Moving files from a pc to a mac

[hotelgirl]

Okay, so I know that to move files from a certain PC to my Macbook I need an external hard drive (or some other method, but this is the one I'll be using).. but my question is this:
My mother picked me up a hard drive, but on the box it says "for pc's", so will my mac be able to read this and pull the files from it? I am assuming so because Mac seems readily adaptable to almost anything I have used on it, pc related or not. I didn't know however, if you needed an external hard drive that was compatible with both systems. I do feel safer using a PC product on my Mac then vice-versa in terms of workability. If anyone knows or has any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks either way!

[Quantos]

Here is what Apple has to say about it.

[hotelgirl]

Thank you for the reply, I read that, but I didn't seem to find anything as to the type of e.h.d you can use. I am just concerned because the hard drive says "for pcs". My basic question is if it had to be a Mac compatible hard drive. Sorry if I am being confusing or not making any sense & thanks for the link!

[Quantos]

You could also just burn the files to a cd/dvd and transfer them that way as well.  I don't use a Mac, so I have no idea what file systems it will access.

[hotelgirl]

I would.. but it is about 2000 songs in question that I am looking to transfer.

[Quantos]

Try copying the files to the external and then see if the mac will read the file system, there don't seem to be any special instructions for that on the link I gave you.  Let us know if that does or doesn't work.

[hotelgirl]

Will do! I'm gonna work on it tonight, so i'll give word on how it goes, thanks for the help!

[socrates]

Will do! I'm gonna work on it tonight, so i'll give word on how it goes, thanks for the help!

sorry I'm late to the game.

If the hard drive says "for Pc's" it could be formatted one of two ways: FAT or NTFS.  If it's FAT, when you hook it up to your mac it should show up on the desktop.  If it's NTFS, you'll need to format the drive in disk utility (on your mac) as a FAT drive, so you can use it on windows and on mac.

[Quantos]

sorry I'm late to the game.

If the hard drive says "for Pc's" it could be formatted one of two ways: FAT or NTFS.  If it's FAT, when you hook it up to your mac it should show up on the desktop.  If it's NTFS, you'll need to format the drive in disk utility (on your mac) as a FAT drive, so you can use it on windows and on mac.

I wasn't sure about any of that, just stumbling through with what I could find on the internet
Odd though, you'd think that they would have support for NTFS by now.

[BC_Programmer]

I wasn't sure about any of that, just stumbling through with what I could find on the internet
Odd though, you'd think that they would have support for NTFS by now.

I'm not  sure, but NTFS might be patented in some way by MS. More likely, Apple was more then happy with the HPFS file system, which works at least as well.

I'm surprised that they ever preformat drives for you anymore.

[hotelgirl]

reposting from the wrong thread
haha..
Well, the process was a little confusing, but worked easily enough. I had to install it & such on my PC, but when I plugged it in to my Mac it worked perfect. I didn't have to run anything or set up anything, and the files were easy to get off. So I guess my little Mac knew just what to do all along! Thanks for taking your time out to help me though.

[Quantos]

No problem.  Glad you got it sorted out.

That wrong thread post was pretty funny though.  Perfect timing.

[socrates]

I wasn't sure about any of that, just stumbling through with what I could find on the internet
Odd though, you'd think that they would have support for NTFS by now.

I think BC is right in that it has to do with patents by microsoft.

And actually I should clarify on a few points:

Mac OS X can READ NTFS without issue.  However, it cannot write to NTFS (likely for the same reason BC mentioned).

More confusing though is the fact that Microsoft doesn't support reading HFS+ Partitions, when you can do so without having to pay for patent infringements.  In fact, you can download an extension for Vista/7 that allow you to read and write to HFS+ partitions.  I did that on my Windows 7 machine and it works great.

hotelgirl: I'm glad you got it working.  Since it worked out the box it must have been FAT formatted from the get-go.  Thanks for letting us know it worked!

[Quantos]

Thanks for clarifying that Socrates.