Can I backup data from a Mac HD via a Windows PC?

johnmorgan89

Harry_Potless wrote: »

Please can you point me to where I might get a Linux Live CD and instructions on its use?

I can't add a link but search Google for:

Ubuntu Live CD.

Having said that if your sons work is on the macbook I would sooooo go to an Apple store or reseller. It might cost you some £ but if there is like 2 years worth of work on there he could be in trouble.

fishybusiness

If I do that and I also hook up another external drive to copy the data to, what formatting method should I use for the target drive, do you know?

Some one has answered your question, just one thing from a safety point of view...

Only plug your target drive in for a start, format it and make sure it is working before plugging your Mac drive in.

Reason is to make 100% sure you don't format the wrong drive. It's just begin careful

Johnmcl7

Harry_Potless wrote: »

Thanks. If we can't read it from Windows it doesn't matter - so long as we can copy it as raw data to be read on a Mac, later. Is that possible?

No, it's not quite as simple as that unfortunately as Windows won't be able to mount the drive at all natively so you won't be able to do anything with it in Windows unless you have software installed for it.

As above I'd recommend the Ubuntu Live CD as it generally works well as you get what appears to be a fully functional operating system. You would then just plug in the Mac drive via USB and plug in the backup drive and drag the files you want across. Certainly the Windows software option is going to be more convenient if you don't mind paying the fee for it.

In terms of formatting if your son doesn't have any large files (4GB+) then fat32 is going to be the most convenient format as it can be read under Linux, OSX and Windows 7 natively plus it's usually the default format that's used for them anyway.

John

Harry_Potless

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

No, it's not quite as simple as that unfortunately as Windows won't be able to mount the drive at all natively so you won't be able to do anything with it in Windows unless you have software installed for it.

As above I'd recommend the Ubuntu Live CD as it generally works well as you get what appears to be a fully functional operating system. You would then just plug in the Mac drive via USB and plug in the backup drive and drag the files you want across. Certainly the Windows software option is going to be more convenient if you don't mind paying the fee for it.

In terms of formatting if your son doesn't have any large files (4GB+) then fat32 is going to be the most convenient format as it can be read under Linux, OSX and Windows 7 natively plus it's usually the default format that's used for them anyway.

John

Thanks. I think I might try this route first and if he's got files larger than 4Gb they will only be movie files anyway so he can either download them again or live without them (maybe this will teach him that not everything I say is automatically "wrong" and that he should give consideration to backing up his important files - but then again, how often has a teenager ever listened to his/her dad? I didn't, for sure). :T

macman

Can you get access to another Mac and copy the data off to that?

prowla

On the "you must back up your data" thing - Apple offer cloud based storage, and I think Dropbox is cross-platform.

macman

Or Carbonite is good value at £42pa for unlimited data.

Harry_Potless

macman wrote: »

Can you get access to another Mac and copy the data off to that?

Thanks, but no.

If we could have, we would have.

Which is why I asked in my OP whether or not we could transfer data from a Mac HD to another HD via Windows.

Maybe I'm ignorant (we all are in certain disciplines) but hopefully not absolutely stupid. If we had another Mac would we be even asking this question?I appreciate that you probably mean well but your approach can be somewhat inflammatory. Get off of your high horse and try offering the helpful post you just did at the the start, rather than the end, of the the thread.

That said, thank you for the suggestion and for taking the time to post it.

macman

I'm not on any 'high horse', and my post was not remotely inflammatory.
It's frequently necessary on here to suggest what might nevertheless be obvious to most-we have no idea what you or your son's level of technical skill is.
You may not have another Mac, but your son might be able to get access to one via his university? Hundreds of students-there must be more than one Mac.