PC/Mac Compatibility ?

OK guys - I'm scratching my head about this - so bear with me as I try and explain.

Husband in Hospital [ long story and not going into it] and in an isolation room . I vist as and when I like - no restrictions. He can have lappy [ PC ] with him but there is no internet access - have offered to get a mobile dongle but he said no , so his lappy is in the house.

Got an SMS from him in the wee small hours asking for

1) MY lappy [ MacBook]
2) DVDs to record to the MacBook
3) Portable external Drives for my MacBook [ 2 of them ???]
4)portable external Drives for HIS machines [ 2 of them ]

NOW - I have no idea what he's really wanting to do though I suspect it's getting some Northern France Battlefield stuff from his machines [ yes backed up regularly and the externals were done the night before he went back in ] and put onto mine for the future .

The real puzzle for me is

Can my MacBook read from his PC externals ? and if so will copying from them to mine be a problem ? Was intending to add to that wee list my 16GB USB Flash Drive.

Can I burn DVDs from his Externals using my MacBook ?

Which DVDs are better for this - we have DVD rewrites and also + and - ones .

Would it be safer to copy stuff to my 16GB Flash Drive and just do all the burning at home while I have peace and quiet to do this ?

I do have plenty of room on my WD Portable External - 57GB and there should be slightly more than that on the other Portable External.

Any help /advice before 1pm would be appreciated .

Edited by goldenoldie (Thu 30-Apr-09 08:52:10)

Can't help with your basic questions, but if you're taking that lot in, why not add an Ethernet cable and set up an ad hoc network? Can't remember the details, but I'm sure I've seen something on this somewhere...

Or even a wireless one if the hospital will allow it?

The Mac should have no problem reading from the PC external storage, however it is formatted. However, the PC may not be able to read, or write to, the Mac external drives - it depends upon how they are formatted.

If your husband is going to store data onto external hard drives, or USB sticks, from his PC you should have no problems reading this and transferring it to your Mac equipment. CDs/DVDs have a common format, so anything recorded on those should be readable on both machines.

no ethernet there and have tried sniffing for a wireless network - no use I can't find anything and with the MacBook I always find more than he does with his PC

Once they move into the New Building there will be Internet for patients

We have been in the habit of transferring Pics and Data Files [ mainly financial stuff] using USB sticks hence my thought of the 16GB one I have.

I just don't know what he's actually wanting to do .

I think he's looking for stuff from his machines that he knows is on his Externals . I think this caper is to ensure that it's preserved by putting it on mine - the only snag with all this is that he uses Works for Windows so I'm just hoping that this will be in a format that either Neo-Office or MSOffice can cope with. his spread sheets gave problems in the past .

oops just realised what you meant Bill - you mean ethernet between his machine and mine ? His machine is not with him - I can't see connecting the External Drives can be done by eithernet.

Just had a terrible thought - I'm only USB 1 my externals are all Firewire - must look at his and see what his are

Was right - his Externals are USB2 so they will be sloooow on my machine

Edited by goldenoldie (Thu 30-Apr-09 09:53:45)

In reply to a post by goldenoldie:

no ethernet there and have tried sniffing for a wireless network - no use I can't find anything and with the MacBook I always find more than he does with his PC

Once they move into the New Building there will be Internet for patients

That's not what I meant- Ad Hoc Networking

Then you doon't have to worry whether Machine A can read the HDDs (internal or external) for Machine B, you just have to get the sharing right.

Yebbut - I'm not taking his lappy in - only the portable externals for his machines .

Though I did set up things at home so we could File Share he was NOT happy and I've been banned from doing that

The only connections on his Externals are for USB2 - so can only use that [ I TOLD him to get Firewire for them but he didn't listen being the expert :( ]

I'm not taking his lappy in - only the portable externals for his machines .

Ah, I mis-read the list in your OP, sorry

I know that in terms of Mac I had to download the drivers from 3s website which was a pain but seemed to be Ok when I sorted that out.
Im not sure about other providers etc but I think this is something they should sort out!

Personally, I wouldn't let my SO anywhere near my computers!

his Externals are USB2 so they will be sloooow on my machine

Never mind - you can just set the copy going then go away and do something useful for an hour or two whilst the data transfers.

Tsk tsk - such a display of trust

I won't go near his machines - nasty windows things

Agreed - I see a wonderful visiting session in front of me this afternoon

Dunno why this can't wait till he comes home and he can do it all himself from his own machines instead of all this kerffuffle [ mind you that could be another 2 weeks or longer before he is chucked out ]

All done !

And I could rant for hours about this.

The stuff he wanted was on 1 of his External Drives and I checked what it was by opening it [ I had a complaint that my baby mouse was not a left handed one !! ] and then just dropped it on a New Folder on the desktop [ my method of getting it all together tidily rather than having all these odd things scattered over my desktop ]

When we had finished it was all of 2.2MB - I mean positively HUGE

So it was all sent down to my daughter by e-mail - yes it was all Somme stuff as I thought and my elder grandson is off there on a School trip tomorrow.

The folder has been opened and everything bar one document has been read - that one Document was in Works format which the MacBook had opened as an OO document . It has now been changed to word 97/XP and resent.

What a flipping day !