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Question

WD My Book Studio II simultaneously on both Mac and PC?

Jan 23, 2012 9:50AM PST

I am switching from a PC (XP Pro SP3) to an iMac. I bought a WD My Book studio II (2tb) drive and haven't configured it yet. Can I set it up as an intermediary storage to help transfer files from my PC? I'd move my PC files onto it, plug it into the iMac, and pull the files onto the internal iMac drive.

Will this idea work? If so - Anything special in the setup I need to do?

Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
PLEASE DON'T DO THIS.
Jan 23, 2012 11:30AM PST

The moment I read the word "move" I had Deja Vu. All those posts in the Storage forum pleading for "Help me get my files back."

Please copy the files, then if the hard drive fails during the copy you don't lose your files.
Bob

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Answer
Do not format the drive before you use it.
Jan 23, 2012 9:42PM PST

It comes formatted as FAT32 which is good for both the Mac and the PC.

COPY (heed Bob's warning) the files from the PC onto the WD.
On completion, disconnect the WD.
Connect to the iMac and COPY the files onto the iMac.

Once you are happy that you have everything on the iMac, you can go ahead and format the WD as OS X Extended(Journaled) and use it for your Time Machine backup.

P

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Answer
RE: WD My Book Studio II simultaneously on both Mac and PC?
Feb 11, 2012 4:18AM PST

Contrary to ZenHog's statement that the WD MyBook Studio II comes pre formatted as FAT32, It actually comes pre formatted as HFS+

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(NT) RE: WD My Book Studio II simultaneously on both Mac and PC?
Feb 11, 2012 4:24AM PST
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Quite right!
Feb 11, 2012 9:05AM PST

It even has firewire 400.