

Won't work if the HD is in HFS+ format (if it's the boot drive, it's in that format), unless OP spends 50 bucks on MacDrive

I forgot about that, but as spinnerlys posted, the trial version of macdrive will fit the bill if pulling the hard drive is the solution the OP is embracing.

 

[Mr Kram]

You could put it on an external drive and then hook that drive up to the PC. The speed will be limited to the interface, usb2, or FW, or esata.

Another option is to pull the drive out of the mac, and into the pc, as a secondary drive and pull the files over that way.

unless you have specific software, macs don't like fat32 and pc's don't like hfs journaled. they both read ntfs, but slowly.

how about just buying an external burner for the mac???

 

[Hellhammer]

unless you have specific software, macs don't like fat32 and pc's don't like hfs journaled. they both read ntfs, but slowly.

Macs can natively read and write FAT32. I have all my thumb drives in FAT32 and they work fine.

FAT32 is the best format for sharing data between Mac and PC if the files are less than 4GB

 

[spinnerlys]

unless you have specific software, macs don't like fat32 and pc's don't like hfs journaled. they both read ntfs, but slowly.

how about just buying an external burner for the mac???

As Hellhammer pointed out:

FAT32

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
• No individual file larger than 4GB.

NTFS

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
• To Read/Write NTFS from Leopard: Install MacFUSE and NTFS-3G. You can install both with NTFS-3G for Mac OS X.
• To Read/Write NTFS from Snow Leopard: Guide: Enable native NTFS Read/Write in Snow Leopard
• (Be aware that some are of the opinion that enabling native NTFS in SL is unstable/unreliable, and favor the MacFuse/NTFS-3G method for Snow Leopard)

HFS

• Read/Write HFS from native Mac OS X
• To Read/Write HFS from Windows, Install MacDrive
• To Read HFS (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer

 

[Mr Kram]

yes, sorry, was getting fat32 and ntfs mixed up.

 

[calderone]

SOOOO... transferring 81.5 GB of data over a network will take days. Having said that, I'm using an unsecured network that drops out frequently. (I just moved in, it'll be weeks until the phone company can hook up my internet... we just had a hurricane and they're busy with repairs).

You don't need internet to transfer files. Setup a proper network with a switch or router and transfer the files.

There is no need to be dependent on someone else's network to transfer files between machines you have physical access to.

 

[balamw]

Setup a proper network with a switch or router and transfer the files.

Actually, Macs are smart enough to not even need the router. They autosense and switch modes automatically. Just an Ethernet patch cord is all you should need.

If the PC has firewire, one of those would do fine too.

Alternatively, a USB to SATA/PATA adapter would allow you to bring the burner to the Mac instead of bringing the files to the PC.

B

 

[calderone]

Actually, Macs are smart enough to not even need the router. They autosense and switch modes automatically. Just an Ethernet patch cord is all you need.

If the PC has firewire, one of those would do fine too.

B

This has nothing to do with Macs. NICs have been autosensing for years.

But again, the take away here is that there is no need to wait for internet (which is irrelevant to local file transfer) in order to do this over a network. I mentioned the router or switch as the OP likely has one of them already as they are waiting for internet.