Reading Windows HD's

**ultratramp** · 02-10-2006, 01:34 PM

i have a couple of HDs that used to reside in Windoze PCs. I know that i have some useful data i want from in those volumes including a lot of photos.

my ideal scenario would be to read them directly from my 'book, burn them into discs, reformat the HDs for mac and them recopy the files back into them.

is there some way i can read them from my mac by simply putting them in enclosures and pluggin them in? or must i read them from a windows pc (i am trying to avoid this hassle as i no longer own a windows pc)?

any info that could help will be much appreciated. tia.

**Sponsor** · 02-10-2006 01:34 PM

**Sph1nx** · 02-10-2006, 01:43 PM

As long as they're formatted in FAT or FAT32, it should be readable from a Mac (techgeeks, please correct if wrong). However if they're formatted in NTFS, I don't think so. I had this problem before -- had a HD formatted in NTFS, put the HD in an enclosure, but can't read from my iBook. Had to reconnect to the PC, copy all the files, and reformat to FAT32. Only then was I able to read and write to the HD.

HTH.

**wildcard** · 02-10-2006, 02:22 PM

Yap, That's correct, read this for more info Hard Drive Question

**PatrickGaerlan** · 02-10-2006, 03:43 PM

Originally Posted by Sph1nx

As long as they're formatted in FAT or FAT32, it should be readable from a Mac (techgeeks, please correct if wrong). However if they're formatted in NTFS, I don't think so.

Mac OS X has read-only support for NTFS drives.

**mykmarinas** · 02-10-2006, 04:04 PM

Fat/Fat32 disk are read/write on OSX while NTFS are read only.

**Sph1nx** · 02-10-2006, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by PatrickGaerlan

Mac OS X has read-only support for NTFS drives.

My bad.

Would OS X still be able to read compressed NTFS drives? I think that's what I had before.

**PatrickGaerlan** · 02-10-2006, 05:50 PM

I'm not really sure what compressed NTFS means, but I guess that could be the reason Mac OS X wasn't able to read it

**Macmon** · 02-10-2006, 09:36 PM

Yes you can place it in an enclosure connect it via FW, Burn the contents in a superdrive or DVD writer enclosure using your Mac.
Then reformat the HD.

**ultratramp** · 02-11-2006, 04:17 PM

thanks all. couple of followup questions.
1st, how do i know if its FAT32 or NTFS?
2nd, if NTFS, does being read-only the files mean i canread and copy them, just not edit them and save back to the HD?

**Macmon** · 02-11-2006, 09:18 PM

1st, how do i know if its FAT32 or NTFS?
Use disk utility

2nd, if NTFS, does being read-only the files mean i canread and copy them, just not edit them and save back to the HD?
You can copy it to your mac and then back it up to the CD/DVD