New freelance with production company requires transfer of large AVI's from PC to my Mac for editing. But the file transfers aren't working. Need help. I could read the smaller AVI's but not a larger 8+gig file from their dual-layer DVD. I'm on a MacPro with dual-layer drive.

Also tried taking in an external hard drive I use with my Mac, but the file wouldn't transfer from their PC (as Fat-32 required by my Mac-based external hard drive limits file size to around 4 gig). If the drive were reconfigured as NTFS to accept larger files, my Mac would no longer recognize the drive). The client tried uploading the files to both my iDisk and FTP sites, but the uploads failed (though within account capacity).

I could get a 16gig flash drive but understand it would have the Fat-32 limit of approx. 4gig also. Have an iPod, but don't believe that will accept AVI's. This is a new client, it would not be wise to have them break the clip into smaller sections - easier to find someone else to do the edit. The computers are at different sites and can't be connected directly. Any ideas??

Any chance of using software like Toast to copy the files to TWO single layer DVDs using Disc Spanning? That will break the file up to be stitched later. Never tried it, just a brain "storm/drizzle"...

Install MacFUSE to read the NTFS formatted drive. File copy will be slow, but it will work.

Thanks! MacFUSE sounds like a viable option - I'm checking into this.

Everything you want to do can be done with SAMBA (or SMB protocol built into OS X)
and will be transferred extremely quick (if you have gigabyte Ethernet).

1) Enable PC File Sharing on MacPro (under prefs/sharing - then check SMB under options)
2) Connect your NTFS drive containing AVI's to your PC
3) Connect your MacPro to your LAN (same as PC)
4) Determine your IP Address on your MAC (usually 192.168.#.#)
5) On the PC click on the RUN under start and type exactly this "\\192.168.#.#\username"
6) Enter your username and password when prompted
7) Open the desktop folder and drag the AVI's to that directory

Keep in mind you cannot see Mac formatted volumes (like firewire 800 drives) but if you have space on your desktop, just drag the transferred off and onto whatever Mac volume you want.

Hope this helps,
-C

Thanks! MacFUSE sounds like a viable option - I'm checking into this.

Macfuse works great to allow read/write access to NTFS drives, but you should know that you can already read and copy files from an NTFS drive with a Mac. You just can't write to NTFS.

With Macfuse, you also need the NTFS-3G driver installed:

NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/)

Just Macfuse by itself won't work.