# Moving photos from a Mac to a PC



## murdog (Jan 20, 2012)

Hi, hope you guys can help me.

My wife has a bunch of photos on a mac, and we're hoping to move them over to a PC.  What would the best way to do that be?  Are there memory sticks or external hard drives that are compatible with both?  We don't really want to burn them all to DVD as there are alot, and I'm not sure we'd be able to view them properly anyways...


----------



## kenkickr (Jan 20, 2012)

As long as the Flash drive and/or External drive is FAT32 then I'd just copy them on to one of the devices on the Mac then take them over to the PC and copy them onto the PC.


----------



## newtekie1 (Jan 20, 2012)

Yep, any drive formatted to FAT32 can be used on both systems.


----------



## Batou1986 (Jan 20, 2012)

Ex-Fat also is an option for larger drives


----------



## Disparia (Jan 20, 2012)

Are they not at the same location? Seems easiest would be to create a network share on the PC and copy them all over.


----------



## newtekie1 (Jan 20, 2012)

Batou1986 said:


> Ex-Fat also is an option for larger drives



Ah, yes, this is the better option if you have OSX 10.6.5 or newer.



Jizzler said:


> Are they not at the same location? Seems easiest would be to create a network share on the PC and copy them all over.



Easiest,  maybe, but possibly far more time consuming depending on the network speed.  If you've got a gigabit network setup, then this is definitely the best option.  If you have a wireless setup, don't both.


----------



## copenhagen69 (Jan 20, 2012)

murdog said:


> Hi, hope you guys can help me.
> 
> My wife has a bunch of photos on a mac, and we're hoping to move them over to a PC.  What would the best way to do that be?  Are there memory sticks or external hard drives that are compatible with both?  We don't really want to burn them all to DVD as there are alot, and I'm not sure we'd be able to view them properly anyways...




best solution out there.... buy this ...

http://j5create.com/juc400.htm


----------



## Wrigleyvillain (Jan 20, 2012)

That thing is kinda cool but not really necessary to buy anything. As others have said you just want Fat 32 formatted storage devices and can do that on the Mac as well in Disk Utility choose "MS-DOS (FAT)" option under Erase tab.


----------



## murdog (Jan 21, 2012)

Ok thanks alot guys.  We're looking into some of these solutions - more questions likely...

Ok, so looking at the wormhole connector that seems like it would be a good solution.  Problem is I can't find one up here in Calgary, Canada, but I could order one from the states - Fry's electronics has them for $40.

About the flash drives, that would be a good solution as well, and about the same price.  When I'm shopping for them, I don't really see anything that says FAT-32 or EX-FAT.  Do you format them after purchase?  

As far as creating a network share, that also seems like it would be a good solution, especially since it involves no purchasing.  I've never done it before though.  I've got my PC in the basement, with a wireless connection to the internet.  The mac is a macbook.  How do I create a network?

Oh man sorry for being such a technotard, I'm just learning all this.  Apologies if those are really stupid questions.


----------



## Wrigleyvillain (Jan 21, 2012)

Oh I just figured you already had a few thumb drives or such for this. Yes you would/could format them afterwards although a new one very well may come formatted as FAT already (if not will be NTFS which is the newer filesystem that Windows PCs use now; FAT is the the old filesystem format but, again, the one you want to use so it can also be seen and used on the Mac.) 

This same advice and instruction applies to external hard drives too, by the way, if you wanted to go that route. They are all just disks to the computer.


----------



## Ammonite (Feb 3, 2012)

Simply dragging them onto an external disk / flash drive will do the trick. If stored in iPhoto, simply click on one of the pictures then press Command + A to select all. Once highlighted with a yellow border, click and hold while dragging the images onto the drive. You may need to hold the "alt + option" key while dragging the files before letting go, Mac OS used to only create shortcuts of files onto external disks (not sure if it does this anymore).

If you can't reformat it and you are stuck with NTFS (this format is often used because it takes up less space than FAT on drives) you can always download and install MacFuse (its not longer being updated but it still does the trick) to let Mac OS read and edit the drive.


----------



## Dippyskoodlez (Feb 3, 2012)

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

I use it on my systems. FANTASTIC ntfs support. Give it a consideration, if you want to use NTFS drives.


----------



## Munki (Feb 3, 2012)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
> 
> I use it on my systems. FANTASTIC ntfs support. Give it a consideration, if you want to use NTFS drives.



x2 I have my 2Tb WD Elements sharing across my Windows and Mac machines with this.


----------



## Ammonite (Feb 3, 2012)

Meh, MacFuse is better IMO because its free and does the same job.


----------



## murdog (Feb 3, 2012)

Thanks guys it's been a real help.  We got a 32GB Patriot Rage USB Flash Drive.  The guy at the store said it would be FAT32 but able to be configured for the others.  We're only on OS 10.4 or something (employer-issued) so that should be good.  We'll try transferring tomorrow if we can get off our lazy asses.

Sharing a drive across mac/pc eh?  That would be helpful.  

If I have time soon I'm going to try setting up a wireless network with the two comps.


----------



## Ammonite (Feb 3, 2012)

Any drive can be shared from any computer (as long as it has the right connectors). Its just the format which is the issue, and it can be easily changed. 

Luckily since version 10.6 NTFS support has been added (though I hear its disabled by default) so its a problem in the past.


----------



## Dippyskoodlez (Feb 3, 2012)

Ammonite said:


> Any drive can be shared from any computer (as long as it has the right connectors). Its just the format which is the issue, and it can be easily changed.
> 
> Luckily since version 10.6 NTFS support has been added (though I hear its disabled by default) so its a problem in the past.



Read ability has been supported for ages, its just the writing that can be flaky- OS X's write implementation is disabled because of this instability.


----------



## Ammonite (Feb 3, 2012)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> Read ability has been supported for ages, its just the writing that can be flaky- OS X's write implementation is disabled because of this instability.



Ages? Leopard can not write by default. As for reading, that wasn't the requirement here.


----------



## Moose (Feb 6, 2012)

Personally I'd make an ftp server on the pc and wack them over in a flash.


----------



## kaser123 (Feb 21, 2012)

i should be ok with any usb sticks, i guess. I have done it before between a virtual machine(mac osx) and windows, and it worked OK. No other issues except for the wired file names.


----------



## murdog (Feb 24, 2012)

Moose said:


> Personally I'd make an ftp server on the pc and wack them over in a flash.



Thanks for all the help, everyone.  Could someone explain a little more what Moose means by ftp server?  I still haven't got around to trying to network the two (new baby a few weeks ago is a time killer).


----------



## aayman_farzand (Feb 24, 2012)

If you have an iCloud compatible OS then use that. That has got to be the easiest way I've seen so far for moving and syncing photos, very very convenient once you have it set up.

OTher than that just use a flash drive.


----------

