Waiting to buy MBP: what is a good external drive that will move files from PC to MAC

[iamKamil]

It could be any day now that the new MBP is released. This will be my first mac so I would like to move all my pics/vids etc from my PC. What is a good external drive that will be able to do this? Once all the files are moved, goodbye PC, which means the external drive will ONLY be used for the mac afterwards.

Any suggestions? Looking for 500 MB.

Thanks.

 

[twilightrose]

It could be any day now that the new MBP is released. This will be my first mac so I would like to move all my pics/vids etc from my PC. What is a good external drive that will be able to do this? Once all the files are moved, goodbye PC, which means the external drive will ONLY be used for the mac afterwards.

Any suggestions? Looking for 500 MB.

Thanks.

Think you mean 500GB anyway, any external should be fine, if its FAT32 I do believe you can move files to and from on both OS X and Windows

 

[iamKamil]

Hey Mods...please delete this thread...I just found others like it. Thanks!

 

[Markov]

Before it's deleted, I just want to give my two cents. You can format the external hard drive NTFS if you like. Windows will readily read and write to it. Mac OS X, on the other hand, can only read it. Although, if you instal NTFS 3G and MacFuse (both free available online) on OS X, you can write to the NTFS partition.

 

[iamKamil]

Before it's deleted, I just want to give my two cents. You can format the external hard drive NTFS if you like. Windows will readily read and write to it. Mac OS X, on the other hand, can only read it. Although, if you instal NTFS 3G and MacFuse (both free available online) on OS X, you can write to the NTFS partition.

Thanks. Just saved your reply to my notepad.

 

[Markov]

Thanks. Just saved your reply to my notepad.

No problem! I'd suggest splitting the HDD into 2 partitions. Have one NTFS formatted (for obvious reasons) and the other HFS+ journaled for strictly mac use (time machine, perhaps)

 

[iamKamil]

No problem! I'd suggest splitting the HDD into 2 partitions. Have one NTFS formatted (for obvious reasons) and the other HFS+ journaled for strictly mac use (time machine, perhaps)

There won't be a need to partition the drive though...I only want to use it for the PC once (just to transfer all my files to the mac)

 

[Thunder82]

There won't be a need to partition the drive though...I only want to use it for the PC once (just to transfer all my files to the mac)

If this is the case, you may want to consider reformatting the drive HFS+ once all of your files are transferred. Macs (even with fuse, ntfs-3g, Paragon NTFS, etc) struggle with writing some files to NTFS partitioned drives. (iPhoto libraries, large music libraries, etc)

 

[psingh01]

Unless you want an extra drive to use for your mac you can transfer your files with without one! Just turn on file sharing on your mac once you have it set up. Then assuming you're on the same network (home wifi?) you can easily transfer the files wirelessly. It might take a while but you can do it.

If you have a router with ethernet ports even better. Plug both your mac and old pc in and the transfer will be faster.

Once you're sharing your files on the Mac you go to the PC and either map a network drive or FTP into your mac and just upload files.

If you WANT an extra drive then any external drive will do. Mac OS X can read (not write) NTFS by default so you can easily copy files from the PC to an NTFS drive then read them on the Mac. Once you're done you can reformat to HFS+ to read/write from the Mac.