External drive - how to format?

Hi there
I'm about to buy a macbook after finaly getting fed up with my windows desktop. I'm going to buy a new external hard drive so I can store all my music and videos on it (it'll also make migrating a breeze) so it wont clog up my macbook hard drive, but I want it to be accessable in windows, should I need to take the files anywhere, or if i decide to use boot camp. I think I am going to have to format it it FAT32 format so that its readable and writable to both windows and OSX, can anyone confirm this or suggest something better?
Also, I'm looking at the Western Digital My Book Premium line, with the firewire and usb2 connection. Anyone had any experiences of using these drives?
Thanks very much!

FAT32 is an older file format that was in place with Win98 before we used our computers for video and such that required these large files.
I do not know the ins and outs of it all, but if an individual file is larger than 4GB, FAT32 might read it, but not all of it, or maybe not at all. If you will be working with files of that size, then it is best to avoid FAT32.
Another option is a program like MacDrive. It allows a Windows PC to read and write to HFS volumes. That way you do not have any issues with file size and will never have an issue with your Mac reading those files.
I recommend that Oxford chipset because the others, such a Prolific, have shown to have spotty reliability when it comes to booting Macs. You might be able to see the drive, but mounting it in disk utility might be a problem too. I have yet to hear of a single problem with mounting or booting the Oxford 911 chipset in Macs. I chose it because of the reliability and recommend it to everyone without reservation. I feel the quality is worth it.
Disk utility is fine for formating, partitioning, erasing a drive - whatever you want to do.

Similar Messages

External drive, how to format and partition?

Hey everybody!
I'm about to buy an external drive for my mac. I am reasonably capable on a computer, but I've never done formatting or partitioning so I have two questions:
1) I just want to check that I do not need to buy a mac-formatted drive. A little big of googling told me I could do the formatting myself with Disk Utility, just wanted to double check that that was true.
2) Once I get my external drive, what I want to do is create two partitions within that drive, one for my Time Machine backup and one for random files and movies. I'm not sure how to do that (apparently I might need to pick different formats for each in Disk Utility?) so if anybody could help out that would be brilliant.
Thanks
(if that helps, I have a MacBook Pro with a 512GB hardrive, and I want to buy a 1TB external drive)

Hi,
Here is a link that will help you set up your external drive. http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-an-external-hard-drive-for-use-with-os- x/
You won't need different formats for Time Machine backups and storage space partitions. However, given the size of your hard drive, 500 gb for Time Machine may not be enough. You could buy a separate one for Time Machine, budget permitting.
Check the size of your startup disk, and if it is only 250 gb or less, then 500 gb for Time Machine may be OK, for a while. It will soon fill up, but the older backups will be erased.
Regards.

HT2963 I have a 1 TG external drive that is formatted to Windows NTFS and is read only, how do i get it to read and write on my Mac OS X 10.6.3?

I I have a 1 TG external drive that is formatted to Windows NTFS and is read only, how do i get it to read and write on my Mac OS X 10.6.3?

Install software such as Paragon NTFS, or reformat it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or FAT32. Mac OS X 10.6.5 and newer can also read and write exFAT partitions.
(97498)

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

You'll get better performance if you use a Firewire hard drive (especially if you buy a 7200 RPM drive). Firewire's IO speed is significantly faster than USB 2. USB 2 has a theoretical max speed of 480 Mbps except that it has extremely high over-head. The fastest speeds you can typically get are about 300 Mbps. Firewire, on the other hand, has very little overhead. The fastest speeds you can get are very nearly 800 Mbps. You will typically be constrained by the maximum read/write speed of the drive, not the speed of the I/O on the Firewire bus. Now if you had one of those nice shiny new Macs with the Thunderbolt I/O and a Thunderbolt drive (Light Peak) ... I think they alter space and time so that your data arrives before you know you want it.
Also... unless you want to buy a solid state drive (very expensive), try to keep your hard drives from becoming much more than about 60% full if you want great performance. A nearly "full" hard drive is, on average, only about half as fast as the same hard drive when nearly empty.
USB 2 will work perfectly fine... just not as fast.
Also... it's much safer to move the entire Aperture library than to "relocate masters". Your images must be managed. You can Aperture manage them, or you can manage them. But someone has to manage them. If you "relocate" them so that they are no longer stored inside the Aperture library then you'll need to work out a system of how you decide to organize things and it's critically important that you don't start moving files around or deleting things without Aperture's knowledge. If you do, you'll break the links to your masters and start having problems with missing masters. If you have Aperture manage the library then you don't need to worry about any of that stuff.... it's safer.
Do make backups (use the Aperture Vault or use some other backup program, but make sure you back up your work if you care about it.) There are only two kinds of hard drives in the world: (1) those that have failed and (2) those that are going to fail. There are no exceptions to this rule. Hard drives are cheap. Backup software is built into Aperture and into your Mac.

I want to move all files to an external drive--how?

