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Transferring files from PC formatted hard drive to Macbook

Hello fellow digital music lovers,

I'm a novice/ignoramus with computers so please bear with me in what might be a simple question...
I have tons of .WAV files on a PC formatted hard drive, but want to transfer everything over so I can play it through a Mac. My Macbook has a very recent version of OS X Yosemite 10.10.3.  

Please let me know the simplest way to complete the data transfer. I've read some articles on this, but it seems like using the FAT file method might require deleting before filing. Please help me figure this out.
Thanks everyone!
Linc
lincnabby
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,432 posts
 
Lincnabby, It is simple. Just plug this disk into MAC and copy all the files to any drive you want. Your MAC can read FAT32 or NTFS. The only difference is that MAC cannot write (at default settings) to NTFS formatted drive.
Just to be 100% sure I took my wife’s NTFS formatted flash drive, plugged it to my MAC (OSX) and copied file to my desktop.

http://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-manually-enable-ntfs-read-and-write-in-os-x/

almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
9,670 posts
 
Thanks, Kijanki. Consistent with the cautionary statements contained in the last paragraph of the link you provided (and many of the problems reported in the user comments which followed the article), this Wikipedia writeup on NTFS states:
Native NTFS write support has been discovered in Mac OS X 10.6 and later, but is not activated by default, although workarounds do exist to enable the functionality. However, user reports indicate the functionality is unstable and tends to cause kernel panics, probably the reason why write support has not been enabled or advertised.
(A "kernel panic" is the counterpart of the Windows "Blue Screen of Death," referring in that case to a crash of the Windows operating system itself).

Best regards,
-- Al

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,432 posts
 
Al, thanks for warning - I missed it.

lincnabby OP
56 posts
 
Al and kijanki-
I appreciate both of you for your help and advice. Yes, I think it will be pretty simple. I will post again if I have any issues! 
God bless and enjoy the music!
Linc
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