Format an external drive from mac to pc

How do I format an external drive (My Passport) from mac to pc (iOS Snow Leopard) without losing my data?

kwnola wrote:
How do I format an external drive (My Passport) from mac to pc (iOS Snow Leopard) without losing my data?
1: Remove the data off the drive
You can do this by installing MacDrive on the Windows PC to access the Mac HTFS+ format
Or you can use a Mac to remove the data.
2: Format the drive on the PC (preferably) by right clicking on the drive and choosing format
A: If data on the drive will have larger than 4GB sized files, then the format you want is exFAT
(if your using Windows XP, you can download exFAT from Microsoft)
B: If the data on the drive will always have less than 4GB sized files, then you should choose FAT32 for most compatibility with all other machines.
3: If you can only format the drive on the Mac then open Apple's Disk Utility in the Utilities folder
Select the drive on the far left, it should have the makers name and a size, then click Partition.
Now select the box and click Options: MBR Then select Format: exFAT or MSDOS (FAT32) and click Apply.
4: If any chance you need to secure delete any data remaining on the drive form being recovered, use the Erase with Zero (or 7x for very secure) before formatting.
Note: Formatting a drive on the PC there will be a option for NTFS, this is for access by Windows only, but software can be installed on the Mac to read/write this format.
If you use exFAT or FAT32, the Mac can read and write this format just like Windows can, no need for extra software.
Linux can read/write just about any format.

Similar Messages

Is it safe to format ANY external drive to Mac OS Extended?

Some Seagate tech told me a while back that Seagate drives should ONLY be formatted with their proprietary formatting and that my data is vulnerable if I use something else. (I may have misunderstood this, but I'm 98% certain that's what he said.) I do remember him saying not to use the Mac's Disk Utility to format the drive.
I want to reformat this drive so that it's 100% compatible with my new Mavericks iMac.
Is there any concern about formatting ANY external drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Or are there some hard drives that should not be formatted to Mac using Disk Utility?
I'm under the impression that all external drives are basically the same and I can format them however I want. No drive is "made" to be formatted with a certain OS or a certain format.
Is that correct?

Formatting a drive simply will remove any data currently stored on it. There is no such thing as "proprietary formatting." Drives come out of the factory with no formatting.
Whatever the person told you it was patently wrong not to mention mis-informed.
To use a hard drive properly with any computer it needs to be formatted with the tool that is required for the operating system with which it will be used. For the Mac you use Disk Utility (the tool) and you format the drive using Mac OS Extended, Journaled (the format.)
Your impression is correct.

How to format an external drive for mac AND pc use

i want to format my external drive so i can use it on my mac and on pc's as well. i've gathered that the MS-DOS format is the way to go. my question is this: would this create any problems for my mac then?
can i partion one part for ms-dos and part for macos extended?
cheers
-j-

MS-DOS format (or FAT32) will be fine for both Mac and PC. However there is a 4GB file size limit with FAT32.
You could use a dual partition, however the HFS+ partition would not be readable by the PC unless you installed the third party MacDrive.
Look at this page for more information on a dual partition drive for Mac and Windows.
http://macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812
iFelix

Format External Drive - From Mac for Windows

I have a Maxtor One-touch that I need to back up a bunch of data for a Windows XP user. After some research, I thought that formatting the drive in the MS-DOS (FAT) format would do it, however, after doing so and moving all of the data, I have tried the Harddrive on a PC running Windows XP. The drive doesn't mount.
The external drive is a PC/MAC compatible version. Am I overlooking anything? Is there something I need to do in windows to access the drive.... because it's not obvious.

Hi Christopher,
follow either Templetons advise or (if not possible) use Disk Utility and set the partition scheme (behind the Options button) to MBR (Master Boot Record) and use MS-DOS (= FAT32) as file system.
That should also do the trick.
The 'standard' partition scheme on Intel Macs is GPT (GUID Partition Table) which can sometimes lead to the effect with Windows PC that you observed.
Hope it helps
Stefan

Transferring my external drive from mac to windows

Hi,
I have been having problems w/my itunes (taking forever to update my library). I have and use my iMac. Since Apple doesn't help with this problem (based on my seaches through apple support here), I called Geek Squad through Best Buy. They were able to identify the file that is causing the problem. The file is on my external hard drive, which is also where I store all my music. She attempted to take it from my external and drag it into the garbage, but it won't allow for that b/c my external has to be reformatted (another error message I have had for a while). Her suggestion was to hook up my external hard drive to a windows computer to get that problem file off and then re-hook it up to my Mac computer. This wont' reformat the external drive (I have to figure out this problem later) but she said if I can get rid of this on a PC, I should be able to access my itunes w/out waiting hours for the library to be updated.
So, my question is this: If my external hard drive has been formatted for an apple computer and has only been used on an apple computer, is it going to damage anything if I hook it up to a PC? I have all of my songs on this (they aren't on my iMac hard drive) and I don't want to damage these. I am also considering just buying another external hard drive and transferring these tunes to that new one. Thanks.

