Transfering Files from Mac to PC?

[sjaguar13]

My friend just got a mac and he does some design work. What's a good way to share files between us? He doesn't have the internet, so it would have to be some media that we could bring over to me. Would zip disks work, or are they mac formatted and pc formatted? The only other things I could think of would be cd/dvd rws or usb drives. Would either of those work on both? It will mainly be Photoshop PSD files and Illustrator AI files.

[alfie2]

you can quite easily get files from PC to Mac but Mac to PC requires Mac emulating softwares on the PC side for window/DOS to read Mac formatted media.
try here:

http://www.macwindows.com/diskfile.html
they explain it better than me.

[Mac Medic]

No, emulation software isn't necessary. The link above relates to OS 9, not OS X.

The files he's creating are cross platform so it's just a matter of transferring them. He could burn CD's which would be the easiest way. If you do go the Zip disk route be sure to format them on the PC using fat 32, the mac can read/write fat32 whereas windows cannot read HFS which is how they would format on the mac. A USB flash drive would work perfectly well too and do not require any formatting, just plug it into the Mac and it'll show up on the desktop.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/windows/

[Force Flow]

Couldn't you just install the appletalk protocol on the PC, then share a folder on the PC and enable the "allow network users to change files" option?

[Mac Medic]

I'm assuming they're not on the same network but if they are there's no need for appletalk, actually it's not even the apple default anymore. Macs use the same tcp-ip protocols that windows uses, so sharing should be a breeze.

[glc]

The quickest and easiest would be a USB flash drive. I have a customer with a Mac and that's how I bring files back and forth when they are too big to e-mail.