Calling all OSX, XP, Video Editors for Help with a dilemma

Hey Everyone,

I'm right now borrowing my friend's G4 Power Mac running 10.3.5 (with Classic running in background, i believe.)

I have my Windows Network with a couple of XPsp2 machines behind a router.

My problem is that I need to get our DV footage from the Mac's harddrive to my Windows Machine. I have an external firewire drive but it's a NTFS formatted one. (I just discovered that a mounted NTFS drive is read only.) And I could format it to Fat32 but the files total about 30 gigs and Most of them are over 10 gb each and Fat32 I remember cannot handle over 2gb file sizes right?

So, I next thought I could connect the Mac to my network via a Switch and transfer the files that way, (please confirm if I've thought this through correctly) but when I plugged in the ethernet cable to hope that the Mac would 'auto-recognize the network' and maybe even connect to the internet, but sadly, no.

I then went to the Network Preferences to run the wizard, but it informed me that It could not 'auto'-do-it's-thing. So, I tried to manually enter a static IP address, Subnet, and router IP but No dice.

So, I'm lost right about now, and I'm not very familiar with the Mac Environment, it's software, the different possibilities which may be availabe to me. Please suggest a way to allow me to get 30Gb to my windows drive.

Thanks all

#404353

Use target disk mode (firewire cable) see my solution down the very bottom...

I could connect the Mac to my network via a Switch and transfer the files that way, (please confirm if I've thought this through correctly)

Fc

When it comes to video editing you should avoid networking... especially between two different platforms. Networks can be slow and frustrating and will often result in garbled video... ok if you have a good network it could work out OK, but i've tried this before and it was just an outright pain.

Hey Everyone,
I could format it to Fat32 but the files total about 30 gigs and Most of them are over 10 gb each and Fat32 I remember cannot handle over 2gb file sizes right?

Fc

As for fat 32, i think (in other words im not sure) you can have files over 2gb, but each sector on the hd is 2gb... so i think that would work... if not you could divide the movie into 2gb pieces and join on the other end perhaps.

MY SOLUTION

1-Shut down the mac and leave the PC on. get a Firewire cable, connect the pc to the mac (assuming they both have firewire)

2- start up the mac holding down the T key. This will make the MAC act as an external HD to the PC.

3- on your pc go into my computer and find the MAC computer (it should appear as a drive.)Drag files to and from the disk to transfer them.

4- Push the power button on the first computer to shut it down and disconnect the FireWire cable.

This is the most reliable and convenient way and will ensure a fast trouble free transfer with clear video

#404357

Levi- The perfectionist - thank you for the detailed description... I like the sound of that technique.. howver, can the XPsp2 recognize the Mac's formatted Harddrive natively without any additional software?

UPDATE: I just rebooted the Mac and discovered teh network's online now. I can see my PC's in Finder. I still want to try your above described method, but first see how this fares.

When you said networking is unreliable, could you please clarify? I am not trying to stream the video, just transfer the files by copying... has there been known issues with corrupted data? Dropped connections? Or is my worst case scenario, a slow transfer?

#404361

mmm good question - i didnt think of that.

umm if the drive is fat32 in the mac then yes... otherwise i think there is a program for pc's called macdrive (i'll have a quick look) which enables the mac file system to be recognised.

EDIT- I just googled macdrive, heres the link http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/ i think its a 30 day trial, but thats all you should need, copy accross those files in the 30 days and you should be right.

hope it works out for you, let me know how it goes if you decide to try this method.

#404362

I actually purchased a license for that app a few months back.. it's at my office though grr... Here's what I got so far:

1) A networked OSX which can access my shares on my PC

2) A Firewire drive with 40gb free (connected to my windows machine) that has been shared and now opened within Finder

3) A test run of 60mb transferred successfully.

4) 3 files (10gb, 5gb, and 10gb) drag-n-dropped onto the finder window showing my Firewire share.

5) Now showing about 8hours of transfer time remaining with 160mb copied thusfar.

So what do you think? Am I setting myself up for disapointment/failure? Am I going to find out that halfway through, it aborts? Or worse, I think all went well but your afore mentioned garbled video issue will surface?

#404366

this isn't that difficult. make sure your mac and your pc are on the same workgroup. share a target folder on the pc. then, in finder, click on network. you should see the pc. it'll ask for user id/pw. you'll then see the shared folder. hit okay. drag your files to the share icon on the the mac desktop. that's it.

oh, right, you're having trouble with the network. go to system preferences|network. highlight the ethernet connection and configure. make sure you're set to dhcp. i do this mac stuff all the time. it just works. if not, try repairing your permissions.

(any mac stuff you don't understand? apple has great built-in help. just type 'repair permissions' in help. it'll tell you how. same for changing workgroup. just type 'workgroup').

good luck!

#404370

what way are you transferring it? -if it says 8hrs then.... i'd try another method... sometimes when you start copying files it says some huge amount of time, give it five minutes, if its still at 8hrs or something rediculous then can it.

so let me get this straight, your sending files through the network to your pc which is putting them onto the external firewire?... sounds a little risky, no offense.

u can still use macdrive for 30 days... i know little about networking and feel its risky, so i cant help you that way... not sure about the firewire hd and NFTS...

#404371

I just stumbled across this and thought it was somewhat fitting (kind of a milestone) although not of use to me right now

As part of the Linux-NTFS project, I'm happy to announce my contribution
to ntfsmount and libntfs which resulted ntfs-3g, a read-write ntfs driver,
capable for unlimited file creation and deletion.

The driver was successfully tested very exhaustively for a longer period of
time by many ways and methods, creating and destroying millions of files and
directories on newly created images, and on over 40 real, very diverse NTFS
images collected over the last four years.

a read-write ntfs driver, capable for unlimited file creation and deletion for linux

UPDATE: almost 40% there.... just another 5 hours ..lol

#404385