From Apple to PC

[Dror Levi]

i got an external hard drive full with 5D video files that were transfer from an apple computer.
I have a PC and it does not see the hard drive.
Wander if any one knows the workaround.
Thank you.

[Seth Bloombaum]

The method I use is to format an external drive in PC format from the Mac. This creates a FAT32 partition, which both Mac and PC can write to. The disadvantage is that this does not accommodate any file over 4GB, but this is OK for 5d files, as they max at 4GB anyway.

The other method is to purchase software for the PC to see the Mac-formatted drive, or for a Mac to see an NTFS drive. For the PC, I've heard of people using Macdrive, seems to work fine for them. 5-day free trial...

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

A Mac can read, but not write a 'Windows' formatted disk.
A Windows PC cannot read or write a 'Mac'-formatted disk.

There are software work-arounds, but I don't know how reliable they are.
In both the Mac and the Windows case there should be software packages that let you write/read disks of the other OS, but I don't know if they always work as expected and if there is a lot of chance they f*ck your system up.

You could use someone's Mac and use a FAT32 external hard disk (or USB stick, depending on how much time you have and how much footage it is) to pull over the files to the FAT32 disk. That disk will be readable and writable by both. If the files are smaller then 4GB each this will be possible.

Also put a Mac and a Windows computer in a network, and maybe transfer files directly.

Snow Leopard now also has support for exFAT format, and I *think* SOME versions of Windows support this now as well. If I'm not mistaken, it's like FAT32, but without the 4GB limitation.

EDIT: Seth beat me to it.

[Dror Levi]

Thank you guys.
I am transferring right now the files using Macdrive.