[ZLS]

   I understand that FLAC isnot native to a Mac Computer.  Is there a format that allows Mac's to use FLAC?  I have an outboard HD that has my music in FLAC and want to turn the music back to .WAV. 
    Speaking of said HD, it was initially used with Windows, does it have to be reconfigured to work with a Mac computer? 
    I have a dozen or more questions, but one step at a time. 
    I appreciate any and all help, and thank everyone in advance. 

[Len_Dreyer]

You could try this site:

http://earpick.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/how-to-play-flac-in-itunes-on-mac/

[dB Cooper]

VLC Media Player also plays FLAC. It supports playlists and a lot of video formats Quicktime won't. iTunes isn't the only media player for the Mac; it just has the most eye candy. No compelling reason to convert all that music from FLAC.

The tedious conversion process described in the above link can be bypassed by using batch conversion built into apps like Amadeus Pro, XLD, or Max (although batch processing in Max isn't working yet under Leopard 10.5).

If your HD is formatted FAT32, no problem. Just plug it in. NTFS drives can be read but not written to on Mac (unless NTFS support has been added in 10.5; I haven't checked.)

[ZLS]

   The outboard HD is unfortunately formated for NTFS.  How big of a deal (time and money) is it to convert to FAT 32.  BTW using the current version of Mac operating system and while I can copy .WAV files from the HD to Itunes i cannot copy files from Itunes to the HD. 
    I thank you for all you help, and this is one of the reasons that I so value AC; it is a terrific resource for information made possible by its members willingness to share the knowledge.  If anyone needs to know how many angels can dance on the head of a pin; I am your guy!

[Len_Dreyer]

Unfortunately, you need to copy the files to another drive, reformat the original drive and then copy the files back to the reformatted drive.

[ZLS]

    AAARRRGHHHH!!!

    So it doesn't make any difference if the files are in .WAV, FLAC, Apple Lossless, or Sanskrit.  If the HD is not formatted properly I am SOL. 

    Thank you very much for your help. 

[dB Cooper]

If the drive is half or less full, you could use a utility (there are many) to create a FAT32 partition, and copy the files across. you could then use Disk utility to delete the original partition. (I think, anyway.) This is a one-drive variation on what Len is suggesting. But his suggestion could also create a redundant backup, since you would still be able to read the original drive.