I have 2 external hard-drives, one usually hooked up to a Windows XP
PC and one hooked up to a Mac OS 10.4 machine. I was able to copy stuf
from the Windows HD to the Mac HD using the Mac computer but I have
been unable to copy data from the Mac HD to the Windows HD.
When hooking both up to a Mac, the Windows HD is read-only.
When hooking both up to a PC, none of the Mac partitions/voluems is
recognized. (Including by going into Device Manager to "populate" the
disks)
I think both are NTSF.
My question is:
Using either the PC or Mac machine, how can I copy from the Mac HD to
the Windows HD (or even to the Windows internal HD) without:
- reformatting either drive
- paying more than $10 for additional software or hardware

Payment is based on succesful implementation of suggestion.

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Request for Question Clarification by maniac-ga on 12 Apr 2006 18:46 PDT

Hello Ettlinger,

Hmm. From the symptoms you describe, its most likely that
 - the Windows HD is likely formatted NTFS (RW from Windows, R only from MacOS)
 - the Mac HD is likely formatted HFS Plus (RW from MacOS, not
readable from Windows)
As is, there doesn't seem to be a no cost solution for that configuration.

As noted by eastbayhardcore, you could use Mac Drive on Windows to
read / write the Mac HD. I can also confirm this is a good solution
(but doesn't meet your $10 cost limit).

If you used a router, you can set up the Mac using "Windows Sharing"
  Apple Menu -> System Preferences... -> Sharing -> Windows Sharing
which allows your Windows machine to access the Mac OS files /
folders. In a similar way, the Mac can access any shared folders on
your Windows machine with the finder menu
  Go -> Connect to Server... -> (enter path to your Windows machine)
A four port switch or router may also cost you about $50 (including
cables). I have a set up similar to this in my home to share between a
Mac and other computers. This solution also has the advantage that you
don't need to move the external disks between machines to share the
data between systems. The throughput to copy data between systems will
be roughly 10 Mbyte/sec (on a 100 Mbit connection)  or a couple hours
for your 80 GByte of data.

If you want to pursue one of these alternatives and need a complete
answer, please make a clarification and I can provide some step by
step instructions on the set up.

  --Maniac

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Clarification of Question by ettlinger-ga on 17 Apr 2006 14:54 PDT

Maniac,

Thanks for the note. Unfortunately, I don't have a router and $50 (for
a router or MacDrive) is a little much for this one-time transfer. I
think what I will do is use a 9 gig DVD-ROM a few times... a bit of a
pain, but cheap.

Hey, 

You could get a router and put them both on the same network and then
share the files you want to copy on one of the machines. I'm not sure
how networking works on MAC, but an even easier way to do it is to
connect both machines to the same router which has an internet
connection and sign on to AOL Instant Messenger from both computers on
2 different screennames. (Screennames are free to create, and software
is free as well from www.aim.com) After this, add both screennames to
both buddy lists. If you're on the windows machine and want to copy to
the mac machine, goto the windows machine, right click on the
screenname that is signed on on the mac machine from the buddy list
and pick send file. Pick the file you want to send and hit ok or
watever button is there. Then goto the mac machine, accept the file
transfer and pick where you want to store the file. You can do this
with entire directories so as to not keep picking one file at a time.
As long as both computers are connected to the same router or network
the speed of transfer should be normal as opposed to just sending
files over AIM on the internet.

An interesting suggestions, but tranfering 80 gig over the internet is
not practical, especially when all the hardware is within 5 feet of
each other.
I will look into purchasing a router, but that will probably require
that I learn how to set up a network.

Thanks for the suggestion, though!

Hi, we have this problem all the time because we run multiple mac and
pc's through different workgroups.  We have found that a simple fix is
to use USB Flash Drives, they are cheap and fun and do the job quicker
than network transfers, besides what better to stick your flash in
your neighbours slot.  ;-)

We sell them too  http://www.geeksgalore.ca

128 MB  19.00
256 MB  29.00
512 MB  45.00
1 GB    119.00

80 GB!!!!!!!   Yikes, well setup a FTP server, nice an easy and free 
http://www.jgaa.com/

I'd suggest a very reasonably priced piece of software called Mac
Drive. It is available at http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/
and will allow you to read OSX formatted drives on Windows. The
software is available for roughly $50 and works quite well. I am a
paying customer and have had a great experience with Mac Drive. While
this doesn't meet your $10 criteria it make the process painless and
not reliant on a network. If you don't want to use this you could
always use Windows File Sharing or an FTP to copy files between
drives.

If you can dopy all the data off the external drive and reformat you
could make the external drive a FAT32 filesystem, instead of ntfs, or
whatever the mac is using.  FAT32 is older, but it's fully cross
compatible betwen windows and mac (iPod's use a FAT32 partition for
the mp3 data).

As articulated in my original question, I'd like to avoid reformatting
either drive. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

If both computers have firewire than you could boot one up in Hard
Drive Target Mode. This will solve your read/write problems and you
won't have to change anything. Just plug a firewire cable into the
port of both machines, restart, and on the mac hold down the letter
"T".

Maniac,

Thanks for the note. Unfortunately, I don't have a router and $50 (for
a router or MacDrive) is a little much for this one-time transfer. I
think what I will do is use a 9 gig DVD-ROM a few times... a bit of a
pain, but cheap.