Apple vs Windows laptop

I don't think you can write to an NTFS disc with a Mac. But I am no expert.  

But if you put the second drive in a USB caddy, then you could use the Core to backup from the internal drive to your USB one and you could format that to be Mac compatible if you wanted.

Best

David

Thanks David for the reply, most appreciated.

If I can locate a Mac user I may be able to experiment with a few files as my Music and Downloads are not very large at this point.

Best

Presumably you would be connecting to the core over the network, in which case it makes no difference what platform you use.

Hi, sorry for the delay in responding Garyi

Yes, the Core is set up on a modem/router.

Some of my music is 'Download' type (not Core ripped) originally put on my USB drive meant for backup. I ended up transferring these to a solid state drive to normally be used inside the Core. Both drives were set up NTFS (Windows).

As I may have interest in getting a Mac, I had someone attach one of the drives to a laptop.  He said the file was visible and thought there would be no problem transferring content between two drives, which is the flexibility I would want, 'NTFS' not withstanding.

Out of curiosity we tried to play some of the content on the Mac laptop, but as he expected it would not. I imagine there is way to do it, but I don't really need this function.

What's good for me is that my other devises are Apple and I like the idea of having one of their computers as well if I'm in the market. 

Happily, for the reason you mentioned 'NTFS' shouldn't be an issue, at least for me.

Regards

An apple Mac user here:

MacBooks should read FAT and NTFS drives without any problem. The ‘only’ challenge may be other-way-round - if you create a disk with Apple File management system, it will not be readible by Windows computers.
For that reason I tend to format my music drives in a simplest way possible - using exFAT. 
For Apple Mac backup diskts I use Apple’s file formating.

As to completing an Apple ‘ecosystem’ - I highly recommend this. We’ve been using Apple Macs at home for years - running 3 iPads, 2 iPhones, iMac and a MacBook Pro and Apple routers (Airport Extreme).
I recently switched my work laptop from Windows 10 to a new MacBook Pro and could not be happier. Finally everything just works.

Hi.

I think there is a bit of technical stuff to overcome and understand here, but you will need to forgive me in that I don't own a core but did have a NS02 back in the day and am assuming somethings remain the same.

So on your core harddrive will presumably be a store in which there is a couple of folders, LQ/MQ/HQ and Downloads

When you rip stuff it will go into the MQ folder, if you convert to MP3 it will be copied to the LQ folder

Stuff you purchase on line and download to your pc/mac can be copied over to the Downloads folder, this needs to be handled by yourself.

So far so dandy.

In terms of accessing those folders, thats done over the network, you dont need to direct connect to anything else, leave the harddrive in the core.

On pc goto network, turn on discovery if its not and the core should show up, on mac in the finder side bar it should be there. Select it and you should be given access to the folders mentioned above. However the MQ/LQ/HQ ones you can copy from but cannot copy too. The downloads folder should be both ways.

By accessing your drives via the network, you are using a different protocol which is essentially platform agnostic. However naim have locked down some of these folders to preserve its structure hence you should always put your own downloaded music into the downloads folder ont he core.

If for what ever reason you want to play music on your mac from the core, you can play almost any format with a free programme called VLC, its a bit clunky but you could reasonably navigate to any album on the core and play directly to your mac.

The core should presumably also advirtise the music via DNLA/UPNP on your network so other streamers can pick it up.

Sorry if some of this is wrong, as I say I don't own a core, but any server based solution should be offering these basic features.

David Hendon posted:

I don't think you can write to an NTFS disc with a Mac. But I am no expert.  

But if you put the second drive in a USB caddy, then you could use the Core to backup from the internal drive to your USB one and you could format that to be Mac compatible if you wanted.

Best

David

You can install a "driver" that allows your Mac to write to NTFS. 

garyi posted:

Hi.

 

I think there is a bit of technical stuff to overcome and understand here, but you will need to forgive me in that I don't own a core but did have a NS02 back in the day and am assuming somethings remain the same.

 

So on your core harddrive will presumably be a store in which there is a couple of folders, LQ/MQ/HQ and Downloads

When you rip stuff it will go into the MQ folder, if you convert to MP3 it will be copied to the LQ folder

Stuff you purchase on line and download to your pc/mac can be copied over to the Downloads folder, this needs to be handled by yourself.

 

So far so dandy.

