Q: I have a memory stick with photos that Iused with my PC.  If I stick that into my MacBookAir, will that pose a problem?

Well, it may depend on how the stick is formatted: if it's formatted in a Windows only format, you may only be able to look at them (read the contents), but not copy them over or otherwise work on them (write to the files). The worst that can happen that I can think of is that you can't see the contents. You should be able to see pictures in jpeg format; if there are other Windows format files, you may not be able to open them (such as .exe).

babowa wrote:

 

...you may only be able to look at them (read the contents), but not copy them over...

Yes, you'll be able to 'read', and that means that you will be able to copy them to your Mac, too.

For future use of the USB stick on both PC and Mac, first secure the data on it, then format it with the Mac and Disk Utility by erasing it there and selecting 'ExFAT'.

Yes, you'll be able to 'read', and that means that you will be able to copy them to your Mac, too.

I don't believe you can write/copy/whatever (anything besides 'read' = look at) data if the drive/stick is NTFS formatted (unless you have NTFS for Mac installed). The stick needs to be formatted FAT32 in order for Mac OS to be able to read and write (which includes copying).

I understand the OP is about to transfer data FROM external drives to a Mac, and what I'm saying is that this is possible if the drives are formatted in NTFS, these days the most common Windows format. NTFS is readable by OS X since 10.3, and this means that files can be copied FROM an NTFS drive by and to a Mac. Yes, positively, absolutely, no problem, and as widely documented, e.g. at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS#Mac_OS_X

The other way around, TO an NTFS drive, is not possible as OS X does not support this natively. But neither did the OP ask for this, as far as I understand, nor was it stated anywhere.

Aside from this, it might be of interest that there are 3rd-party tools enabling a Mac to write on NTFS drives as well, seemingly. I haven't tried any of them, though, and don't have the need.

Anyhow, not sure what the objections are about, maybe some misunderstanding, babowa?

No misunderstanding as such except that what you are saying is different from what I've gleaned here - first a disclaimer: I do not do Windows; therefore, I only know what I've learned here and that included that you cannot do anything but read an NTFS disk - no copying to or from, no writing to or from. Maybe I misunderstood previous posts, but that is what I copied to my often used reference notes. Here is one source:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1157929

Looking at your link seems to confirm that there is no native capability to do anything but read NTFS?

Mac OS X

Mac OS X 10.3 and later include read-only support for NTFS-formatted partitions. The GPL-licensed NTFS-3G also works on Mac OS X through FUSE and allows reading and writing to NTFS partitions. A performance enhanced commercial version, called Tuxera NTFS for Mac,^[41] is also available from the NTFS-3G developers. Paragon Software Group sells a read-write driver named NTFS for Mac OS X,^[42] which is also included on some models of Seagate hard drives.^[43] Native NTFS write support has been discovered in Mac OS X 10.6 and later, but is not activated by default, although hacks do exist to enable the functionality. However, user reports indicate the functionality is unstable and tends to cause kernel panics, probably the reason why write support has not been enabled or advertised.^[44]

Oh come on.

'Reading' a file means I can open it. Once I have it open, I can save it to (my Mac's) disk. And I can copy the entire file as is FROM the NTFS drive TO my Mac's HDD. You don't need to 'do' Windows (I only 'do' under Parallels), just take a USB flash drive in NTFS and copy a file FROM it in Finder. Or a Windows PC on a network, for that matter, or how should Macs and PCs ever exist together on a network without a file server?

Roger, over, and out.

With Mac OS X, you can read NTFS drives, but you can copy data from that disk to your computer. Apart, you can't write in NTFS drives without an application like Paragon NTFS, so I recommend to format the disk in FAT or exFAT in order to be able to write in Windows and Mac OS X on the external disk

Thanks, I did not know that you can copy - has been added to my reference notes...

Back to jacqueline.....

sorry for the confusion; you should be able to copy your data - what format is it in, i.e. are they pictures, movies, or what types of files?

Phew. Why did that take so long?

Jacqueline1966 wrote:

 

Would it 'hurt' the Mac OS system if I upload data from memory sticks/external hard drives that contain PC source data?

No.

You can't run .exe files (Windows programs) on OS X. However you can install Windows into OS X with virtual machine software or into BootCamp and then run those programs.

Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?

And some proprietary formats of files, unless they have a program or compatible version on OS X that will open them, will not work. If you have Office files, you can install Office Mac and it's going to open them, but because the fonts and spacing is set differnetly it's going to require tweaking.

Neutral file formats, like .txt, .jpg., .gif, .rtf., .mp3, .wma, .wmv.,.doc etc., etc will be opened up in some sort of program usually, unless it protected or encrypted.

LibreOffice, Preview, VLC, GIMP and many other free programs will open the files of many formats.

How to safely download and install programs

If you have a problem writting to the drive, then change the format

Drives, partitions, formatting w/Mac's + PC's