I'm working on a Mac Pro. Using iMovie 9, I've been loading video from 10 years to archive and edit it all. I'm quickly using up remaining space on my primary hard drive (1 TB). I have a second drive (also 1 TB) with plenty of room. Can I move all the "Event" files (haven't started processing them yet) to this second drive? There doesn't seem to be any way to do this. Basically, I just want to move the whole iMovie operation to another drive and work from there. I've read some posts on this but the instructions don't make sense to me and I can't get anywhere.

Here is the main post.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4141
The safest way is to follow the instructions in the post and move Events from within iMovie.
In your case, if you have not started ANY projects, you can move the events in the Finder and they will still work.
The safest way to do this would be to move a single Event using iMovie. This will create the right Events folder with the right name in the right place. Then drag the rest using the Finder. This will be a little quicker.
Restart iMovie and it should see them all and you are good to go.
Remember that the external drive must be formatted as MacOS Extended (journaled). FAT 32 drives would have to be reformatted before they can be used in iMovie.

How do I migrate files created in a Windows OS to a new external drive that is formatted as a MAC drive. I want to read and write these files back to the new drive.

How do I migrate files from an external hard drive created in a Windows OS to a new MAC external drive? I want to read and write these files to the new drive.

LKrzesowski wrote:
How do I migrate files from an external hard drive created in a Windows OS to a new MAC external drive? I want to read and write these files to the new drive.
If all you're trying to do is move the files from the Windows external to the Mac external, you can simply connect them both to the Mac and drag the files from the Windows drive to the Mac drive. If you want to move the files back and forth between them, you'll need to establish the format of the Windows external. Macs can read and write to FAT32 and exFAT (which can handle files larger than 4GB) formatted drives but can only read NTFS formatted drives without additional software. With the Windows drive connected, you can check its format with Disk Utility.

Formatting Seagate 1TB external drive - How long does it take?

I'm 20+ minutes into erasing this disc and see no way to monitor any progress.
I've got a blue-stripe barber pole bar spinning along next to a line that reads: newfs_hfs:/dev/rdisk1s1: partition size is not a multiple of 4K.
Anybody know what that means?
Anybody have an idea how long it takes to wipe 1TB?
TA

Formatting should be instant. It sounds like you aren't just formatting, but also writing zeros or something. If you are using Zero Out Data, I just did that to several new 1TB internal and external drives, and I think it took about 2.5 hours each. Using a Mac Pro and eSATA. It might take longer on a laptop, not sure.
The time seemed appropriate because that was similar to how long it took to clone my machine backups onto them. Each full clone took over 2 hours of copying. Either way, it's writing as fast as it can.
If you used 7-Pass or 35-Pass Erase, frankly you're going to wait days.
Remember, we're talking about one freaking terabyte of data to write. Just a few years ago, it was inconceivable that anyone would need to do that at home. It felt like long enough waiting for my old 250GB disks to zero out, and these are 4x that.

Format and partition HD without external drive - how to...

Just got a new previous gen imac and before I start saving stuff, I want to partition the drive. I'm thinking this can be done with the install disc. I'm wanting to make a partition for a Superduper Sandbox, and a scratch disc for photoshop. Is there specific directions for doing this without an external drive anywhere?
I'm not sure how important it is to have a scratch disc as I'll have 3gb ram, and I'll leave a lot of free space....any thoughts on this?

You can do it from the install disk by booting from it then instead of doing an install select a language and then, go to the utility menu and select "Disk Utility". You can then create the partitions you want, name then, and decide the size of them. After that you will have to install a new OS. Remember that doing all of this will erase the drive, so if you have any data on it you want to keep you need to get it of first.
Mac Help can guide you through this process. You could also open up the Disk Utility application which is in your utilites folder and use those application specific help files. I am making this sound complicated but really, it is not.

Formatting external drives - How do I do this?

I have a Segate external drive that I've used with my Windows machine for the past year. I'd like to start using it with my Mac but currently I can only read from the drive and can't write. I'm guessing this is because it was formatted using the FAT32 file system for Windows.
Is there a utility available on my Mac that will allow me to format the drive so it'll work with my Mac? Also is there a way for it to copy the data, format the drive and then copy the data back the way it found it?
Signed,
Lots of formatting questions.

I can only read from the drive and can't write. I'm guessing this is because it was formatted using the FAT32 file system for Windows.
Mac OS X should have no problems writing to a FAT32 drive; I do it all the time. Are you sure the drive isn't NTFS?
Is there a utility available on my Mac that will allow me to format the drive so it'll work with my Mac?
Disk utility. The "format" is the "erase" in Mac parlance.
Also is there a way for it to copy the data, format the drive and then copy the data back the way it found it?
The simplest way is to just drag the content to your internal hard drive, erase the external drive, and drag it back.

Fresh installed, unformatted drive - how to format

I just bought a SSD and it will arrive in a few days, but I still can't find a clear answer about how to format an unformatted drive. The only answer I can find is to use the installaion disk, I don't have that. I am running mountain lion and can make a flash drive boot, but I can't figure out how to boot from flash. I wanted to know if anyone knew if I can boot by using CMD + R on an unformatted drive to format it? Or anybody know a command that I can use to boot from flash drive?