 

In terms of accessing those folders, thats done over the network, you dont need to direct connect to anything else, leave the harddrive in the core.

On pc goto network, turn on discovery if its not and the core should show up, on mac in the finder side bar it should be there. Select it and you should be given access to the folders mentioned above. However the MQ/LQ/HQ ones you can copy from but cannot copy too. The downloads folder should be both ways.

 

By accessing your drives via the network, you are using a different protocol which is essentially platform agnostic. However naim have locked down some of these folders to preserve its structure hence you should always put your own downloaded music into the downloads folder ont he core.

 

If for what ever reason you want to play music on your mac from the core, you can play almost any format with a free programme called VLC, its a bit clunky but you could reasonably navigate to any album on the core and play directly to your mac.

 

The core should presumably also advirtise the music via DNLA/UPNP on your network so other streamers can pick it up.

 

Sorry if some of this is wrong, as I say I don't own a core, but any server based solution should be offering these basic features.

 

 

Only two things to comment here on this good summary. Firstly the Core doesn't have the facility to convert to MP3 so the LQ folder is unused unless there are MP3s in there imported from an earlier Naim server.

And secondly Apple and Microsoft have changed things about the way their networking operates and it can sometimes be a fight to get it working with the Core. Naim are working on this for a maintenance firmware release which compensates for that.

best

David

Adam Zielinski posted:

An apple Mac user here:

MacBooks should read FAT and NTFS drives without any problem. The ‘only’ challenge may be other-way-round - if you create a disk with Apple File management system, it will not be readible by Windows computers.
For that reason I tend to format my music drives in a simplest way possible - using exFAT. 
For Apple Mac backup diskts I use Apple’s file formating.

As to completing an Apple ‘ecosystem’ - I highly recommend this. We’ve been using Apple Macs at home for years - running 3 iPads, 2 iPhones, iMac and a MacBook Pro and Apple routers (Airport Extreme).
I recently switched my work laptop from Windows 10 to a new MacBook Pro and could not be happier. Finally everything just works.

Thanks for your reply Adam.

As I consider myself at an early stage in copying music to be used by the Core I feel that I can do a bit a bit of experimentation without much risk. So, I would like to look into the above (FAT, exFAT) that you kindly mentioned and gave explanation to.  Even just now I googled and fairly quickly found a site with a handy chart comparing them.

Thanks also for mentioning how well the MAC devices are working out for you in a comprehensive way - most encouraging.

Regards

Thanks Garyi for your response above, much appreciated.

Sometimes walking someone step by step through a process can make all the difference. Now I will have a better idea of where and what to look for when I use a Windows or Mac computer when working with the Core.

Also, thanks for emphasizing the flexibility (agnostic) that the network offers the Core user. This of course will save me a lot of time as well, as it looks like I can transfer 'Downloads' without directly connecting to a computer each time. 

Regards

You certainly can and should transfer files into the downloads folder of a Core over the network. It's drag and drop easy.

best

David

Kevin Richardson posted:

David Hendon posted:

I don't think you can write to an NTFS disc with a Mac. But I am no expert.  

But if you put the second drive in a USB caddy, then you could use the Core to backup from the internal drive to your USB one and you could format that to be Mac compatible if you wanted.

Best

David

You can install a "driver" that allows your Mac to write to NTFS. 

Hi guys, I guess I'm still learning the terminology. Is 'writing' the same as 'copying and pasting' as this is what I understand is needed for transferring 'Download' type music files between drives intended for Core use? 

Also, how does this relate to the 'agnostic' concept that the network offers as related by Garyi above. Thanks for your patience if I missed something.

Thanks for your previous responses as well.

I'm not sure I understand what you are wanting to do. So starting from the beginning, why do you need more than one drive for Core use?

best

David

Oh sorry, the second is an 8 tb in an enclosure for backup. No NAS at this point. I think you mentioned this scenario above.

Regards

OK well the way to keep the second disc synchronised with the one in the Core is to use the backup function of the Core. If you haven't got a NAS then using the second disc in a USB-connected enclosure or with an HDD to USB adapter, you can plug it into a USB port on the Core and run a backup. If you have stuff on the second disc already though then you can't backup that way because the Core will want to format the second disc.

A NAS is really a very good plan as you can then automate the backup and just forget about it.

best

David

Thanks much for the further information, David.

Regards