How do you transfer info from an external hard drive from a PC to a Mac

How do you transfer info from a external hard drive from a pc to a imac?

Expanding on what Niel said, a Mac can mount and read just about any hard drive from a Windows system. It can't write to an NTFS-formatted drive without third-party drivers, but it can read them. So as Niel indicated, you should be able to just connect the drive to your Mac and drag-copy over whatever you want. If you want to save things from the Mac to that drive, then it will need to be formatted either as FAT32 or exFAT, or if it's NFTS you'll again need drivers.
Regards.

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HT2518 How do I transfer music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my mac? I have put the files into the itunes media, but they are not showing up in iTunes!

How do I transfer music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my mac? I have put the files into the itunes media, but they are not showing up in iTunes!

Hi, did you try iTunes>File>Import?

How do I transfer pictures off my external hard drive to my Ipad?

I am travelling with my IPAD and I want to transfer pictures off my external hard drive that I used with my Dell laptop on to my Ipad before I leave so I can show these pictures to my friend,

Sync them via iTunes.
Note: Photos synced via iTunes sync can only be removed via iTunes sync.
iTunes: Syncing photos
Read the To sync photos from a folder on your computer to your device section and navigate to the folder containing the photos on the external drive.

?: How do you move files to an external hard drive

Hello everyone,
I have a 2009 MacBook Pro running Lion 10.7.5
I am starting to run out of internal HD space as my images in Photoshop are very large (over 1 GB ea.)
I currently use an external hard drive for Time Machine but would like to use a different external hard drive just to have my photo images on it.
Im assuming that i would purchase another external hard drive formatted for mac, plug it into my MBP and simply drag my image files from my MBP onto the external hard drive icon. After that just delete the images from my MBP HD. Is that all there is to it?
I wasnt sure if there was a step in there where you have to tell your MBP that the new external hard drive is NOT for Time Machine, but is simply to transfer image files onto (?)
Please let me know if this is how it works and how to do this.
best to you all and thanks so much for your help
take care,
rick

Rick,
the “EDIT” note in my last response was an “oh yeah, I should mention this” moment that I’d had after initially responding with my single “yup” sentence. You had mentioned that you were already using Time Machine to back up your internal hard drive to an external hard drive. I’d wanted to clarify that your new external hard disk should not be simultaneously used as a Time Machine backup drive; it should be treated just like your internal hard disk, in that it gets backed up by Time Machine (a “source” drive) rather than receives Time Machine backups (a “destination” drive), which your current external hard drive already does.
As far as my recommendations, I’ve had good results with the Hitachi hard drive series with five-year warranties. I’m currently using a Samsung 840 PRO SSD as my internal disk; so far, so good, but I don’t have long-term experience with it yet. (The 840 PRO has a five-year warranty also. As you can tell, I prefer drives with long warranties.) Since you have a 2009 MacBook Pro, getting your new drive in an external enclosure with a FireWire 800 port (and getting a FireWire 800 cable for it, of course) will allow the best performance when reading from or writing to it. Since it will be holding large images, performance will probably be an important criterion for you.
To set up your new external drive to be backed up by Time Machine, plug it in to your MacBook Pro, open the Time Machine pane in System Preferences, unlock the lock in the lower left corner if it shows a locked padlock, press the “Options…” button in the lower right corner, and make sure that your new external drive is not in the list of drives excluded from being backed up. If it’s not there, then you should be good. If it is there, then you’ll need to select it and press the “-” button to “subtract” it from the list of excluded drives.

How do you build a home-made external hard drive?

I've been browsing the market, looking for a good drive when I came to the idea that I could build my own. Unfortunately, there aren't any clear internet articles that I could find on how to build a drive and what parts would be needed.
So, How do you build an external hard drive? Please reply with the parts needed, places to find them, and assembly directions.

Kappy wrote:
However, for an external drive there's no real benefit to using SATA drives
There are very real benefits to avoiding obsolete IDE/PATA technology.
For example, check newegg.com's selection of HDs in the 500GB & up
category. Score: SATA 37, PATA 7. ....and at 1TB: SATA 9, PATA 0.
While you're at it, compare prices (as best you can). SATA drives are
the same price or less expensive than the few surviving PATAs -- and
there are no PATA equivalents to the latest generation high-performance
SATA drives. The "Great PATA Extinction" started several years ago.
... because the Firewire interface isn't nearly as fast as the drive.
Nonsense. There are only a handful of drives fast enough to saturate
a firewire 800 link -- and then, only when the drive is nearly empty.
AFAIK, there are NO existing high-capacity HDDs (500GB & up) fast
enough to saturate a FW800 link when the drive is half full. Sustained
transfer rates drop by about 50% as the drive fills from the outermost
to the innermost tracks.
BTW, here are two SATA enclosures that feature quick-swap slide-in
drive trays. Assembly is a snap -- no disassembly required, just four
screws to attach the drive to the tray, then slide it in. Extra trays are
$19 each, so you can keep several drives conveniently "on tap."
[Icy Dock MB559UEB-1S USB/FW800 @ $80|http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198006]
[Icy Dock MB559UEA-1S USB/FW400 @ $45|http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198004]
[Icy Dock MB559TRAY spare tray @ $19|http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994038]
BTW #2, a FW800 enclosure works fine on a FW400 link -- all you need
is a cheap 6-pin to 9-pin adapter cable (about $5 from newegg.com).
Looby

How can I transfer files off an external hard drive formatted for windows?

