Posted on 11/30/2016 5:52:29 AM PST by ETL
Hi all, I'm trying to transfer some files I have on a micro-SD card to a friend's MacBook Air. I used my Windows-based PC to fill the card and when I insert it into the Mac the Mac doesn't recognize it (it doesn't show up on the desktop or by clicking "Find"). I talked to someone from BestBuy's GeekSquad on the phone last night and they said that Macs can't read cards unless they're formatted in something called "Fat 32". They said I could reformat the card while it's inserted in the Mac, or, if I recall correctly, on a PC, but that the process deletes the contents of the card. So would I be able to refill the card on my or any other Windows-based PC if it is formatted in "Fat 32"? If not, any other suggestions for transferring the contents of the Windows SD card to a MacBook? I have almost no knowledge of Apple or Macs, so please keep any possible solutions simple. Thanks.
If the data on your SD card is formatted for Windows using NTFS, trying to open it on an Apple device won’t work.
Plug the SD card into your Windows machine, copy off the files to your local computer. Then, reformat the SD card using FAT32, and recopy the files back to the SD card. It should be readable by the Mac now.
What format is it now?
1. Copy the contents of the SD card back to the PC.
2. Format the SD card to Fat32.
3. Copy the contents from the PC back to the SD card.
4. Insert SD card into MacBook Air.
5. Copy the contents from the SD card to the MacBook Air.
Why not just email to yourself?
If the files were created in a program you still have then you probably have to export them rather than just copying them
Upload your data onto cloud google drive. Download it onto macbook.
Do not reformat. That essentially wipes the drive.
Formatting media wipes all the data off of it. Therefore, before you format (and thus erase) the SD, make sure you still have the original files on the windows machine. You might have accidentally "moved" them to the SD card instead of "copying" them to it.
Once formatted FAT-32 virtually any machine should be able to read it - windows, linux, mac...
Even Linux can read NTFS now.
What if you got a second SD card, formatted that one to work in the MAC, and then transferred the contents of the original card onto the new card? Would that work?
The Windows/MAC thing is a big source of frustration sometimes .. I have two windows machines and two MACS. A desktop of each and a laptop of each. Sometimes it’s like moving furniture from room to room....
If the files are too large to email, you could save them to a cloud based storage service like Google Drive or Dropbox (both free) and simply share the files with your friend, who can then download them.
You guys are all smarter than me - better solutions!
Use a (free) Google Drive as an intermediary between the 2 machines. 15GB free storage.
I don’t have the card with me at this time, so can’t check. My friend has it and knows even less than I do about these things. However, I don’t recall selecting any special options when I filled it on my PC, so I guess it would be in the default format, whatever that might be.
Buy another SD card format it on mac.
Then copy first SD to PC, to then from PC to new SD.
Don’t upload pics to cloud unless you want them public forever.
It is probably in the new EXFAT format, which they generally use for SD cards of 32GB or above.
Thanks!Sounds simple enough. Will give that a try.
PS- I currently do not have internet on my PC so am stuck with this horrible smartphone access where it’s a major pain in the butt reading and responding to posts.
> Even Linux can read NTFS now.
Right.
And Mac uses a BSD Unux kernel.
So, from a Mac command window, you should be able to mount the SD card with the posix mount command and the -t ntfs switch.
Here is a link to formatting hard disks:
Create and format a hard disk partition
It should be fairly obvious which disk you should format. Never format your C: drive.
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