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Author Topic: On a Mac?  (Read 4635 times)

cottagehunter

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On a Mac?
« on: February 25, 2012, 10:48:13 am »

I am setting up a cowork day with another computer user. He is a mac person and I am a PC person.
My question is will my remote usb drives be readable on his system, will my .psd, jpeg files be accesible.
Of the two of us he has a basic computer knowledge while my knowledge is much further developed. My problem is that my knowledge base is on a pc.

A  part of the requested work from him is to show him how to accomplish certain tasks, both of us have PS which is where a large portion of our time will be spent. He also wants a search done of  some of his older drives from a previous mac which Apple personnel converted into usb drives but he says a large % of the folders created have no contents.

This may be a larger learning experience than I can tackle?

I know several owners of macs that have half functioning machines,  they do not know how to do anymore than the basic tasks such as web searching and checking their e-mail. They bought into the apple myth and looks. 
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Schewe

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Re: On a Mac?
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2012, 02:05:06 pm »

Macs can read Windows formatted HDs natively...Windows can not read Mac formatted drives natively without some additional software like MacDrive. There may be some issues with certain types of Mac formatted volumes like RAID sets of oddly formatted partitions.
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BJL

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On a Mac, Windows file systems like FAT32 are fine, but beware "dotfiles"
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2012, 08:52:23 pm »

I know several owners of macs that have half functioning machines,  they do not know how to do anymore than the basic tasks such as web searching and checking their e-mail. They bought into the apple myth and looks. 
If you are seeking help from people familiar with Macs, this is not the most the most tactful coda to add to your inquiry! But yes, Mac OS generally understands Windows file formats and such, in particular the FAT32 on most USB flash drives.

One little thing to watch out for is that some "invisible" helper files created by Mac OS become visible on Windows, and Windows can mistake their file type. So on the Windows side, ignore files with a name starting with a period, and do not create files whose names start with a period, which can become partly invisible on the Mac OS side. (This is partly related to the UNIX underpinnings of Mac OS X, so similar advice if you ever want to share files and media with a Linux user.)
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cottagehunter

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Re: On a Mac, Windows file systems like FAT32 are fine, but beware "dotfiles"
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2012, 11:03:36 pm »

If you are seeking help from people familiar with Macs, this is not the most the most tactful coda to add to your inquiry!

I did not mean this as a slur against Apple or their knowlegable users. Most of the people I am referring to are older citizens with not much computer knowledge and they bought the big Imac because they believed the message that macs were so easy to use but when problems occurred they threw up their hands in frustration. One chap purchased a Imac from a reseller and asked them to copy the files from their old pc when they finally got their machine they found that they had muliple and I do mean multiple copies of their pics. Taking the mac back to the retailer ( a major chain with worldwide branches) the problem was not sorted out and when he contacted apple he got what he felt was an outrageous price quote to sort the problem out to this day e is still not using many of the features of his machine and he  is not alone.
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K.C.

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Re: On a Mac, Windows file systems like FAT32 are fine, but beware "dotfiles"
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2012, 11:58:17 pm »

I did not mean this as a slur against Apple or their knowlegable users. Most of the people I am referring to are older citizens with not much computer knowledge and they bought the big Imac because they believed the message that macs were so easy to use but when problems occurred they threw up their hands in frustration. One chap purchased a Imac from a reseller and asked them to copy the files from their old pc when they finally got their machine they found that they had muliple and I do mean multiple copies of their pics. Taking the mac back to the retailer ( a major chain with worldwide branches) the problem was not sorted out and when he contacted apple he got what he felt was an outrageous price quote to sort the problem out to this day e is still not using many of the features of his machine and he  is not alone.

Wow, you might not be trying to but you're sure trolling.

The 'older citizens with not much computer knowledge' might have had just as much trouble moving up to a new PC. You have no way of knowing what their experience might have been with Windows 7 and to judge their Mac experience when you have such limited knowledge of it yourself is a pretty biased perspective.

As for a 'major chain...' taking advantage of the unsuspecting and billing them excessively for service, that is, unfortunately, standard operating procedure for them. Who else is going to pay those rates ? Not anyone who can post a question online or read an "Idiot's guide to {insert topic}."

You might also want to click on the help link at the top left of the forum and learn how to post with a quote.

As others have point out, the Mac won't have any issues with your PC drive.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2012, 02:02:43 am by K.C. »
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RobSaecker

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Re: On a Mac, Windows file systems like FAT32 are fine, but beware "dotfiles"
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2012, 12:01:34 am »

I did not mean this as a slur against Apple or their knowlegable users. Most of the people I am referring to are older citizens with not much computer knowledge and they bought the big Imac because they believed the message that macs were so easy to use but when problems occurred they threw up their hands in frustration. One chap purchased a Imac from a reseller and asked them to copy the files from their old pc when they finally got their machine they found that they had muliple and I do mean multiple copies of their pics. Taking the mac back to the retailer ( a major chain with worldwide branches) the problem was not sorted out and when he contacted apple he got what he felt was an outrageous price quote to sort the problem out to this day e is still not using many of the features of his machine and he  is not alone.

