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Copying mac hard drives with Windows PC
  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    I have a unique situation. I will be copying the contents of one mac-formatted hard drive onto another empty mac formatted hard drive. But at the location I'll be doing this, I'll only have access to a Windows PC computer. Can I successfully plug both mac-formatted hard drives into the Windows PC and do a drag and drop copy of all the files from one mac-formatted hard drive to the empty mac-formatted hard drive?(The hard drive, with new files copied to it, will be used with a mac computer a few days later at separate location.)

    Thanks guys.

  • 13 Replies sorted by
  • kurthkurth

    http://www.mediafour.com/software/macdrive/

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @kurth Thanks.

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @kurth Just an FYI. I started downloading macdrive and my virus protection software blocked it. I looked at review on Amazon and a lot of people said it was crashing their Windows 7 system.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Can you clone?

  • jleojleo

    macrium free , Windows Hard Drive Cloning App

    this app might be used to make an exact clone of the drive, not pick and choose specific files...

    HOW TO CLONE A HARD DRIVE IN WINDOWS OR MAC OS X

    http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-clone-a-hard-drive-in-windows-mac-or-linux/

    http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3363

    http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    I think my trouble will be getting the windows PC computer to recognize the two mac formatted external hard drives (the empty one and one with files I want copied to empty).

    I'm not too familiar with cloning particulars (other than that it copies all aspects of drives including applications, vs a drag and drop of regular files only). All I need are the basic files (video footage, video editing project files etc.). But if cloning is a technique that will allow me to access mac formatted hard drives from a PC, then I'd definitely appreciate any advice.

    Thanks guys.

  • Lincoln11Lincoln11

    What version of Macdrive were you downloading? I have been using v8 and 9 since I moved off my Macbook Pro in 2009 and never have had any problems. I have a mac formatted drive attached to my PC as we speak and back up all my sound effects and loop libraries there.

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @Lincoln11 I went to link below and did download, so must be latest versoon. Antivirus stopped it for some reason. Reviews say apparently the problem is for Windows 7 users. Glad It's working for you.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Antivirus stopped it for some reason.

    Who knew at the time that we will have same, but authority will be some antivirus software. :-)

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    Lol. @VK You have good sense of humor my friend.

  • davjddavjd

    You can try and use a linux live distribution to boot up your machine and do the job. Most linux distributions don't have problems with mac formatted drives

  • Lincoln11Lincoln11

    Hey I found a download for Macdrive8 for XP and 7 only. Give that a shot, it should have free trial for five days.

    http://www.mediafour.com/support/macdrive8/

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    Thanks for advice guys. After looking at reviews of HFS Explorer, MacDrive and Paragon, it appears all have some significant security risks. Some even result in "partition problems" and data loss. So, I'll just deal with the inconvenience of lugging hard drives back to my iMac at home, doing safe copying of drives using my iMac, then lugging hard drives back to owner.

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