question about iMac

[racketman]

I am buying an iMac, will it read my external HD I used to save all my photos from my PC or will I have to copy the images onto DVD?

[racketman]

I think I have found the answer ie that iMac will read FAT 32 files so should be ok.

[inward/outward]

I cannot remember which format is ready by both PC and Mac, but it is either FAT 32, of NTFS. If you have your external hardrive formatted to the one that is read by both, you will know when you plug it in and you can see your files. If not, you will need to put all your files on another drive, plug your external HD into your Mac and format it with the Mac format (preferably the one that can be read by both systems in case you switch back and forth), then copy all your files on to it.

I had to do this when I switched and I just formatted them to be ready by both systems, not just Mac.

There may be an easier way, but I am not sure. You can check the Mac forums and they have the answer I am sure, if easier.

Let us know what works for we all may have to do this from time to time.

[René Damkot]

OSX will read both fat32 and NTFS "natively" from I think 10.4 and newer, and can be made to write to NTFS as well.

[Tony-S]

FAT32 - read and write.
NTFS - read only (without third-party software).

[scokar]

FAT32 is the best method

[dmstraton]

If you are using Time Machine to back up that drive however, it will need to be reformatted to the Mac standard. Time Machine will not recognize an external drive in FAT32...I had to manually copy all my pictures over to a third drive and then reformat, and copy them back to the original external drive before Time Machine would back up both my internal hard drive and external hard drive automatically.

[Irreverent]

One thing to consider is that with FAT32 you are restricted to an upper file size limit of around 4GB. While that will not be an issue for most people, you might find it becomes something of a hindrance if you want to keep writing to that drive and making use of the very useful Disc Image (dmg) format on the Mac (as used by backup applications such as Super Duper), or if you want to creaate iso or dmg image files of DVDs for archival purposes (or even just for quick and easy access). If you only ever plan on reading from that disk, then either file system will be fine. However, if you plan to keep writing to the disc and predict you may wish to store large files in the future, it might be worth backing up onto another drive, reformatting in HFS+J, and dumping the files back across. Please consider if you do this that Windows does not natively read OR write to the HFS filesystem.

As a final note, of the 3 file systems mentioned, FAT32 is by far the most inferior when it comes to efficiency, security, robustness and fragmentation.

[macro junkie]

whats the difrence between a good pc and a good mac?

[Colorblinded]

whats the difrence between a good pc and a good mac?
Weird question...

But I'll say the OS and the price :lol:

[Bill Allsopp]

whats the difrence between a good pc and a good mac?

Clever answer
A good pc is a miracle in my experience. A good Mac is pretty much standard.
Alternate version
Mac's are designed from the bottom up to deal with image processing more efficiently.

[Colorblinded]

Practical answer
They both do the same job about equally well using most standard software.

[randomlinh]

Clever answer
A good pc is a miracle in my experience. A good Mac is pretty much standard.
Alternate version
Mac's are designed from the bottom up to deal with image processing more efficiently.
i disagree with that. A properly set up Windows box will work just as well as the mac (matched for hardware). It boils down to do you use Apple Pro software or not.

Aperture uses the GPU, yes, but Lightroom has proven using the CPU ain't bad either, and broadens what it can run on. Though, I believe Adobe has announced they will go the GPU route too as well, just dunno when. unfortunately for Apple, we won't get a 64bit enabled CS4, we'll have to wait for CS5.

The mac pro case is a dream to work with though. And I personally like Apple's design.. but honestly, that is a decision that works for a personal system.. but fails in the corporate world, heh.

[René Damkot]

whats the difrence between a good pc and a good mac?

The OS.

[racketman]

thanks for replies, anyway I set up my new iMac 24" yesterday and have just connected my Freecom external HD previously used with my old PC and all the files seem to be recognised.

[Bill Allsopp]

thanks for replies, anyway I set up my new iMac 24" yesterday and have just connected my Freecom external HD previously used with my old PC and all the files seem to be recognised.

Great news! Hope you get on well.