What is the best way to transfer files between Mavericks and Windows 8?

What have you guys found to be the best way to share files between Mavericks and Win 8.1?

For example: I have a lot of music in WMA and MP3 which I'd like to load on the MBP and convert as needed to iTunes. Additionally, I'd like to save future MP3 files on the MBP. I also want the capability to be able to save these files from the MBP to an external HHD for back up and sharing with family members who have Windows PC's.

The same goes for all our family JPG pictures.

I also want to be able to share PDF, Word, and Excel files.

Basically I need to be able to write files from the MBP to an external HDD or SSD, and then be able plug that drive into a Windows PC and be able to access all the files. Looks like sticking with NTFS might be the best?

I thought ExFat was the way to go, but have read there are concerns with using ExFat and loss of data.. Also read some concerns with Paragon NTFS and tuxera NTFS, so not sure which is the best?

It's unbelievable in 2014 that we have these types of issues, and you would think that Apple and MS could at least try to agree on something that makes life a little easier for us.

Thank you

 

exFAT is supposed to be that solution. The way I've found to avoid corruption issues is to use Windows to format the drive to exFAT and use a cluster size of 1024. I don't know why this seems to work, but I've never had any problems writing to and from drives I've formatted this way in both OS X and Windows.

At the same time, I would strongly recommend keeping another backup just in case. If you're moving mostly small files (pictures and documents), it would be prudent to have some kind of cloud storage. I moved from Dropbox to Skydrive. While the latter has some limitations (the client software and website are not as robust), the fact that I have an extra 20 GB of storage because of my Office 365 subscription more than makes up for it.

 

One of the fastest is to use Google Drive if you decide to go with cloud storage.

Look into the free NTFS fuse app (google it) that you can install on the MBP if you go with NTFS. Exfat is probably the easiest file system to go with since Maverick supports it natively.

 

Between MP3/WMA music, and family pictures I have about 400GB.

My main concern is I've read about folks losing data with exfat, and that is something I do not want to do.

I do not want to pay for cloud storage either.

I want to get an Apple MacBook, but I'm not happy about having to find a work around to transfer files.

Since this is a major concern, I may just stay with a top end Win PC for now.

 

@marc515 As I understand it (those with better knowledge please correct me if I'm wrong), OSX can read disks saved from windows (NTFS/FAT), so getting your files to the Macbook should be doable from any external hdd. Presumably a free cloud option could handle Mac-to-PC transfers of incremental additions thereafter.

 

Have you considered some kind of network attached storage (NAS)? I have a USB hard drive hooked to my Apple Airport Extreme Base Station and use that to move files between my MacBook Pro and my wife's Toshiba laptop.

If you need remote access, you can get something like a Western Digital MyCloud.

Since you're not talking about HD movies, a NAS might be the best choice.

Also for reference, OS X can read from NTFS, so if you want to copy data from a drive so formatted, that's fine. It can't write to it without 3rd-party software.

 

I have yet lost data when using exFAT or NTFS on an external HDD. That's the most easiest route to do file transfer. Not sure how using an external HDD is considered a work around.

Another way is to have the MBP connect to the Windows PC shared data via samba (connect to server: SMB://IPaddress_windows_PC/shared_folder). I do this all the time in my home network. Connect both laptops via network cable to a switch/hub and transfer will be faster than over wifi, especially if its a gigabit switch/hub.

 

I understand that OS X can read files off a drive formatted in NTFS.

I want to save files from a Mac to an external HDD which is formatted in NTFS.

 

https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse/wiki/NTFS-3G

install that & I did already suggested this with my first post

or you can go with the SMB file share route I suggested.

 

Your best bet is to stick with exFAT though as 3rd party plug-ins for NTFS compatibility in OS X can be buggy. I've had several issues with a couple where they work for a bit and then decide to stop. However, exFAT works natively with both OS ecosystems. The exFAT file system has just as high of a probability as failing as NTFS so I'm not sure why you're concerned there. If anything, it's advancements make it a more reliable options. I've used nothing but exFAT since ~2009 when I first installed Windows 7 on a netbook of mine. I have a drive that's been formatted to exFAT for over 3 years now and it hasn't failed. I'm still using it with my MBP at this very moment. Quite honestly, I don't see how that is a workaround for anything.

Your biggest concern should be native WMA compatibility as neither OS X or iTunes have that. Well, iTunes does work but only for converting WMA files and I'm pretty sure that's for Windows only. You would have to either download the WMA components for QuickTime or use a 3rd party playback program like VLC. I think that is a bigger issue, since those are proprietary Microsoft files, than copying files to an external hard drive so a Mac can read them (something which is really trivial and should be a moot issue).

