Can I use a Win PC located in a broadband-serviced area to d/l updates?

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Level 1

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Can I use a Win PC located in a broadband-serviced area to d/l updates?

My son lives 150 miles away in an area where broadband is common while I am on dial-up and want to update to OS X 10.5.7 (from my present 10.5.2) over the coming weekend.

Rather than taking my iMac to his house I am wondering if I could use his Win XP PC to burn to DVDs or even a flash drive. Is there some caveat I am not aware of? Any problems with transferring files from the DVDs or flash here to my iMac here in the boonies?

Are there steps one has to take to reach the Apple site from a - gulp - Windows machine?

Thanks for your input!

iMac v.X, Leopard, Mac OS X (10.5), Panasonic Lumix, video DVR-D300 (mini-RAM), Gateway/XP2

Posted on Jul 29, 2009 10:15 PM

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Answer 1

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Fortuny

Level 7

21,455 points

Jul 29, 2009 10:22 PM in response to birdy176

Hi birdy176,

you shouldn't encounter any problems when doing this.
Just make sure you download the correct Combo Updater 10.5.7 (Intel or PPC) for your iMac.
And while you are at it, look for other updates avaiable for your iMac (run Software Update on your iMac and write down all that is shown).

Some updates/software is not getable for OSX when using a Windows PC for download, such as iTunes or Quictime (I think).

Best to use an USB-Stick for copying the downloads and that Stcik has to be formated with the FAT32 file system (MS-DOS in Disk Utility).

Good Luck

Stefan

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jul 29, 2009 10:24 PM in response to birdy176

It's doable. However, if you use a flash drive be sure it's formatted FAT32. If you burn a DVD be sure it's in plain ISO9660 format. Do not attempt to open any files you download until you transfer them to your Mac to avoid problems with filesystem differences. Keep in mind that FAT32 only allows up to 31 characters in a filename, and the maximum file size supported by it is 2 GBs. Stick to downloading .dmg (disc image), .sit and .zip files as these can be copied to the Mac without a problem.

Any time you transfer Mac files to a PC there is a potential for problems due to differences in the filesystems and because PCs cannot read from or write to a Mac formatted disk without the use of third-party software.

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Answer 3

birdy176 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 30, 2009 9:44 AM in response to Kappy

Thank you Kappy, will heed your advice.

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Answer 4

birdy176 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 30, 2009 9:56 AM in response to Fortuny

Stefan:

Danke schoen und Hummel, Hummel from the Pacific Northwest.
It's great to be able to get advice here, also from Kappy.

Makes me wonder if I shouldn't just take the iMac in it's box
and do the job "in situ" so as to make sure that I don't mess up.
I have David Pogue's "The Missing Manual" but haven't yet found the part
where he discusses what I'm about to do.

Don't know my way around enough in this forum to know if we're allowed direct
contact with each other but my addy is published in my profile.

Gunther

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