And you've never met an elderly Windows owner with similar problems? And why are you blaming Apple for something the reseller did wrong?

Seriously, what's the point of this, other than simple trolling?
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Rob
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RobSaecker

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Re: On a Mac, Windows file systems like FAT32 are fine, but beware "dotfiles"
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2012, 12:03:09 am »

You might also want to click on the help link at the top left of the forum and learn how to post with a quote.

Uh oh.  :)
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Rob
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cottagehunter

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Re: On a Mac?
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2012, 09:00:12 am »

Sensitive aren't we?
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RobSaecker

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Re: On a Mac?
« Reply #8 on: February 26, 2012, 11:40:34 am »

No, just tired of this childish Windows vs. Mac trolling. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, use what works for you and get on with it. Gratuitously denigrating the other platform just shows your insecurity.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2012, 11:47:15 am by RobSaecker »
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Rob
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BJL

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Re: On a Mac?
« Reply #9 on: February 26, 2012, 11:59:18 am »

Sensitive aren't we?
I guess it is too much to expect that you would thank the people who tried to answer your question in this thread, instead of piling on with a sense of superiority over Mac users as a whole (with the familiar "present company excepted" type of cop-out.)
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cottagehunter

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Re: On a Mac?
« Reply #10 on: February 26, 2012, 09:09:26 pm »


I guess it is too much to expect that you would thank the people who tried to answer your question in this thread, instead of piling on with a sense of superiority over Mac users as a whole (with the familiar "present company excepted" type of cop-out.)

BJL: Mea Culpa it is not  too much to expect thanks for the help that is offered gratutiouly.Also this whole post has only taken place over 25hrs 11min. and I have been doing other tasks and not on the computer except for one brief period.By the way my wife  agrees that I was way off base but I meant no ill will nor was I talking about the superiority of one system over the other as both excel at their tasks.
Just that some aquantances have bought Macs thinking they would solve their incompetence maybe . I am truly sorry if I offended anyone as it was not my intention to do so. As far as feeling superior I know I have many failings and much to learn and that is why I frequent sites such as this

To Jeff again many thanks.


And you've never met an elderly Windows owner with similar problems? And why are you blaming Apple for something the reseller did wrong?

Seriously, what's the point of this, other than simple trolling?
I never blamed apple I think their marketing is better than coke's
Can you give me a definition of trolling so I can avoid it in future.

Wow, you might not be trying to but you're sure trolling.

The 'older citizens with not much computer knowledge' might have had just as much trouble moving up to a new PC. You have no way of knowing what their experience might have been with Windows 7.


Yes but in our town (small like me ) we have a seniors centre and offer computer (windows) classes to anyone for free we also have a local college which offers windows courses but no mac courses.  :o so help is available.


Again no slur intended  :'( maybe I  should quit. come on  guys it is just my opinion and I am only one of 8 billion
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jjj

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Re: On a Mac?
« Reply #11 on: February 26, 2012, 11:51:33 pm »

I am setting up a cowork day with another computer user. He is a mac person and I am a PC person.
My question is will my remote usb drives be readable on his system, will my .psd, jpeg files be accesible.
Another way of getting around the hard drive formatting issue is to read/write drives across the network. That way it doesn't matter how drives are set up. Thats how I use drives with both systems.

Basically
Macs can read/write to Mac HFS, Fat 32 Drives
PCs can read/write to NTFS, Fat 32 Drives
Macs can read [only] NTFS Drives
Camera memory cards are Fat 32 for this reason

Fat 32 seems like an obvious solution, but it has speed as well as file and partition size limitations. You could always use memory cards rather than HDs if they are big enough and the extra step is not an issue.

Solutions on Mac or PC that claim to read/write to anything sadly do not always seem to work 100% from the research I have done. And you do need 100% for this
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BJL

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Re: On a Mac? Networks transfers can be tricky: SMB issues and such
« Reply #12 on: February 27, 2012, 08:04:16 am »

Another way of getting around the hard drive formatting issue is to read/write drives across the network.
Maybe, but that can cause other problems, maybe due to the restrictions of the SMB protocol and incompaanilities when the computers on the opposite ends of the transfer are using different versions of it. I have had files with names that are acceptable to both Mac OS X and to Windows, but which are rejected in network transfers between the two via SMB. So my advice in advance is to avoid exotic punctuation in file names, sticking to letters, digits, underscores and _maybe_ dashes and spaces, but it cannot always be assumed that some software has  not produced its own files files with funky spelling.

Fat 32 seems like an obvious solution ...
Yes, it still seems the safest.
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cottagehunter

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Re: On a Mac?
« Reply #13 on: February 27, 2012, 10:29:19 pm »

Thanks again for all the information
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