 

Wow, since iTunes for Windows converts WMA, I presumed iTunes for Mac did; thank you for bringing that up!

 

Your experience with exFAT has been very different than mine. Until I discovered the workaround of formatting a drive in Windows with a 1024 cluster size, I was experiencing major data corruption when transferring large files and large quantities of files in OS X. Right now, I only use exFAT on my USB thumb drives. My larger files are shared through the USB hard drive I have connected to my Airport Extreme.

 

Not a single issue on my end and I have single files on there that are 20-30GB in size. All of my current external hard drives are formatted with exFAT as well but I used OS X to do it, not Windows. They've been working with my work computer (Windows 7 Pro 64-bit) and my system (OS X 10.6-10.9) for transferring small to large files (the biggest being a 110GB database file that had information in it from 2002 until now). That's why I'm confused about their concern for using exFAT since I haven't had any issues with that file system and I've been using it for over 4 years now with Windows XP, Windows 7, and OS X 10.6 through 10.9.

 

"Your best bet is to stick with exFAT though as 3rd party plug-ins for NTFS compatibility in OS X can be buggy. I've had several issues with a couple where they work for a bit and then decide to stop. However, exFAT works natively with both OS ecosystems"

"Your experience with exFAT has been very different than mine. Until I discovered the workaround of formatting a drive in Windows with a 1024 cluster size, I was experiencing major data corruption when transferring large files and large quantities of files in OS X. Right now, I only use exFAT on my USB thumb drives."

This is exactly what I was referring in my posts. There are guys who have no issues with ExFat, and there are others who have had issues with it, which tells me there are problems with it in some manner.

This is the big hold out on me getting a Mac. If I lost our music or our Family Tree Maker Data my wife would not be too happy.

 

If I'm reading the replies here correctly, OSX can read my WD external drive (pre-formated/unchanged) used with win7, but cannot write to it. However, if I attach that same drive to my network OSX can write to it, or I guess more correctly, send data to it.

If the above it correct, my question is this: Why is the process of transferring data different simply because the drive is connected directly to the computer? Is there a way to emulate a network transfer with the drive connected directly to the macbook?

 

I think the same thing can be said about any file system though. I had nothing but trouble with FAT16 back in the day as my files were always getting corrupted on my computer's internal HDD. I upgraded to a newer version of Windows, reformatted the hard drive to FAT32 (I had reformatted it multiple times using FAT16 and still has the same buggy results), and it was never a problem. I have a 500GB portable USB2.0 hard drive that failed a few times under NTFS (mainly files becoming corrupt) but I formatted it to exFAT two years ago and it's been fine.

With technology, any type of technology, you are always going to have people with positive and negative experiences. Unless they are the extreme majority (one way or another), you shouldn't let that influence your decisions. MS has been pushing exFAT for a while now as well and, if you ever get a system with Windows 8.1 on it, MS would be pushing you to use exFAT (I think that's the default file system for formatting external hard drives in Windows 8.1). That means that you are on hold for getting any new system, Mac or not.

I think your best option would be this: migrate everything over using an exFAT formatted external hard drive. Either spend the additional $100 or find a spare additional external hard drive that you have, format it to HFS+, and use that as your Time Machine backup. You can set Time Machine to backup content on external hard drives. That way you have an exFAT hard drive storing your new content and you'll have an additional backup in a file system that is OS X native (though exFAT is native too) and will allow you to easily restore things if your exFAT drives goes under.

 

I use this on my MacBook. Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X software

My portable drive is formatted NTFS and OS X reads and writes to it perfectly. I do it almost every day. Note that it is not free so there's that. I didn't find a free solution when I was searching so I bought the above software. I bought a bundle that had a driver for Windows and for the Mac. My bootcamp Windows 8.1 can read and write into the Mac partition and vice versa in addition to being able to write to all my NTFS formatted flash drives and portable hard drives.

 

I'm in a similar situation as the OP and feel this thread applies to me as well. I've been a Windows user most of my PC-life but about a year ago acquired a MacBook and started learning about some of technicalities of OS X and Apple PCs. I have a couple questions to add here.

Does using a 'middleman' program like Paragon NTFS reduce the speed at which the data is read /written to an NTFS-formatted external HDD?

Would it be better/faster/more stable/less risky to use exFAT for the external HDD since it is natively supported in Windows 7/8/8.1 and OS X Mavericks?

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

Exfat would be easier and could also be read by a Mac that doesn't have paragon if need be.