I just bought my first mac (yay!) and am trying to transfer my files off of my old pc. The problem is that I stored all my personal files on an external hard drive, which is of course formatted for windows. My mac will open it, but it is "read only." I tried plugging it back into my pc and using the Migration Assistant to transfer my files over, but it was not detected (rest of the pc was).
However, the second time I tried plugging it in to my pc, it told me it would need to be formatted first. Obviously my mac has changed something on it, and now all my personal files are on a hard drive that is unusable by either my old pc or my new mac!
Any suggestions would be appreciated! Heads up though, I am not especially computer literate, and my pc needs to stay intact as the husband needs it and some of the programs on it for school. Also, I have a second external hard drive that is brand new with nothing on it, if that will come in handy.
Thanks!

Format the extra HDD to EXFAT as previously indicated. There are two ways that can use to transferr the data.
1. Connect both drives to the PC and the copy the files to the newly formatted (EXFAT) drive from the HDD with the data . Then connect the EXFAT drive to the MBP and transfer the data to same.
2. Connect both drives to the MBP and open DISK UTILITY>RESTORE. Drag the drive with the data on it to the 'Source' field. Drag the EXFAT drive to the 'Destination' field. Click on the 'Restore' butt is on. After the transfer has been completed, close DISK UTILITY and place the data on the MBP where you want it.
Ciao.

How do I transfer iphoto library to external hard drive keeping events intact?

Had a one to one session but forgot how to do this. I would like to transfer my iphoto library to an external hard drive keeping the folders and events intact. I figured out how to send all my photos to the hard drive but they all transfer in single images, if that makes sense, and then i have to go thru all of the 15,000 images by hand and sort them into folders. Ahhhhhhh!
When they showed me how to do this at apple I am able to open my external hard drive and see a folder labled 'iphotolibrary" and I am able to click it open and then all my events show up just like in iphoto library.
Also does your iphoto library "Trash" take up space on your HD? Forgve me if thats a dumb question but I am kind of a computer "dummy".
thanks so much. My hard drive has VERY little space left on it so I need to transfer ASAP.

I just posted this to another topic, but it applies here as well. Hopefully there's no prohibition on cross-posting on this board, my apologies to all if there is:
"I haven't read the whole thread, so someone could have already mentioned this, but I did the same thing, move my music library to an external drive. The Help articles are helpful, but only up to a point. When that didn't work, I called up AppleCare support up, and they took me through all the standard steps, and got stumped at the same point I did. Finally she suggested trying something, and that ended up doing the trick. So here in brief is what you do:
1) Copy over your "iTunes Music" folder to the external hard drive
2) Go into Advanced preferences to have iTunes look for the "iTunes Music" folder in the new location. If you're like me, your music won't appear in the Library.
3) In iTunes, go to the Library window (which is probably blank), then in a Finder window, find the icon for the "iTunes Music" folder in the new location. Drag that icon onto the Library window.
You should now see a progress window pop up showing all the songs that it's populating the Library window with."
20" Intel iMac 14" iBook G4, 233 MHz Beige G3 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

How do I delete photos from an external hard drive before downloading to my new Mac?

I have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex external hard drive that has all my photos from my old computer on it Because there are thousands, I want to delete a bunch of them before downloading onto my new Mac. However, when I click on the photos, they say "locked." Once I have the photos trimmed down, how do I get the to download to my Mac?

Don't touch that one !
I was hoping that in addition to that there should be another device listed, namely the USB External HD you've got plugged into the USB port. It should show up something like this:

How do i transfer itunesto a 2tb external hard drive and still have daily access for sync and apple tv?

my I tunes i taking up ver half my space on my older macbook. I have started using an external hard drive for photos and stuff but woudl love to free up more space. I cant perform sertian updates as they are available. Cant add more movies and tv shows so would love to know if and how this is possible to do, while still being able to access it for sync with 2 iphones, ipod and ipad and use with apple tv.
Any assitance would be great.
thanks

Thanks I will try this and let ya know how it turns out. Once it is moved via steps you listed do I need to delete it all off my Mac or does this move it completely?
Thanks again

How do you move iPhoto to an external hard drive?

I want to move iPhoto and possibly iTunes to an external hard drive to free up space on my MacBook Pro. How do you do this?

Copy /Home/Pictures/iPhoto Library to your external drive. Delete the one on your internal drive. Now create an alias to the iPhoto Library's new location and put the alias in the original location. Be sure the alias is named "iPhoto Library".

