Best format for an external hard disk

Hi
I need to re-formated my WD 1TB external hard drive and was wondering what is the best file format to use (MS DOS FAT-32, Mac OS Extended Journalled etc)
All I store on it are all my videos, tv shows, and back-ups of all my work, documents etc, but I don't use it with time machine
Is one format better than the other for my needs?
Thanks
Andy

Frankless24 wrote:
How can I transfer something off of the drive that is over 4GB??
You don't transfer the file to a FAT(32) aka "MSDOS" formatted drive, partition or USB thumb drive.
The file is already on a drive that is formatted either exFAT, NTFS or HFS+ as it's over 4GB already or it wouldn't be there in the first place.
Drives, partitions, formatting w/Mac's + PC's

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Trying to find the best format for an external hard drive

I have a new iMac 20", and I am now converting an external hard drive I had on another computer to be compatible with this one. The ext. HD was formatted as NTFS, and I would like to make it much more easily read/write. I've tried using various tools to enable write support on the drive, but I'm giving up on that, instead opting that I just format the drive to something else.
Disk Utility doesn't really offer me a comprehensive comparison of UFS and Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or any of the OS Extended derivatives.
Since Everything is either:
a) Mac OS Extended
b) MS-DOS or
c) Unix File System
What are the differences between a) and c) and why would I choose UFS over the others? For the time being, I just want to set up the drive as a backup, but I may use it for more than that, since it has a Firewire connection to it, enabling much better performance than USB.
Thanks in advance,
Nick

File system formats and partition map schemes are two different things.
OS X requires the Mac OS Extended (HFS+) file system formatting scheme. Details on file format schemes are in http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Performance/Conceptual/FileSystem/Artic les/MacOSXAndFiles.html
ICBMs (Intel-chip-based Macs) require the GUID Partition Table scheme. Details on partition mapping schemes are in http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/universalbinary/universal_binary_tips/chapter_5_section10.html and further information on GUID is in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUIDPartitionTable.
Erasing. When you erase a volume, you delete the volume's file directory (when you erase a disk, you also destroy its partitions and directories); and, when you zero out the data, you write 0s and 1s to the disk and map out bad blocks.
So, I suggest using Disk Utility and erasing, zeroing out data, Mac OS X Extended, and the GUID partition scheme.

How do i burn idvd projects in a dvd format to an external hard disk

I have an iDVD project but it is too big to burn to a dvd (11GB!) so I was wondering if I can save the proejct like a dvd onto my External Hard Disk. This is really urgent and important for a school project.
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iDVD does not care about file size (it compresses a movie file by about 4:1 o the standard mpeg2 format), only about length.
A standard DVD will hold up to 120 minutes of video, but this includes titles, transitions etc.
iDVD encoding settings:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/11417.html
Short version:
Best Performance is for videos of up to 60 minutes
Best Quality is for videos of up to 120 minutes
Professional Quality is also for up to 120 minutes but even higher quality (and takes much longer)
That was for single-layer DVDs. Double these numbers for dual-layer DVDs.
Professional Quality: The Professional Quality option uses advanced two-pass technology to encode your video (The first pass determines which parts of the movie can be given greater compresson without quality loss and which parts can’t. The second pass then encodes those different parts accordingly) , resulting in the best quality of video possible on your burned DVD. You can select this option regardless of your project’s duration (up to 2 hours of video for a single-layer disc and 4 hours for a double-layer disc). Because Professional Quality encoding is time-consuming (requiring about twice as much time to encode a project as the High Quality option, for example) choose it only if you are not concerned about the time taken.
In both cases the maximum length includes titles, transitions and effects etc. Allow about 15 minutes for these.
You can use the amount of video in your project as a rough determination of which method to choose. If your project has an hour or less of video (for a single-layer disc), choose Best Performance. If it has between 1 and 2 hours of video (for a single-layer disc), choose High Quality. If you want the best possible encoding quality for projects that are up to 2 hours (for a single-layer disc), choose Professional Quality. This option takes about twice as long as the High Quality option, so select it only if time is not an issue for you.
Use the Capacity meter in the Project Info window (choose Project > Project Info) to determine how many minutes of video your project contains.
NOTE: With the Best Performance setting, you can turn background encoding off by choosing Advanced > “Encode in Background.” The checkmark is removed to show it’s no longer selected. Turning off background encoding can help performance if your system seems sluggish.
And whilst checking these settings in iDVD Preferences, make sure that the settings for NTSC/PAL and DV/DV Widescreen are also what you want.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1502?viewlocale=en_US

HT1553 how to change permission for my external hard-disk ??????

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You could select the 'Ignore ownership on this volume' box in Get Info for the disk - see below - unlock the lock first:

Search for perfect external hard disk enclosure / RAID1

Today, am using stand-alone enclosures connected to a Mac Mini (running SL) via FW400 and USB.
Am storing my media on a 2 TB WD Green HD and am looking for redundancy (RAID1) while keeping the form factor down (wife approval factor).
Plan to add a second 2 TB drive, but need to find the ideal RAID enclosure. Have been looking into this for some time, but when I find what I think will work, the reviews aren't very favorable.
Here are the requirements:
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- Low noise/low heat (passive cooling preferred)
- Power Management (turns off when HTPC is off)
- Small(ish) form factor (e.g. under 8" x 8" x 15" (H x W x D)
I'd consider using Mac OS X Software to create the RAID but have read too many reports that indicate it is problematic. Also considered NAS (vs DAS) but want to use the array as a time machine disk also so it would need to be mac friendly.
Can any one chime in with some hands-on recommendations for an enclosure/RAID1 that meets my requirements, or experiences when using software RAID1 on the Mac?

