I'm a long time Mac guy but have a Lenovo Thinkpad with Windows 10. It is lighter than my Macbook Pro so I'm thinking of taking it on an upcoming trip. I plan to use it for photo backup but am having trouble figuring out how to do so. All I want to do with it is copy from an sd card to an external hard drive. I plugged an external drive into the computer and the only way I can see it is to go into my devices. I don't see how to open it or copy anything to it. The external drive is formatted for the Mac but I want the Mac to be able to read it so I can move the photos again when I get home. Any ideas on how to accomplish this?

this is about all I know about windows.

If there's nothing on the drive (or if there is, copy it all off to preserve it) and reformat the drive on your Mac using exFAT.

Mac's default file system is a variant on hfs. Windows' default file system is NTFS. Neither is really compatible with the other. exFAT works pretty well among both.

See this article: https://www.howtogeek.com/2355...at32-exfat-and-ntfs/

[QUOTE]Originally posted by XLT:
this is about all I know about windows.

That's pretty much the extent of my knowledge as well. Thus the question.

quote:

Originally posted by fpuhan:
If there's nothing on the drive (or if there is, copy it all off to preserve it) and reformat the drive on your Mac using exFAT.

Mac's default file system is a variant on hfs. Windows' default file system is NTFS. Neither is really compatible with the other. exFAT works pretty well among both.

See this article: https://www.howtogeek.com/2355...at32-exfat-and-ntfs/

I will find an empty drive and format it and give it a try.

Thanks fpuhan, that seemed to do the trick. I was able to pull photos from from and XQD card to the drive connected to the Windows machine and could read them on my Mac.

If your camera and Thinkpad are bluetooth/wifi compatible you can upload without using the SD card. I do it all the time. Another thing you should do is to create a shortcut to your external drive and put it on your desktop for easy and quick access.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
If your camera and Thinkpad are bluetooth/wifi compatible you can upload without using the SD card. I do it all the time. Another thing you should do is to create a shortcut to your external drive and put it on your desktop for easy and quick access.

Jim

I'm using a Nikon D850 that does have wireless but I don't think bluetooth. I don't have a problem plugging a card reader in to the computer. My first problem was figuring out how to actually see the external drive. I'm used to plugging in a drive and having the icon pop up on the desktop. I guess creating a shortcut would do the same thing, if I can figure out how to do that.

 
Format it on your Mac to ExFAT, and both OS's will be able to read it.
 

In the lower left corner of the task bar you'll see a Windows symbol. Click on that and go to file explorer and scroll till you see the drive and click on it. Once you do that you should be able to create a shortcut.

Jim