cjmandel wrote:
I don't know if I understand how to tell waht size the internal drive is. When I click on the "About this Mac" option, I see that this says " 2GB 800 MHz" I don't know if this answers the question correctly though.?
Compressing my music using the default itunes setting? How would I know if I am doing this?
Thanks for the help!
To tell what size the internal HD is open a new Finder window and on the left look for a drive probably called iMac HD then type Command I (I as in Ivan) and Command is the key next to the spacebar on your keyboard. It will tell you the capacity and look similar to:

Reformat external drive from mac os to windows

the windows partition on my mac book pro is close to full.
i would like to use an external drive formatted for windows for my growing number of pc games (gw,tdu,fsx,dirt - which run great on the mac book pro windows partition btw).
i tried to reformat a mac formatted external drive using disc utility, erase, format volume, but only choices were mac os extended and unix - no fat32, dos, or windows choices.
if i start up my mac book pro using windows, the drive does not show up in the 'hard drives' section of 'my computer'
please let me know how to reformat this mac formatted external drive so i can use it when the mac book pro is running windows.
thanks

Hi Stefan, Turns out my old ext hd was corrupt. Bought a new 300G G-Drive and got a brand new problem which you may have heard of - the dreaded hal.dll crash. My windows partition crashed and after much effort I finally have everything working.
Had to go to the mac store to get a boot camp 1.4 disk (mine was the original) was able to save files from the corrupt windows partition to my mac partition. next i used boot camp to revert to a single partition on my internal drive, saving my mac system and files. next used boot camp to partition the internal drive into big mac and 31G windows. reinstalled windows. next using disk utility i split my 300G external into 10 30G partitions using your GUID suggestion and formatting in ms-dos(fat32) so my mac could read/write to it. dragged the files i saved to the 30G partitions and they work fine. loaded more games into the 30G partitions and they also are working fine.
could not have done it without your pointing out the GUID option.
vielen dank, john

How do is clean my external drive from mac?

I inserted my external drive and it won't open in mac. Someboy suggested to download a cleaner or anti virus. what is the best for mac?

Did you install this HDD in the MBP or just connect it to the MBP? Have you formatted this HDD? Does it have an OS installed on it? Does it appear in Disk Utility? What settings do you have in Finder Preferences?
Ciao.
You do not need any anti-virus or cleaner program for your MBP.
Message was edited by: OGELTHORPE

Migrating iphoto on external drive from mac book pro to air

i just bought an air.it has iphoto 11. i have a pro and iphot 09 connected to an extenal hard drive where i migrated my iphotos. when i connect my external drive to the new air it says i dont have permission. i want to restore my pro and want to be albe to see my photos in air on the external drive.

How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac

Formatting SimpleTech external drive for Mac

Many, many apologies if this is a repeated question, but I've looked for a while and not found a solution.
I am trying to format my SimpleTech prodrive for my PowerBookG4 Mac. The error "could not unmount disc" keeps appearing.
This is despite some of the fixes I've seen online (i.e. using Partition1 instead of the 'erase' as the instructions do, and also changing from Master Boot Record to GUID partition or Apple partition)...
Nothing I've tried seems to work.
Does anyone have any other advice? It would be greatly appreciated. And apologies again if this is somewhere else on the forum...
J

Odd. Which interface between computer and drive are you using?

How to format WD external drive for Mac

Just got the WD MyBook 2TB. It's not the one specifically for Mac. It says it is compatible, needs to reformat. How easy is it to reformat? It is for Time Machine. Thanks.

Connect it, power it up, go to Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities), select the WD disk on the left, go to the Erase tab, and choose "Mac OS Extended". Click Erase. That should do it.
You should then a) see it mount on the desktop, and b) automatically get a prompt to use the drive for Time Machine - if not, you can go into the Time Machine menu (top right of the screen), go to TM Preferences, and select it.
Matt

Formatted External drive for Mac OS extended

Hi,
I actually change from windows to Mac (no comparison...!!) but trying to transfer my photos (Pictures in finder) to an external hard disk i can`t drag and drop and i do not know why....i read in one forume that i have to formatted the external drive for Mac OS extended. First question: how could i do that? if my hard disk was originally formatted for windows, do i lose the info when i formatted?
Thanks!!

