PC to Mac file transfer
- Thread starter 444joe
- Start date
Barry_Green
Moderator
Yes, it's not only possible, it's effortless. Use a FAT32 external hard disk. Copy the files over from the P2 cards, then plug that drive straight into your Apple computer. Done it a million times.
Dick Campbell
Veteran
I too use a PC and Duel Adaptor in the field. I have a USB passport type external HDD. Use it right out of the box formatted as is. I dump P2 to the HDD, then plug the HDD in to the Mac Pro and transfer to the Mac HDD.
Some say its not necessary, but I always WP the card before inserting in the D.A., and I double check the footage dumped to the HDD with P2 Viewer on the PC to verify, before I re-format the P2 card in the camera.
Some say its not necessary, but I always WP the card before inserting in the D.A., and I double check the footage dumped to the HDD with P2 Viewer on the PC to verify, before I re-format the P2 card in the camera.
AwakenedFilms
Veteran
P2 works great with FAT32, but there are some limitations when using FAT32, especially between a PC and mac with snow leopard.
- 4GB or less per file (P2 breaks the footage up into 4GB clips).
- names must be 13 characters or less
- on snow leopard, some users have had errors transferring folders to and from FAT32 /HFS drives. The newest version of Snow Loepard has seemingly fixed it.
Jason
- 4GB or less per file (P2 breaks the footage up into 4GB clips).
- names must be 13 characters or less
- on snow leopard, some users have had errors transferring folders to and from FAT32 /HFS drives. The newest version of Snow Loepard has seemingly fixed it.
Jason
RJS
Well-known member
I've been doing this for the last year and a half or so.
I use a Lenovo T500 that has a pcmcia slot. I always write protect the card then use Shotput Pro to transfer the footage from P2 card to 1) an internal removable secondary drive and 2) an external drive via USB. I also use P2 viewer to double check footage(you can make a virtual P2 card from the file downloaded P2). I also use P2 format station to format the cards after use...I try to avoid formatting in camera.
I've gone through some changes though...I used to use FAT32 but had problems ingesting in FCP with clips larger than 4gb. Then I changed to NTFS but my mac (and other clients) couldn't read it...I thought that the mac could read but not write NTFS but that was not the case for me and I had to use a utility on the mac. However I didn't want people having to put a utility on their mac just to use my drives. Then I tried using Mac Drive on my PC to format the external drive for the mac, and so far that is what I use today.
I use external drives that have USB/f400/f800 (lacie rugged). Although I connect to my PC via USB...for some reason I couldnt really get f400 on the PC to work. So, USB on PC then fw800 on the mac.
Knock on wood but the only issue I have ever come across is the 4gb files giving me errors when ingesting into FCP. But I was able to ingest by choosing in/out points that were less than 4gb in size. So no footage lost just an added bit of labor.
I use a Lenovo T500 that has a pcmcia slot. I always write protect the card then use Shotput Pro to transfer the footage from P2 card to 1) an internal removable secondary drive and 2) an external drive via USB. I also use P2 viewer to double check footage(you can make a virtual P2 card from the file downloaded P2). I also use P2 format station to format the cards after use...I try to avoid formatting in camera.
I've gone through some changes though...I used to use FAT32 but had problems ingesting in FCP with clips larger than 4gb. Then I changed to NTFS but my mac (and other clients) couldn't read it...I thought that the mac could read but not write NTFS but that was not the case for me and I had to use a utility on the mac. However I didn't want people having to put a utility on their mac just to use my drives. Then I tried using Mac Drive on my PC to format the external drive for the mac, and so far that is what I use today.
I use external drives that have USB/f400/f800 (lacie rugged). Although I connect to my PC via USB...for some reason I couldnt really get f400 on the PC to work. So, USB on PC then fw800 on the mac.
Knock on wood but the only issue I have ever come across is the 4gb files giving me errors when ingesting into FCP. But I was able to ingest by choosing in/out points that were less than 4gb in size. So no footage lost just an added bit of labor.