Saving files to CD

[Dan McNitt]

A little help please. I am switching to a MAC computer and am trying to
transfer files off my old computer onto a cd and then load to my mac. The
files I am loading onto the CD are being saved as 'read only'. I have tried
drag and drop in windows explorere and copy functions with the same
result. How do I save to a cd so they aren't read only?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

A little help please. I am switching to a MAC computer and am trying to
transfer files off my old computer onto a cd and then load to my mac. The
files I am loading onto the CD are being saved as 'read only'. I have tried
drag and drop in windows explorere and copy functions with the same
result. How do I save to a cd so they aren't read only?

If it's a CD-ROM, files will always be read-only. What happens when you
copy them to a hard-drive on the Mac?

 

[usual suspect]

A little help please. I am switching to a MAC computer and am trying to
transfer files off my old computer onto a cd and then load to my mac. The
files I am loading onto the CD are being saved as 'read only'. I have tried
drag and drop in windows explorere and copy functions with the same
result. How do I save to a cd so they aren't read only?

Read Only refers to the files as they stand on the CD. Once drag and
drop to your Mac they will be accessible to modify. Assuming of course,
that they are Mac compatible, The suffixes will identify which, for you.
e.g. .exe is Windows <PC> only.
Good luck

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Dan,

Even with the .exe files not all is lost. Many Windows users save all
kinds of documents with an extension of .exe. It's rediculous that they
do this, but they do.

When this happens you drag the icon for the .exe file onto the icon for
Stuffit Expander (a program that is installed when MacOS is installed).
If there is a document lurking inside the .exe file Stuffit Expander
will extract it for you.

Incidentally, Aladdin Stuffit is the program you use on your Mac instead
of WinZip. Although Aladdin's program is far superior to WinZip and is
cross-platform the Windows folks still haven't caught on. So if you're
still communicating with your Windows brethern, when you want to use
file compression use Aladdin's Drop Zip program. To send with much
better compression use Aladdin's Drop Stuff program which your Windows
brethern can open if they install the Aladdin Expander program (free)
from http://www.aladdinsys.com/

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
MVP FAQ
<http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs>

 

[Mickey Stevens]

Hi Dan,

Even with the .exe files not all is lost. Many Windows users save all
kinds of documents with an extension of .exe. It's rediculous that they
do this, but they do.

I don't think it is ridiculous. It's simply how Windows users create
self-extracting archives. There is an equivalent on the Mac, .sea, which
can be opened on the Windows side. Even StuffIt for Mac can create Windows
self-extracting archives (.exe). The benefit of self-extracting archives is
that no additional software like WinZip or StuffIt Expander is needed to
extract the file. I myself wouldn't find that of much use, but it could
come in handy if you're working with an older system that doesn't support
the latest expansion programs, or if you don't know whether the target
machine has StuffIt or WinZip installed.

When this happens you drag the icon for the .exe file onto the icon for
Stuffit Expander (a program that is installed when MacOS is installed).
If there is a document lurking inside the .exe file Stuffit Expander
will extract it for you.

Incidentally, Aladdin Stuffit is the program you use on your Mac instead
of WinZip. Although Aladdin's program is far superior to WinZip and is
cross-platform the Windows folks still haven't caught on. So if you're
still communicating with your Windows brethern, when you want to use
file compression use Aladdin's Drop Zip program. To send with much
better compression use Aladdin's Drop Stuff program which your Windows
brethern can open if they install the Aladdin Expander program (free)
from http://www.aladdinsys.com/

Actually, all of these products except WinZip are made by Allume Systems
(formerly Aladdin). Best that you use the <http://www.stuffit.com/> or
<http://www.allume.com/> URLs.

I should also mention that StuffIt Deluxe includes the features of both
DropZip and DropStuff. It also has some other neat features.

One of the things you can tell your Windows colleagues is that installing
StuffIt Expander (free) will expand .sit files along with .zip, .hqx, .gz,
..tar and several other popular archiving formats.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Read Only refers to the files as they stand on the CD. Once drag and
drop to your Mac they will be accessible to modify.

This is true, but I've found, completely inconsistently, that sometimes
files copied from a CD in OS X retain the "read only" settings. If that
happens to you can change it for an entire folder by doing a Get Info on the
folder, and if you really have problems with that, post back, others will
give better solutions.

Also note that when you copy the CD to the Mac, holding down option as you
drag and drop will create a copy--just dragging the CD onto the desktop
creates an alias/shortcut (at least this was true last time I tried it in
Panther, though I think it's ridiculous behavior).

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

I don't think it is ridiculous. It's simply how Windows users create
self-extracting archives. There is an equivalent on the Mac, .sea, which
can be opened on the Windows side. Even StuffIt for Mac can create Windows
self-extracting archives (.exe). The benefit of self-extracting archives is
that no additional software like WinZip or StuffIt Expander is needed to
extract the file. I myself wouldn't find that of much use, but it could
come in handy if you're working with an older system that doesn't support
the latest expansion programs, or if you don't know whether the target
machine has StuffIt or WinZip installed.

The trouble is that .exe extension means the file is an executable
application. Not many Windows users know enough to drop the file onto
expander. Most simply double-click, and occassionally find they just
installed a virus onto their computer or are terrified of viruses and
simply don't open anything that has .exe as an extension. I don't think
a Mac .sea file would ever run an application, but on Windows a .exe
always does. So it's a bad idea to get windows users into the habit of
double-clicking .exe files.

 

[Mickey Stevens]

The trouble is that .exe extension means the file is an executable
application. Not many Windows users know enough to drop the file onto
expander. Most simply double-click, and occassionally find they just
installed a virus onto their computer or are terrified of viruses and
simply don't open anything that has .exe as an extension.

I wouldn't distribute files widely as .exe self-extracting archives either.
I'm just saying that for my own purposes it can be handy, especially when
working with older machines.

I don't think
a Mac .sea file would ever run an application, but on Windows a .exe
always does.

Actually, a Mac .sea file is an application. That's why it's called a
*self*-extracting archive. You can decompress them with StuffIt Expander
though.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

True, but it is a predictable application. You know if you double-click
a .sea file that you'll probably wind up with another file that could be
anything. But .sea file itself won't hurt you.

If you double-click a .exe file you could install the virus that wrecks
your computer.

-Jim