Getting from Windows 98 drives via FW enclosure

[Blue Velvet]

A friend of mine called me last night and told me that she'd just got home with her new 17" Intel iMac.

She needs my help in setting it up for her but also wants to transfer a few Photoshop files, TIFFs etc. from her old PC with Win98 which isn't working due to a faulty powerswitch.

So I thought: Get a FW enclosure and drop the PC's drives in it. Is the standard Win98 HD format FAT32, NTFS or something else? Will the Mac read from these drives OK?

I'll reformat the largest one when she's finished so she can use it as a bootable backup but in the meantime, the priority is to get some of the data from it.

Thanks in advance for all words of wisdom.

 

[Nermal]

98 usually uses FAT32, it should Just Work

 

[DeSnousa]

From sites I'm getting in particular:

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/win98_fat32_faq.html

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/win98_fat32_light_faq.html

It seems that FAT32 first appeared in 98 and consumers had the choice to use this new system or keep FAT16. So if your lucky its in FAT32. But if not can't you just go to a Windows PC at a mates place and then burn to DVD

 

[Blue Velvet]

But if not can't you just go to a Windows PC at a mates place and then burn to DVD

Not one, not one of my friends uses a PC... All Macs.

 

[robbieduncan]

From sites I'm getting in particular:

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/win98_fat32_faq.html

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/win98_fat32_light_faq.html

It seems that FAT32 first appeared in 98 and consumers had the choice to use this new system or keep FAT16. So if your lucky its in FAT32. But if not can't you just go to a Windows PC at a mates place and then burn to DVD

I think OSX can read FAT16 (and FAT12). These are often used on lower capacity flash memory cards for digital cameras and so on.

OSX Filesystem Support

 

[belvdr]

You should have no problem dropping that into a FW enclosure and reading it. Win98 systems cannot use NTFS, and only used FAT16 and FAT32. OS X should pick that up with no problem.

 

[annk]

Not one, not one of my friends uses a PC... All Macs.

You must have great friends!

 

[Blue Velvet]

You must have great friends!

Not counting the people I've met from here... we have a media lawyer, a couple of journalists, a couple of designers and 4 adult design students and mothers... the last PC hold-out was this recent friend.

I just may have had some purchasing influence on some of them.

 

[annk]

I've only got a teenage son (I bought the mini and put it on his desk) and a husband to my credit (my brother gets the credit for switching my mother).

But I'm still working on it, heheh....Lots of potential switchers out there.

 

[Blue Velvet]

Rather than posting a new thread about this, I thought I'd ask another question since it's about the same friend and the same Mac.

She's going to bring the Mac over to my place so we can do all this stuff together but also because she doesn't have a phone line and internet connection. (lives entirely with her mobile phone).

Anyway, so in order to activate her new software I thought we could hook her Mac up to mine and somehow share the internet connection on my Mac.

I could also easily pass on some freeware utilities and other files. Is this doable with a standard ethernet cable or does it need to go through an ethernet switch?

 

[robbieduncan]

Rather than posting a new thread about this, I thought I'd ask another question since it's about the same friend and the same Mac.

She's going to bring the Mac over to my place so we can do all this stuff together but also because she doesn't have a phone line and internet connection. (lives entirely with her mobile phone).

Anyway, so in order to activate her new software I thought we could hook her Mac up to mine and somehow share the internet connection on my Mac.

I could also easily pass on some freeware utilities and other files. Is this doable with a standard ethernet cable or does it need to go through an ethernet switch?

You can do it via a cable. You only need a switch for more than 2 machines. You should just be able to turn on Internet sharing the sharing bit os System Preferences. I assume you are going to connect your own Mac to the Internet via Airport?

 

[Blue Velvet]

I assume you are going to connect your own Mac to the Internet via Airport?

Thanks RobbieD.

No, just plain old USB ADSL modem.

 

[robbieduncan]

Thanks RobbieD.

No, just plain old USB ADSL modem.

OK. I assume that will work. If you open System Preferences->Sharing then select the Internet tab is that modem available in the popup menu (titled "Share your connection from:" on 10.4)? If so it should/will work. If not I'm not sure what to do...

 

[Blue Velvet]

OK. I assume that will work. If you open System Preferences->Sharing then select the Internet tab is that modem available in the popup menu (titled "Share your connection from:" on 10.4)? If so it should/will work. If not I'm not sure what to do...

Yes, it appears...

We'll see how it goes later in the week when she comes over... better rustle up an ethernet cable then.