Langley James Rock wrote:
Can any one chime in with some hands-on recommendations for an enclosure/RAID1 that meets my requirements, or experiences when using software RAID1 on the Mac?
Take a look here:
http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-safe.cfm
I have just ordered one. I have two G Safe drives, they work well with the Mac. They go to sleep (or not) according to the Mac settings.
I have ordered a third module so I can always keep a copy off site.
They are available 500 Gig to 2 Tb. Interfaces eSATA, USB, FW 800.
From personal experience I would not recommend software Raid for safety. My two excursions into software raid resulted in tears.

What format is best for an external hard drive for video editing on a mac?

What's the best format for an external hard drive for video editing to be use with a mac only? I need to format my new hard drive and want to be sure I choose the right format.

I concur with Kappy. His suggestion is correct.
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Sharing disabled for external hard disks?

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If the external hard disk is connected via network, I found that if you connect to that hard disk through its IP address in a web browser and change it's folder preferences to (everyone can read/write), that will allow Lion to access the files.
I had the same situation, and this worked. You can use a program called Magical Finder to locate the IP address.
http://www.iodata.jp/lib/product/m/3022_mac.htm
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Help reg what formats to be used for my new 4tb mini stack to back up my macbook and 2 external hard disks

Hey Guys,
I need an advice from you experts regarding the different formats to be used to format my New 4 Tb ministack from OWC. I have a Mid 2010 Intel macbook pro with 500gb hard disk using Mountain lion and two external hard disk from Samsung and Iomega 1Tb each. I want to format this ministack into 4 partitions each of 1Tb each.
1) 1 Tb for time machine to back up my macbook pro.
2) 1 Tb of Free space to be used to store extra data using both windows and mac os.
3) 1 Tb for Samsung back up
4) 1 Tb for my Iomega back up
I know that for 1st option i need to format the partition (volume) to Mac os extended (journalled). I need help for others.For the 1 Tb free space, can i use NTFS so that i can use it on my wifes windows laptop and use a third a party application like tuxera NTFS for use on my macbook which i am already using to use my samsung and Iomega Ext HDD.
Also What format is required for these two 1 Tb volumes dedicated for external hard disk backups and how can i back up my external hard disks to these formatted volumes. Do i need to format them to Mac os extended (journalled) as well as i shall be using macbook pro to back up these hard disks.
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Get Disk Warrior that will repair the problems without requiring that you reformat the drive - $99.00 on a bootable CD. Will not work on a FAT formatted drive.
You will need to use Drag and Drop to save your files by copying them from the bad drive to a good one.
To reprep the drive:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
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 Security 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.

Fastest and best external hard disks for video use with Imac?

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For DVCam. HDV etc, I'm a fan of the G-raid drives. From personal experience they
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next day. They are not the cheapest drives to be found but the build quality
is excellent. Check out:
http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-raid.cfm

Finder cannot searching for NTFS formatted external hard disk

MacBookAir,1.8GhZ,Memory 4GB1600 MHz DDR3
osx10.9.3
Finder can show and open the files from the external hard disk but can not searching for the files.

Barney-15E wrote:
Tuxera or paragon will give you write access, but I don't know if that will allow Spotlight to work on those drives.
A brief experiment suggests that Spotlight does not index an NTFS volume driven by Paragon NTFS. I don't have a copy of Tuxera to test.
Sorry, cchaikittiporn. Paragon does not seem to be a solution for your issue.

HT201269 I am trying to save memory on my iPhone 4S/ ios6. Can I back up all photos to icloud and the external hard disk I normally use for photos? If I then delete photos from the iPhone do the get deleted on iCloud?

I am trying to save memory on my iPhone 4S/ ios6.
1) Can I back up all photos to icloud and the external hard disk I normally use for photos? If I then delete photos from the iPhone do the get deleted on iCloud?
2) Can I back up the newsstand to iCloud and save memory on the iPhone?
3) Can I back up the bookshelf to icloud and save memory on the iPhone?

