IMAC, can it run windows programs?

colourbox

davev wrote:

I had an ext. drive on the windows XP machine that the Mac either doesn't read, or I just don't know how to find it. What do I do?
USB, 300gig, I think FAT 32.

It should work...I connected a friend's Windows-formatted 200GB USB drive to my Mac once and it worked fine. In fact, the iPod Shuffles are actually formatted FAT32 so that they can be plugged into Mac or Windows computers as a flash drive.

If you don't see it appear on the desktop, it's possible that external drive icons are set to not show up there (set in Finder>Preferences when in the Finder). Try opening a new window in the Finder (File>New Finder Window) and see if the drive is visible there. Also, if you can't see the USB drive in your Disk Utility (in your Utilities folder), something is wrong.

DavidTO

colourbox wrote:

If you don't see it appear on the desktop, it's possible that external drive icons are set to not show up there (set in Finder>Preferences when in the Finder). Try opening a new window in the Finder (File>New Finder Window) and see if the drive is visible there. Also, if you can't see the USB drive in your Disk Utility (in your Utilities folder), something is wrong.

Totally sage advice except for the fact that this machine is fresh out of the box. He was asking this question within minutes of turning the thing on.

colourbox

DavidTO wrote:

Totally sage advice except for the fact that this machine is fresh out of the box. He was asking this question within minutes of turning the thing on.

Well, I keep a spare user account on my machine for testing purposes, so my spare user doesn't have all the customizations and hacks that my main user account does. I fast-user-switched over there to see what the default setting for hard disk display might be, and when I chose Finder>Preferences and clicked the General tab, the setting for "Show these items on the desktop" had "Hard disks" unchecked. That surprised me, because I didn't think I'd ever changed it in that account. Is it on for everybody else?

StevenV

All three are checked on my PowerBook, and I don't remember changing 'em.

DavidTO

They're checked by default.

davev

Well, basically I jumped the gun. The USB ext. drive is pretty new also, I just
wasn't giving it enough time to get ready. Everything thing is working well
so far.

I'm sure that more questions will come up over time. I'll try to be a bit
more patient, and try to find a cure before panicking.

Thanks everyone.

photobug

Used to be that both came on the same disk. I'm not sure, but if you do need to buy, it's not that much money. Just be aware that the Mac version is a little different.

If you do require a new disc, don't buy one at the store. Call Adobe -- they are very good about transferring existing licenses to software and probably would provide a Mac CD (if it was different) for a nominal fee if you're already a registered PC user. Transferring a license from machine (PC) to machine (Mac) should be easy. Adobe will even transfer the license if you sell your software to someone else.

binghott

just call 1-800-my-apple
or go to your nearest apple store, they're really helpful there

W.W. Webster

davev wrote:

I'm hoping to be able to run the windows version of PSE4 because I bought it just before the shoot out, and I really don't like buying the same program twice.

You could always sell it and buy the Mac version, then you'd be Windows-free (oh, what a feeling)!

davev

Thanks for the suggestions for PSE4. The fact is that I still use PSE4 on my old computer and on a windows laptop. So I did the right thing and bought the Mac version for $90. It comes with a $20 rebate if you own some other program by Adobe, so the final cost will be $70. I use it a lot, so why not just buy it.

I had a strange thing happen last night. I went to the Itunes store to just look and see what it was. When I left and closed Itunes, about 2 minutes later it started itself up again. So I closed it. It started itself up again.
So I looked at the preferences and found it had "Check for new songs" or something like that. So I turned that off, and closed Itunes again. It started itself up again. So, I though back to my windows days and tried a reboot.
Problem solved.
I guess there isn't that much difference between the 2 machines after all.

Stay tuned for more questions. And by the way, thanks again.

wxwax

Macbook Pro is rumored for an upgrade in the next month or so.

DavidTO

davev wrote:

I had a strange thing happen last night. I went to the Itunes store to just look and see what it was. When I left and closed Itunes, about 2 minutes later it started itself up again. So I closed it. It started itself up again.
So I looked at the preferences and found it had "Check for new songs" or something like that. So I turned that off, and closed Itunes again. It started itself up again. So, I though back to my windows days and tried a reboot.
Problem solved.
I guess there isn't that much difference between the 2 machines after all.

Stay tuned for more questions. And by the way, thanks again.

Most likely you turned off check for new updates. I doubt that turning that off had anything to do with it. The restart was most likely the answer.

DavidTO

DavidTO wrote:

Most likely you turned off check for new updates. I doubt that turning that off had anything to do with it. The restart was most likely the answer.

Another thought: have you installed an iTunes related widget? Could be that the widget is initiating the start up of iTunes. Restarting closed the widget, effectively, and if you restarted the widget you'd have the same issue. That would make it "expected" behavior, just not what *YOU* expected.