Transferring files from Mac to PC

[Matt Grondin]

So whenever I finish some rough mixes, I've usually burned them onto a cd to take upstairs to my PC to listen on some different speakers and then burn some more cd's for the client... I've find myself using up excess cd's though because I inevitable go back to fix something, even on the roughs. What's the easiest way to to transfer the files from my Mac to my PC? The sessions are all recorded on Firewire drives, but I think they are formatted for Mac and I wasn't sure if I could open it on PC... could I maybe buy a cheap little drive for this application that's formatted to work with both types of computers? Thanks.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Use MacDrive from www.mediafour.com -- you'll be able to mount your Mac formatted drives on your XP computer... Just unmount (using the tool in the taskbar) them to remove them when you're done.

Rail

[Matt Grondin]

That could work... I should try to buy an extra power supply and firewire cable from LaCie so I could just carry the drive back and forth without all the hassle. Thanks.

[tommyd]

Rail is right, Macdrive is the stuff for sharing drives between platforms. The other alternative might be to network the two computers, letting you just copy files back and forth. Just a thought,
TommyD

[Geert van den Berg]

I would use an ethernet connection between both machines. Interfacing between Mac and PC is very easy nowadays and you don't have to unmount and remount your drives all the time, just share a folder on your Mac where you put your mixes and enable windows sharing in the network settings.

[button]

Originally Posted by Geert van den Berg

just share a folder on your Mac where you put your mixes and enable windows sharing in the network settings.

Personally I've found it easier to share a folder on the PCs of my network, that way you can keep your Mac - the main music machine - clean and un-encumbered by sharing :-)

If both machines have ethernet ports connected to a router, just click Go>Connect to Server in the Mac's Finder. You will automatically see the shared network folder on the PC. The PC folder will mount like a normal external drive. Don't forget to unmount if you put the Mac to sleep, or you may have a kp on wake.

Just my 10 cents worth.

[zvenx]

I share both my mac and pc via networking and a router, once you have at least panther on the mac, nary a problem.
but if you are hesistant, buy a big enough jump drive aka usb flash drive.. the mac will read it (do not format it some don't work when you reformat it), pull it out and take it to your pc usb.
no problem.

rsp

[Geert van den Berg]

Originally Posted by button

Personally I've found it easier to share a folder on the PCs of my network, that way you can keep your Mac - the main music machine - clean and un-encumbered by sharing :-)

If both machines have ethernet ports connected to a router, just click Go>Connect to Server in the Mac's Finder. You will automatically see the shared network folder on the PC. The PC folder will mount like a normal external drive. Don't forget to unmount if you put the Mac to sleep, or you may have a kp on wake.

Just my 10 cents worth.

You're completely right!

But IMHO it doesn't really matter. At the studio where I work we do both. if you share the Mac you don't have to copy any files. I can't bounce to disk on a network drive (in PT). But you can burn and listen directly over the network. Gigabit ethernet is fast enough for that.

[Matt Grondin]

My PC's upstairs but my Mac is downstairs... I really don't feel like drilling a hole in the wall and ceiling... I will probably just do the hard drive thing. Thanks though. Networking would be sweet.

[junior]

macdrive works like a charm for me. another cool thing is if you use cross-platform apps (like cubase, live, protools, etc), all you have to do is take the drive to your pc and your project's right where you left off on the mac.

btw, have you thought of trying a vnc client that does file transfers?
http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/

[sardi]

Or you could just use a CD-RW instead......

Play it as an audio CD, or just burn them as wavs and play em thru an app on the PC if need be.

Pretty simple.

I use CD-RW's in my car ALL the time. Just to listen to things as Im going......

In fact, I rarely use normal CD's at all except when burning the final copy. HaHa........ Ive even got into the habit of burnin a couple of rewrites with what I wanna hear in my car for the next couple of days, then just blankin them and doin it again when I want different stuff. Much better than having a ridiculous amount of CD's everywhere.

[robmix]

just get a little USB flashdrive like this one:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...lm=TF935LL%2FA

I do exactly what you're doing using one of these and it's awesome.

[Jonathan Starr]

I recently bought a Lacie D2 with firewire & USB and I use it to move files from PC to Mac & visa versa. We have 7 computers in my studio/office/2 homes and I'm using this to keep them all backed up.

I partitioned it with Disk Utility in Tiger and it seems to work fine without Mactools or any other software.

Am I missing something?

[Henchman]

Originally Posted by dobby12

My PC's upstairs but my Mac is downstairs... I really don't feel like drilling a hole in the wall and ceiling... I will probably just do the hard drive thing. Thanks though. Networking would be sweet.

Get a wireless router. Those things are cheap these days.