Mac HFS to Windows NTFS - how?

[jeanpave]

Hi.

I was wondering if it was possible to take a hard-drive formatted by a Mac, with the HFS-journaled content, and somehow copy the files to a Windows NTFS hard-drive.

I know Macs can't write to NTFS, and I also know FAT32 won't allow for files larges than 4 GB. Some of the files I have on the Mac HDD are larger than 4 GB, so I couldn't have done it with a FAT32 drive anyway.

And, naturally, if I plug a Mac HDD drive into a Windows port, it won't show up at all. What can I do?

Is there a program I can use? Or a good strategy?

Thanks!

[jman98]

Unofficial NTFS driver for Mac.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24481/ntfs-3g
There are commercial ones available as well. I don't consider ntfs-3g to be very user friendly, but your opinion may differ from mine.

You might try this for an HFS driver for Windows. I've never used it.
http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/hfsx.html

[edDV]

Google
Windows HFS disk
for a list of programs.

One is
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/

[intracube]

Hi.I was wondering if it was possible to take a hard-drive formatted by a Mac, with the HFS-journaled content, and somehow copy the files to a Windows NTFS hard-drive.

Is there a program I can use? Or a good strategy?

Why not ftp the files from one system to the other? It should be fairly simple to set the Mac up as an ftp server.
The first 3 steps on this page:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2203529_turn-mac-ftp-server.html

If you've already got a home network set up, it should be as simple as sitting at the Windows machine, typing in ftp://your.macs.ip.address, then click and drag the files over.

If you don't have a home network; you can use a cheap 'crossover' cable to connect the computers directly.

[lordsmurf]

Easy.
Read this: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/showthread.php/overcome-gpt-protective-1379.html

I use MacDrive.
Only $37 from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002L7HT7W?ie=UTF8&tag=thdifa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=17...SIN=B002L7HT7W

MacDrive mounts the disk like any other -- drive letter and all -- and the icon is a normal hard drive icon with an Apple logo to the corner of it. There's a free trial for it, but it only lasts about 7 days. And $37 is a tiny amount for good software like this.

I regularly deal with client drives that are Mac-only. This tool is essential for what I do.

[Cornucopia]

I'm with Lordsmurf.
I've used MacDrive for over 12 years and never had a single glitch. Costs a little, but worth every penny. Even correctly translates Mac's Creator/Type codes with Window's Extensions (custom-mappable, too).

Scott

[wwaag]

I just had the same problem with raw footage shot at my daughter's wedding. There is freeware called HFSExplorer that worked perfectly for me on a Win7 64 system. Google it. Good luck.

wwaag

[jeanpave]

Thank you very much, everybody, for your help.

Sorry for the late reply, but I only found time to try Jman98's Catacombae suggestion yesterday.

It didn't exactly work for me, though. I connected the Mac-formatted drive and one of the 4 drivers that was supposed to be installed automatically through Windows didn't install. My guess is that, because the file system is HFS, that's what is giving the error (- there are 3 green check signs and one red 'X', in the status pop-up).
Anyway, though, then I opened the program, but it couldn't autodetect the drive (- there's a button called 'Autodetect' -), and it couldn't navigate to it; nothing!
(And after going through the trouble of finding and installing Java Runtime Environment...)

Thank you very much for the suggestion, Wwaag, but I think HFSExplorer is Catacombae's free program!
When you used it, how did you get the software to recognize the external drive for you?

P.S. After the free options are out of the question, I'll consider the paid alternatives. Sorry I can't offer any feedback on those yet.