Best Mac-Windows10 Transfer

[Bo Atkinson]

I recently chose a Windows10 upgrade path after 25 years on Mac... 

Problem is Win10 doesn't have a way to read data on most Mac formatted SSD drives, *as mine are internally connected (to asus proart z490 motherboard). The USB thumb drives, formatted by Mac do read... I don't want to specially reformat old Mac drives and like them just a as they are.

Disk Management reveals an SSD and properties, but offers no access button, (and worse yet seems to reveal repeated instances of drive(s)??

The www offers some apps to read any old Mac formatted drive... 

1] Does anyone use such apps and which work the most easily?

2]  Does anyone know if  there is highly reliable app to use with  Icy Docks? (as I've wasted days trying to get files, which is so easy in Macs).

* I have an "Icy Dock 4 X 2.5 SATA Hot Swap" (front loaded), and I'm not sure if it really and truly hot swaps, but no matter, as it is easy enough to load and unload after shut down. https://www.icydock.com/knowledge.php?id=69. 

Edited December 21, 2020 by Bo Atkinson

[Des]

Hi Bo, I'm not at my computer a the moment but I was just thinking you could maybe set up windows sharing on your mac and pass the files over instead of formatting?

[Bo Atkinson]

Thanks Des, I'm not a network user by preference and want to keep these PCs apart , reduce UI studies, and the UI differences encourage this. I'm gaining confidence in the hot sapping and usb options.

[Justin Montoya]

Hi Bo,

This is easy to do, like most things you want to change in Windows, there are applications for that, just Google ... Mac drive on Windows

You'll get a few options from free to cheap.  I use the paid Mac Drive but have used the free versions in the past.

https://www.howtogeek.com/252111/how-to-read-a-mac-formatted-drive-on-a-windows-pc/

This way you can easily grab any files on your backup drives from your Mac, while moving forward on Windows.  I've used this extensively without any issues.  I'd recommend using only read-only mode and copying hole folders over to your Windows drive to work from there.  I do not like writing to Mac drives from Windows mostly because they are for archive purposes only.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Justin Montoya

[AHTOH]

Hello Bo.

Same thing here. Seems like there is no reason to stick with Mac OS.  Yet there is a solution here:

https://www.paragon-software.com/home/apfs-windows/

 

Since I installed it I don't see any difference between my drives except for mac ones are little slower.

[Bo Atkinson]

Thanks all!  I appreciate hearing that online storage is preferred, though it is not for me. I do see now that a new paradigm shift is coming, with on line apps as subscriptions, paid by the month, but my lifestyle is low key, more like the old book of living on a desert island, independently. One app looked at today, makes life so un-intuitive, and hard to save a work file to disk! Interesting though, the promises of the big www collective without copyrights, hmmm.

I found my answer was to use Mac's ExFAT format which works well for Windows10, except getting W10 to locate drives took a while and the same hot-swap drawer has to be used per HD. I have some old 2.5 HDs to start with and use the motherboard HD for sys speed, and physical backups. Changing the HD drawer looses W10 link to the last hot swap HD it had. 

Mac runs formZ best however so W10 is just for format converting on W10, and the OS - UI differences help keep my first use of Rhino7 clearer... Just using Rhino to compare types of geometry and meshes is my learning approach. Hard to say how useful grasshopper will be. Thinking of using x-keys.