How to retrieve a backup of an external hard drive from time machine if there is a drive failure of the external HD?

Hi,
I have a time caspule that I use as my backup for Time machine.
My itunes folder is on an external drive and When I do my backups, I connect my external to my mac so that my itunes folder will be backed up.
When I do the back up, I know its backing up the external due to the size of the backup.
but if my external were to fail, how do I retrieve the back up of the external? From what I can tell the drive has to be connected to the mac when connecting to time machine to access the back up files for the external. But if the drive is dead, how do I retrieve my files?

budden10, please try this:
Disconnect the external drive to simulate it not working or having failed
Open Time Machine on your Mac and wait a few minutes for your backups to load fully
Go back in time and select a date when you were backing up the external drive
Now look at the Finder window and locate your Mac on the left side of the window under DEVICES
Click on your Mac
What do you see in the window there just to the right?

How do you update iTunes folder on external hard drive?

Would anyone happen to know if there is a way to update an iTunes folder on an external harddrive without transfering the entire file from scratch? Is there a simple way to update the folder so only new information is transfered?

Would anyone happen to know if there is a way to update an iTunes folder on an external harddrive without transfering the entire file from scratch? Is there a simple way to update the folder so only new information is transfered?

How do I stop iTunes from automatically importing songs I listen to from my external hard drive into the music library?

How do I stop iTunes from automatically importing songs I listen to from my external hard drive into the music library?

Mac OS X: Double-Clicking a File Opens the Wrong Application - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2291
-= Changing the application used to open all files of a certain kind (written with reference to OSX 10.4 but may not have changed) =-
1) In a Finder window highlight a file of the kind you want to change the application to open that kind of file.
2) While that file is highlighted, select File > Get Info or press command (apple or propeller icon) + i to get a file information window.
3) In the lower part of the info window there is an "open with" menu with a list of applications.
4) If your application is already in the box then it is the default application for opening that kind of file and you don't need to do anything more. Close the get info window.
5) If the application showing in the menu is not the one with which you wish to open the file then select a new application. If your application does not appear there then select the "other..." and track down the application (usually in the Applications folder at the main level of the computer).
6) If you wish to change all files of this type to open with this application in future, make sure the "change all" button is selected.
7) Close the get info window.

How can I delete items in trash from an external hard drive?

I have a Macbook Pro and have installed Paragon so that I can use an external hard drive on both my Mac and my PC. But some files I deleted from my external hard drive (Seagate 3TB) while on my Mac can't be deleted from the recycle bin.
When I try to delete, the files just stay there. When I do a secure empty, a message comes up saying the files are in use. This has persisted for two days. I have restarted the Mac, reconnected the drive, and also cheked the drive on my PC for errors and found none. Of course, the files only appear in the trash when the drive is connected. I ejected the drive properly each time, and didn't just unplug it from the Mac.
I have tried to do a secure empty with option and/or shift keys down, but I still get a message that the files are in use. I tried a fix involving writing a command including the term "trash" (I don't have the full command at my fingertips) in Terminal in the Utilities application, and this did not work. There appears to be a program called "Trashit" which might help, but my computer says it will not open under my security settings because the author of the program is not listed.
The files remaining in trash are part of an old iTunes library that I wanted fully deleted from my external hard drive and my trash. It was a big file (over 200GB) and about 99% deleted and empltied. Reformatting the drive should not be necessary, might not help, and would probably erase the drivers on the drive and ruin it anyway.
I'm wondering what is happening, and how I could fix it. Many thanks for any advice, in advance.

I actually fixed this by plugging the drive into my PC, changing the settings to "show hidden files and folders," then finding the folder ".trashes" on the drive and deleting everything in there. When the drive was plugged back into the Mac, the trash was empty as it should be. (It was a very large folder I deleted, and a very small portion of the files were apparently corrupted.) In case anyone else ever needs this fix, it works. Good luck.

How to put my music on my external hard drive through itunes

How do i put music on my external hard drive from itunes after creating a folder.

Our iTunes guru Terence Devlin advises the following:
1. Quit iTunes
2. Drag the iTunes folder from your internal hd - located in ~/Music folder - to your external hd (which has to be formatted as HFS Extended (Journaled)). DO NOT delete the original one from your internal hd... yet!
3. When the transfer is complete, press and hold the Option(alt) key and fire up iTunes.
4. A "Choose iTunes Library" window will come up. Click on the "Choose Library" button.
5. Navigate to where the iTunes folder is located in the external hd.
6. Within the iTunes folder, select the iTunes Library file and click Choose...
That's it. iTunes will now display all your playlists, songs, movies, podcasts etc. At this point, should you wish, you can delete the iTunes folder from the internal hd to free up space.
More info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Or if you prefer a more complicated explanation:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

How do you transfer info from an external hard drive from a PC to a Mac

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