You will lose the files on the HD when you reformat it. So copy what you want off the drive to a folder on your Mac temporarily.
select the HD on the Desktop and launch Disk Utility.
select the HD in the left hand page of DU.
click on the Partiton button
select 1 Partition
select OS X Extended (journaled) in the drop down Format menu.
click on the Apply button
drag the folder of files onto the EHD to copy back and then delete from your Mac's drive after verifying that they all copied back successfully.
OT

How to format external drive for mac AND pc use

hi
i want to format my external drive so i can use it on my mac and on pc's as well. i've gathered that the MS-DOS format is the way to go. my question is this: would this create any problems for my mac then?
can i partion one part for ms-dos and part for macos extended?
cheers
-j-

There are a couple of disadvantages with formatting a
disk as FAT32. Firstly, there is a limit on the file
size for FAT32. I think it like 2 GB so if you
capturing video the results will probably not fit
into this file limit. Secondly FAT32 will not be
bootable. I alway clone my system to a backup disk as
bootable. That way if anything goes wrong with my
system, I can just boot from my backup disk and fix
it.
The problem with doing this though is that the drive will not be usable with Windows (which was in the original posting) unless you use the third party MacDrive software on the PC.
iFelix

Can't save multiple folders to external drive. Get: "The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items." when dragging large folders to mac os extended journalled external drive from OS 10.6.8

Hi
I am feeling VERY desperate!
After losing an external drive [dont ask....] -   I got another one : 2TB WD formatted properly [ OS extended journalled for mac ] ready for action to move my thousands of files and images and ppts in hundreds of folders across from the laptop to this drive because I travel a bit with the laptop and this is too risky not to back up at home.
But this message came up after starting on moving folders across [** and not straight away, sometimes after moving a folder when 4 of 6 gb of files across then the message comes up = very frustrating]:
"The operation can’t be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items."
I am dragging mixed sometimes large complex folders to this os extended journalled external drive from my mac book pro OS 10.6.8 - it would take decades to move items one by one or even folder by folder and really confusing.
I have dragged-copied various small folders and files across successfully, but it is only working 50:50 and I can't leave machine with the idea of things copying eg: overnight - it just won't work....
I have been browsing google and find some people describing in CODE how they overcome this 'message'   .... but I [and I guess some other viewers of this in future & also in desperation] would need instructions for beginners.... to try this type of thing. I don't know any code.
How can this be happening - I feel ANGRY at APPLE !!!! for not posting easy fix instructions yet re; this, or better still updating software so it doesn't happen [ that I can find at least !!! ] .   There seem to be hundreds of people stuck with this stupid message and inability to back up their projects etc.
Can anyone help ?
Many thanks
Julie
15 August 2011

hi Samberl
thanks a lot for the fast reply.
I was dragging folders from main folders on the laptop-desktop onto the external drive icon - to copy them across....
Your suggestion sounds very promising - I didn't know about 'cloning'.
Yes the idea is to backup the laptop -    I thought I would just move it all now, new - and then keep saving/dragging physically   across to the new drive myself each day or two...
Would this be the sizeof the internal hard drive = c.500 gb ?   =   under the HD icon on desktop is written :
" 499.76gb , 311.5 gb free "
I can erase and start agin on the new external drive - so this plan is to make two partititions, rather than the one at present, and make one of them 500 gb ?
I have found CCC [carbon copy cloner] googling - looks good.
When CCC site says it backs up the hard drive - would this mean all my files [over 100 gb] that are mostly in folders on the desktop, plus the others in itunes, iphotos etc found in the HD icon, would all copy across successfully [wherever they are in the computer ] ?
thanks again, hope you can clarify these things and then I will go for it.
It would be great and amazing if this 'lack of permission' message doesn't show up in the process of doing this ccc transfer - hopeful!
Julie

Format external drive for Mac and PC?

Can I format an external Drive to have 1 partition for OS X and another for my wife to use with her PC?
thanks!
ray

Yes, just use Disk Utility under OS X to create two volumes on it, one Mac OS Ext, the other FAT. Use a Master Boot Record partition scheme (also known as “fdisk”).

Clone a Mac Partition to an External Drive from within Windows 7 Bootcamp?

Anyone know if it is possible to clone the mac os x partition to an external drive from within Windows 7 bootcamp? I (like a few others) had a problem with the latest 10.6.3 update and I cannot boot into the mac partition but I can access it via bootcamp so I was thinking about trying to clone it to an external drive and then boot from the new clone and see if that works.
Appreciate your comments.

setup a 30GB partition on an external drive, along with a partition of 150% the size of your Mac OS X volume -- or larger.
Install OS X to 30GB.
While booted from DVD, before you install, you'll need to go to Utility Menu => Disk Utility to do the partitoning. While there, in DU see if you can repair your system.
And where is your TimeMachine or clone backup? The "Step #1: Backup before beginning your Boot Camp project."?
No way to backup or clone from within Windows, though you may be able to write to NTFS backup volume, UNLESS you bought MacDrive8 which allows read AND write to HFS+ from within Windows.

Format an external drive from mac to pc

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