MAC Questions

[wilfredo]

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I recently purchased an IMAC and want to work on files saved on my external PC hard drive. I can open these on the IMAC but when I try save anything using CS3 I get a message saying: "Could not save... because write access was not found."

 

I'm wanting to transition from my PC to the IMAC and move all photo files over, as well as continue to use the EHD for storage with the new IMAC.

 

On another note, how reliable are MACS? Should extended warranties be purcahsed?

 

Any help will be appreciated.

 

Wilfredo

Benitez-Rivera Photography

[cwf]

Because the iMac is a combined display and system unit, for repair purposes it is a lot like a laptop. Even though Apple's reliability is said to be generally quite good, I think the extended warranties generally are a good idea. There are not cheap, but not overpriced either, imho.

 

My limited experience with Apple is that they are quite good about making good on warranty repairs. Mostly recently, at the end of last year just days before the three years ran out, I had a PowerBook G4 get seriously down with a kernel panic. Apple sent me a shipping box. I then sent the computer off and it came back fixed (with a new motherboard among other things) three days later.

[Guest stnami]

On another note, how reliable are MACS? Should extended warranties be purcahsed?

.....it makes the salesperson happy,mac associates follow the party line, there is a slight Leninesque attitude..doas mac guru says........... I have never got one. My old ones sit is a cupboard and are ok,one screen died but was expected, Never had a major problem in a few decades, then again I never forced a computer and diligently maintain all files, applications, plus regulary clean/reinstall. Had one motherboard failure

[lesh]

I recently purchased an IMAC and want to work on files saved on my external PC hard drive. I can open these on the IMAC but when I try save anything using CS3 I get a message saying: "Could not save... because write access was not found."

 

I'm wanting to transition from my PC to the IMAC and move all photo files over, as well as continue to use the EHD for storage with the new IMAC.

 

On another note, how reliable are MACS? Should extended warranties be purcahsed?

 

Any help will be appreciated.

 

Wilfredo

Benitez-Rivera Photography

 

Wilfredo,

 

Don't pretend to be a Mac guru, and others will no doubt slag me if I'm wrong but........my guess is that the Mac system in dealing for the first time with a file from somewhere else, is treating it as a file which you only have permission to read but not write to (amend).

 

Try selecting the file in the Finder then doing File/Get info - and you should get something like this :

 

It's merely a question of selecting the "Read & write" option from the "Access" drop down list shown.

To answer you other question on reliability - and doing this on a seven year old PowerBook, I think it's pretty good. As someone else has pointed out, during the warranty period the service is excellent, and with a brand new machine you may feel that a S/A extends that comfort zone. Personally, I tend to the view that extended S/A's are not worthwhile, but it's an available option.

 

Les

[stunsworth]

Wilfredo, either you or someone else asked this question a few weeks ago. The probable answer is that the external disk was formatted on the PC in NTFS format. Macs can read disks in this format but can't write to them.

[geoff]

I recently purchased an IMAC and want to work on files saved on my external PC hard drive. I can open these on the IMAC but when I try save anything using CS3 I get a message saying: "Could not save... because write access was not found."

 

I'm wanting to transition from my PC to the IMAC and move all photo files over, as well as continue to use the EHD for storage with the new IMAC.

 

On another note, how reliable are MACS? Should extended warranties be purcahsed?

 

 

Wilfredo,

 

I support my fine art photographic endeavors as an self-employed Macintosh consultant for art and media professionals. Go with the AppleCare extended warranty, period, no if and buts.

 

As far as your saving of CS3 files, it could simply be that you do not have write permissions assigned to your external PC hard drive, but it could also be more than that. Is the issue just with CS3 files or any type of file? Try saving a TextEdit file.

 

Also, do a “Get Info” on your external hard drive to check if the “Ownership & Permissions” are set to “Read & Write.”

 

Ideally, to be safe and start clean, and only if the external is to be used with a Mac from now on, I would recommend to temporary transfer all of your external hard drive files onto the iMac, then reformat the external hard drive as HFS+ and then copy your files back.

 

BTW, what’s up with PC users always spelling Mac and iMac with all uppercase letters?

 

 

Geoff

www.myspace.com/geoffotos

 

 

Good, I see some have already touch on these points as I was typing a response.

[stunsworth]

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BTW, what’s up with PC users always spelling Mac and iMac with all uppercase letters?

 

dUnno, iS iT aNy mOre sTupid tHan aPple nAming tHeir sOftware pRoducts wIth a lOwer cAse fOllowed bY aN uPpercase lEtter?

[wilfredo]

 

"Ideally, to be safe and start clean, and only if the external is to be used with a Mac from now on, I would recommend to temporary transfer all of your external hard drive files onto the iMac, then reformat the external hard drive as HFS+ and then copy your files back."

 

How do I transfer? I've never done a transfer like this before.

 

Thanks,

Wilfredo

[digibob]

MAC stands for media access control ,internet addres protocol me thinks or at least similar.So using upper case can lead to confusion if you are using a MAC and have a question relating to a Mac

cheers rob

[MJLogan]

That should be easy. Just make a new folder on your Mac, name it something sensible, open the other drive's icon, select evrything on it, and drag it onto the new folder.

 

You may well run into some files that don't want to transfer, but when you get that message just make a note of any files you need that won't copy and tell the machine to continue. Try copying the missed files individually after the mass copying is done.

 

When the PC disk is completely copied, run the Disk Utility program (you'll find it in the Utililties folder inside the Applications folder on the Mac) to reformat the PC disk.

[MJLogan]

BTW, what’s up with PC users always spelling Mac and iMac with all uppercase letters?

 

Their bad habits will slowly disappear as they move farther and farther from the Windows world.

 

In a similar vein, though, I find the convention of using upper-case RAW to refer to all raw files a bit annoying, as only a small subset of raw files are actually ".RAW" files. But I've managed to keep that to myself--til now...

[sdai]

For those who fall in love with a Mac ... here's a big one.

 

[stunsworth]

Michael's suggestion is a good one, but the only problem I can see is that there may not be enough space on the Mac's internal drive to hold all of the files.

 

Also, if Wilfredo formats the disk in HFS+ format, won't that mean that he won't be able to read the files if the disk is connected to a PC?

[lemalk]

An HFS format can't be seen or read in Windows.

One of the formats that may work is simply to format the disk as FAT32.

 

That way both the iMac and his PCs can read and write to it.

[lorchj]

There is one additional reason to purchase an extended warranty and that is if you plan to sell the computer prior to 3 years. People are much less hesitant about purchasing a computer that still has a warranty attached and the apple warranty is transferable

[steve_l]

Disk Utility gives you the option of formatting a disk so that it can be used only by a Mac, or by both a PC and Mac....you lose a little space when you do that.

[Ted W]

I have never bought an extended warranty for Mac and won't. The reason they sell them is because the likelihood of the computer failing to the degree that warranty service is required is quite low. It's an extra three hundred or whatever bucks for Apple. If there's a serious hardware issue -- like, you got a lemon -- it'll fail within the standard warranty period. If it's a software issue, there are plenty of resources on the Internet for help, or you can even talk to a Genius for free at an Apple store. If it's a real problem and you're past the standard warranty period, just pay the tech support fee and you'll still come out ahead.

[peterv]

Wilfredo,

 

just leave the EHD as it is, please.

 

Buy another EHD, format FAT 32 for mAC and pc, and use that as your second and new back-up. EHD's are relatively cheap nowadays, so why delete valuable photo's/memories?

 

It's good to have more than one back-up anyway.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter