Will a new iMac read a PC formatted external NTFS Drive?? Help!!

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Level 1

3 points

Will a new iMac read a PC formatted external NTFS Drive?? Help!!

I have all my photos and iTune files on a PC formatted NTFS external drive. The only thing holding me back from purchasing an iMac is not being able to read and transfer these files. I called an Apple Store here in NJ and the store rep stated "I guess so.."
I do not care if I am not able to write to it...I do not want to lose my photos. Can anyone advise?
Thanls

Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on May 17, 2010 2:51 AM

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Answer 1

wmowbray

Level 1

115 points

May 17, 2010 4:46 AM in response to rvenneman

I believe your iMac will READ a NTFS drive, but not write to it. Macs have no problem with FAT32 formatted drives. One problem with NTFS format is it is limited in size to 4 Gb files.
You may want to google NTFS vs Fat32 or NTFS for Mac OS X for more info or wait for a more definitive answer here.

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Answer 2

Fortuny

Level 7

21,455 points

May 17, 2010 5:32 AM in response to rvenneman

Hi,

yes Mac OSX can read harddisks that use the NTFS file system, but it cannot write to them without additional help.
FAT32 harddisks can be read from and write to with OSX.
And FAT32 is the file system with the builtin 4GB single-file size limitation, not NTFS.

Here are some more ways to migrate your PC files to a Mac http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518

Hope it helps

Stefan

Message was edited by: Fortuny

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