dewhirst@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (03/23/91)
There seem to be a lot of requests for transfers between Macs and PCs, but no one seems to be responding. Am I the only one on here who uses both regularly? I seem to recall several messages asking the following questions. I am no PC or Mac expert, but as I said I do own both and seem to have run across the same situations that were mentioned here at one time or another. MAC AND PC TRANSFERS: Floppies - I am not currently aware of any PC utilities that will read Mac HFS disks. There are, however several utilities for the Mac, some free some not. If you have a mac with "SuperDrive" you are in luck. This reads/writes ProDos, MS-DOS(720k disks only), and Mac HFS 800/1.44MB floppies. The utility from Apple called "Apple File Exchange" ( a highly overrated but nonetheless useful utility) is all that is needed to transfer files between any of the above listed formats. This is, as I said, only for use with the superdrive. As far as software goes, I can't think of the names of the programs of the top of my head, but there are several PD/Shareware programs for the MAc that will read MS-DOS floppies. OTHER DATA TRANSFERS- There are several low-cost commercial file-sharing software packages for small networks between Macs and PCs. IF you are not doing anything extravagant, I would recommend TOPS. Hooking up the PC isn't all that easy though. There is even a PD version of TOPS I have seen floating around on an old PDCDROM somwhere. Since this was a "response" to several questions and I am quite sure I have totally missed the point of many of them, let me just say this: If you want to transfer files between the PC and the Mac, do it this way: Hookthe serial ports of the two computers together and then use ordinary Communications Programs at 9600 bps or so. When I download stuff on my Mac, I just port in over through the second serial port in the background. This wil save you a lot of headaches, you can use cables and software you already have available. <whew> Any responses would be nice. [Have to get my two cents in too - Mac = *WAY* overpriced PC = *WAY* too user-rude They both have their faults!]