1. What format is the external drive? It sounds like it's ina format that Macs can't write to. Is it a NAS or NTFS?
2. Easiest thing: just move your iPhoto Library to the external
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

How to format an external hard disk Mac Os Extended (Journaled)?

hello
I connect an external hard disk (2.5' IDE Western Digital Scorpio Blue, WD2500BEVE) via USB or FireWire to my Mac mini. The Disk Utility tool shows an external disk drive of 128 GB - but the disk has 250 GB. How can I format the external USB/Firewire-harddisk 250 GB "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"?
I tried also to format the disk on a Windows PC (Windows XP). But I could not find a software to format "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
Any hints on this? Thanks in advance for any feedback!

andreasmarx wrote:
As I use theses hard disks in a external hard disk case, I'm asking me whether my hard disk cases do not support more that 128 GB disk capacity. Is that realistic?
It is not only realistic but probably the reason your Mac cannot see more than 128 GB of the capacity of the drives mounted in them. It has nothing to do with the interface between the Mac & case (like Firewire) but instead with the controller in the case that connects the raw ATA drive to that interface. Older ATA standards used a 28 bit LBA (logical block address) scheme to access the disk. For 512 bytes per sector this works out to a maximum of 128 GB of addressable disk capacity. The ATA-6 standard, also called Ultra-ATA/100 or just ATA-100, increased the bits in the address space from 28 to 48, with a disk capacity limit of 2 petabytes.
ATA-6 was introduced in 2001, so any external drive case made before then for ATA drives will be forever limited to 128 G. Even now, some come with a controller that does not support the ATA-6 standard, & essentially none have all the hardware to support its full 48 bits of address capacity. However, since 2 PB (2000 terabyte) drives won't be available anytime soon, all you really need is a case that is ATA-6 or better compliant & supports enough address bits for the largest drive you intend ever to put in it.
Case makers don't usually make this information easily available but many now include a "bullet" spec about the maximum capacity their case supports, typically rounded off to simple numbers like 320 GB, 500 GB, or whatever. If you can't find this info, you can assume that the newer the case the more likely it is to support larger capacity drives, or just buy one with a good return policy & test it yourself with the largest raw drive you own.

External hard disk for Time Machine

I'm considering baking up my iMac. I have a Lacie external hard disk with a Master Boot Record partition type. On it, there are already some data files from both Windows and Mac machines.
I understand that, for Time Machine to work, the partition type needs to be changed to GUID (for Intel based Mac). Obviously, I will need to copy these data files to somewhere, then use Disk Utility to change the partition type, partition the hard disk (one partition to be used for Time Machine back-up).
My question is, will it be safe to copy the data files (previously from Windows and Mac machines) back to another partition of the hard disk which will then has a GUID partition type? Will the files (including those from Windows machines) be usable?

KenWong wrote:
I'm considering baking up my iMac. I have a Lacie external hard disk with a Master Boot Record partition type. On it, there are already some data files from both Windows and Mac machines.
I understand that, for Time Machine to work, the partition type needs to be changed to GUID (for Intel based Mac). Obviously, I will need to copy these data files to somewhere, then use Disk Utility to change the partition type, partition the hard disk (one partition to be used for Time Machine back-up).
My question is, will it be safe to copy the data files (previously from Windows and Mac machines) back to another partition of the hard disk which will then has a GUID partition type? Will the files (including those from Windows machines) be usable?
You're slightly mixing terminology.
The *+Partition Map Scheme+* applies to the whole disk, whether it has one or multiple partitions. That's what needs to be GUID or +Apple Partition Map+.
The Format applies to each partition, and may be different for each one. Your TM partition needs to be +Mac OS Extended (Journaled),+ the other one can be +MS-DOS (FAT)+ for use with Windoze.
You can copy those files anywhere temporarily, while re-formattng the disk. It doesn't have to be a separate partition. It could even be CDs/DVDs. As long as you can copy and read back, it doesn't matter. If you put them on your boot drive, Windoze won't be able to read them while they're there, but once you get them back on a +MS-DOS (FAT)+ partition, it will.
See the instructions in item #5 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
We usually recommend putting the Time Machine partition first (at the top of the diagram that Disk Utility will show you), so you can more easily expand or contract it later on, if you need to.

How to reinitialize an external hard disk drive which serves for Time Machine?

How to reinitialize an external hard disk drive which serves for Time Machine?
Thanks for your answer.

Everything you need to know about initializing (formatting) is here.
http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html
Lots of useful information on TM is here in the same place.
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

External hard disk for use with quicksilver 2002 and intel imac 24"

i am wanting to purchase an external hard disk to be used with both a g4 and an intel imac 24".
i am considering a seagate barracuda 500gb or 750gb and purchasing an external case separately.
interfaces - usb2, firewire 400 and 800.
Do I need a case with the "oxford chipset" to have it work.
Are all seagates compatible these days.
I was looking at a ultra ata100 hard disk. Will this disk connect automatically to the enclosure or will additional cables be required
Is the Ice Cube Generation II Ide enclosure ok to use.
Appreciate any help given
dual 1 gig G4, Intel 24" Imac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hi-
The Ice Cube uses an Oxford chipset, (part of the external housings onboard controller) so it should be fine. The Oxford chipset has been shown to give the best compatibility and performance, thus being an desirable feature.
http://www.pccasegear.com/prod2307.htm
Using a Seagate Ultra ATA 100 drive should give you good, quiet, reliable service. There are no problems with the Seagate ATA drives.
Using the drive and housing with firewire will give you the best results, and firewire will allow you to use a bootable backup on the external drive, should the need be.
The housing comes with all the necessary cables to connect and use your external drive.
Insert the hard drive into the housing, connect the power and the firewire, format the hard drive, and you are ready to go..........
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Best format for an external hard disk

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