The easiest way is to get yourself an enclosure for the drive. Here's one example:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=319523 3&CatId=2781
1. To begin temporarily install the ssd in the enclosure - it should just slide in. You now have an external ssd drive.
2. Connect it to your computer and use Disk Utility to format it as Mac OS Extended. (DU is in Applications / Utiities.)
3. Transfer whatever you want from the internal to the external using an app like Carbon Copy Cloner.
4. Check the external is bootable by looking at System Preferences / Startup disk.
5. Take the ssd out of the enclosure and install it in the Mac.
And you can put the original drive in the enclosure, as a bonus.

Transfer files from Mac formatted external drive to PC formatted drive

i need to transfer quicktime files (that were captured from video with FCP) to a PC formatted external drive (for editing them in after effects on a PC). the files can be transfered by burning them on a DVD, but that will take a very long time and waste many DVDs because i have 60 GB of material... can this be done (without having to purchase expensive software)?

thanx tom,
first of, i like that you made the link appear as one word. how did you do that? it's really cool!
i downloaded the program, but i'm not sure how to use it... reading the guide just made me more confused... if i understand correctly, it will automatically reformat ALL my files to NTFS-3G ones, which are not as stable... i'm a little scared to install it... though i may have totally misunderstood what it says. i see mostly black when i try to read these kind of things...
anyone out there have experience with this program?

New External Drive how do I set it for Time Machine?

I just bought a new 250g firewire to back up my hard drive - I formatted it and it's ok and all but I want to use it to back up my entire hard drive.
I thought I was supposed to make a Disk Image?? but browsing these forums it seems I was supposed to designate it for Time Machine? I didn't know that. Can I still do that? If so what do I do? and how do I do it?
also what is disk image? I thought that was supposed to be the back up feature -
and if anyone else knows and I'm allowed more questions - I really wanted to install Final Cut Studio Pro on the external drive because apparently it ***** up disk space like a --- -well you know ----- - but it says it has to be on my regular drive - does that mean I have to uninstall some programs? can I set other software to work off the external or am I going to have the same problem?
I'm so ******!! I bought the 120 g drive thinking it was enough to run programs off of and use the other for data storage - apparently not!
I'm about 10 gigs short right now and that doesn't even count leaving something for extra space.
I'm in a time crunch too - ok who isn't I know - but really - I'm on vaca now and was supposed to be working on my projects but instead am babysitting this freakin' computer and am really getting ******!!
so anyone that can jump in here and help please do so. I appreciate it very much am used to windows machines am new to mac in case that wasn't already blatantly apparent!

No disc image is required. Prepare the drive as follows:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Connect the drive to a Firewire port. Open Time Machine preferences and select the drive as the TM backup drive and turn on TM.
If you use the external drive for backups you should not use it for installing applications or storing other files. It should be used as a dedicated backup drive. If you need additional storage space get another external drive.
See Disk Image for discussion of what a disc image is.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Backup and Restore.
Hopefully the next vacation you go on you will prepare for more thoroughly in advance. And, don't swear at the computer - it's a machine and only does what you tell it to do. If you need to swear at something look in the mirror!

Convert an Internal Drive to External Drive = How to fornat the Lenovo Style

Hello,
I want to format my internal drive that is now an external HD = How do we do that ? Knowing that it was an internal HD = with The Hard drive / The Recovery HD / And system Drv :/
ThaNks for the help
Solved!
Go to Solution.

just right click on your external hdd and choose format.
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

HT4527 I have a new laptop/PC, and I want to keep content of iTunes on an external drive, how do I set this up?

I have a new laptop/pc, and I am trying to set up iTunes on it; but I want to keep content on an external drive (lots of movies/books/etc.). I know I will not be able to see when not hooked up to that drive, or sync with out it. What is the best way to go about setting this up.

Hi drnels,
Are you saying you still have access to the backup? If you do, you should take a look at [[Backing up your information]]. It will show you where all of your personal information is stored in Firefox and how you can copy it to a new install.
Hopefully this helps!

Itunes music on external drive - how to get it back onto mac.

hi - some time ago I transferred my growing itunes library to an external hard drive. The database remained on the mac. My mac was an old powerpc imac. So far no problem. Things moved on and I have just bought a new imac i3 etc. I would now like to transfer my itunes content to the new mac as it has loads of space. Alternatively I would be happy to keep the music on the external drive. I transferred the contents of the old mac to the new mac without any difficulty. The database on itunes arrived seemlessly on the new mac. I plugged in the external hard drive and nothing worked. I had forgotten that the old mac was power pc and the new mac was of course intel.
My question is now, how do I get the library on the external drive back onto my old mac so that I can transfer it to the new mac? Any ideas. I am sure it is simple, but am not the best on computers. I can follow instructions.

mdockrell wrote:
will make sure both machine are running the same version and try again
again, the version shouldn't matter - the worst that could happen is that the newer version would need to update the library (which may take a while).
if you still have access the the PPC, try copying its iTunes folder once more to the intel. you can use a thumb drive or connect the two Macs with a firewire cable, boot the source Mac in _*Target Disk Mode*_, and copy the entire iTunes folder from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the source to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the target (overwriting the iTunes folder in place there).
connect the external to the intel and wait for it to mount, then launch iTunes.
what happens ?

External drive - how to format?

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