Accessing MAC files

[4times4mil]

What's up guys,
Haven't been here in awhile. Things have been pretty smooth. But now I am curious about a situation. Is there a way to access/import a session to windows that originated on a MAC system? I have put files on a flash drive and plugged the drive into a MAC with no problem. Can the same be done with say an external hard drive with files that originated on a MAC? When I plug the drive into my windows computer the drive seems to be invisible. Please Help!!

[spkguitar]

Yes. There are certain things to consider when giving advice, though, and we have no idea about your system, specifically, what version of Pro Tools.

It sounds like your flash drive was formatted as a mac disk. Windows cannot read mac formatted disks by itself without help from supporting software.

Pro Tools 7.3 introduced mac hard drive compatibility in the program, and it allows you to use them in windows as well. If you are using 7.3 or above you should be able to access a mac formatted drive directly (unless you neglected to select that option during install).

If you are using an older version of the software, you would need to purchase MacDrive to access mac formatted disks, and then you would have to copy the files over to a Windows formatted drive (you can't access them directly from the program with older versions)

[4times4mil]

I am using the latest version of PT (7.3.1 cs5) but I am not sure what version is on the hard disk. I am told the session on the disk is at least 7.3.1. I knew I had heard that after 7.3 the files were accessible without using forced compatability, but how? My OS is windows XP Pro.

[spkguitar]

Hmmm. I just told you.

If you selected the mac drive compatibility option when you installed Pro Tools, that disk should be accessible. If you have installed it correctly any mac formatted disk you plug in will show up in the Windows file browser with a little apple next the to drive.

That is assuming that the drive in question is actually formatted as a mac drive. (which is what I have been assuming)

Can you verify that there is actually data on the drive? And that it is formatted correctly? Can you plug it back into the mac and check?

If you don't think you installed the mac drive compatibility option when installing Pro Tools, just re-install and make sure you check all of the options you want/need including Pro Tools.

[4times4mil]

Just did the reinstall but the drive is still not there. The one thing I know for sure is that you know the answer to this dilemma if there is one, and I want to thank you for taking the time to help. Unfortunately I can't say for sure if the drive is formatted for MAC. I'm only going by what I was told. But installing the compatability tool has gotten me closer to the objective. So I want to thank you for that also? Let me reboot and reconnect the drive and see if it shows up!

[4times4mil]

Okay now I have a disk that I am absolutely sure of. One of my personal disks formatted for MAC. When I go to disk manager it's there but unallocated. Still no show elsewhere.

[4times4mil]

Okay now I have a window entitled "intialize and convert disk wizard" but I really don't know if it's safe to continue. I don't want to format the disk. Should I continue?

[spkguitar]

DO NOT CONTINUE

[spkguitar]

When I go to disk manager it's there but unallocated. Still no show elsewhere.

This is an indication that either the mac disk option is not installed properly, it is not active, or that the disks you are trying to access were not formatted as HFS+ drives.

Do yourself a favor; read chapter 15 in the Pro Tools Reference Guide.

[4times4mil]

I'm off and reading spk. Thanks!!