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Transferring files between Mac and PC
Forgive me for being slightly OT here but I’ve posted this question in a couple of places with no responses, and I figured After Effects users have spent some time on both Macs and PCs…
What do you think is the most efficient way to move files between a Mac and a PC on an external drive? Right now I have a drive that is formatted in DOS so that both the Mac and PC can read and write to it. Of course, the drawback of that is the 4GB file size limit. That one bit me today.
If the drive is formatted for PC it can be read on the Mac but not written to. If it’s formatted for Mac it can’t be read at all on the PC.
Are there any other solutions out there?
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3 Replies
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DOS? Don’t you mean FAT?
There are basically two ways to format a drive for Windows:
-FAT32
-NTFSYou should format the drive to FAT32, but you’ll have the 4GB limit.
OSX still can’t write to NTFS, as far as I know.However, there may be hope, though I know nothing about these, and just found them by Googling:
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/how-to-read-and-write-ntfs-windows-partition-on-mac-os-x.html
https://www.hackszine.com/blog/archive/2007/06/howto_readwrite_to_ntfs_drives.htmlFor more info, google NTFS, FAT32 and OSX and write.
And don’t forget: you need the same fonts and plugins on both platfroms.
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Most winderz hack and slash sites will have many weird ways to do this. One foolproof and idiotproof way is to buy and install an application like DatViz’s MacDrive on the PC.
https://www.dataviz.com/purchase/shopdvz/detail.html?prod_id=1136bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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The easiest way (that I know of) is to format the drive as NTFS, leave it attached to the PC (set up as a shared drive), and use your network to transfer files from the Mac to the external drive.
Using this method drive formatting isn’t an issue, but it does rely on your machines being networked, preferably via gigabit ethernet if you are transferring large files.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com
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