Can a PC and a Mac read my external hard drive?

I just recently got a MacBook Pro. I have an external hard drive with all my pictures and music on it. I plugged this into my Mac and went to back it up with Time Machine, but it said it had to remove everything currently on the external since it was formatted to a PC. I made sure to save everything on there, went ahead with the back up, and put everything back on. Today, I tried to plug the external into my PC at work to take a look at some stuff and I wasn't able to open the external at all. I'm assuming this is becuase I reformatted it to the Mac. Is there any way to make it so I can use my external on both my work PC and my home MacBook? Thank you

Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select the external hard drive (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 MBR then click on the OK button. Set the format type to MSDOS (FAT.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

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Can i back up 2 macs on one external hard drive?

can i back up 2 macs on one external hard drive?

If the external drive is large enough, yes.
Recent versions of Time Machine will do this across a properly set up and Shared network connection or to a drive on a Server. But you may be unhappy with the amount of Wireless traffic generated to perform the backups, especially the initial full backup.
Utilities like Carbon Copy Cloner will do this ONLY when performing a file-by-file backup. A "Disk Image" backup reproduces the Source disk, including blank space, and fills the entire Destination drive with the Source Disk image.

Can i download and run itunes from an external hard drive

can i download and run itunes from an external hard drive?

The iTunes application should be on the boot drive but you can keep the iTunes library on an external.
hold Shift when launching iTune sand select Create library and select the external.
This will create an iTunes folder on the external with all the library files and all media will also go into this folder.

Why can't iTunes play music from read-only external hard drive?

I have a write-protected external hard-drive which I keep all of my iTunes media on. iTunes recognizes all of the files, including the metadata on the id3 tags, and can find the files in Windows Explorer. However, it cannot play the files while the drive remains write-protected. Is there a work around for this as I would prefer to keep the hard-drive protected? Why does iTunes require write-access to play songs? Other media players have no problem playing from my read-only external hard-drive. Thanks for any help

Welcome to the Apple Community.
When you say you can't play through both devices at the same time, what happens when you try, are you able to select multiple speakers, do they deselect themselves, do you not get the option or does it just not work when you select multiple speakers.

Can i show and play music from my external hard drive in iTunes without adding it to my Mac hard drive?

I have more music than I can keep on my Macbook hard drive by over 200GB. I'm hoping to be able to show and play all music from my external hard drive in iTunes without having to add any of it to my Macbook Hard Drive

Hello B3NN13,
If you would like to add the music from your external hard drive to iTunes without copying it to the iTunes Library on your internal hard drive, you may find the following article helpful:
Add files to your library without adding them to your iTunes folder
When you add an item already on your computer to your iTunes library, iTunes places a copy of the file in your iTunes folder. The original file remains in its current location.
You can change this setting so that files are added to your iTunes library without being added to the iTunes folder. You might want to do this, for example, if you prefer to store video files on an external disk but still want to view them in iTunes.
Choose iTunes > Preferences, and click Advanced.
Deselect the checkbox next to “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.”
From now on, when you drag a file to your library or choose File > Add to Library, the item appears in iTunes, but the actual file isn’t copied or moved.
Tip: You can temporarily reverse this setting by holding down the Option key while you drag files to the iTunes window.
iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored
Sincerely,
- Brenden

How can I find out which mac format my external hard drive has

I have a PD LaCie drive. I had formatted it about a month ago, but now reading several posts, it appears that the best format is mac OS extended (journaled). I am not sure if that is the one that I had originally chosen. How do I find out which format my external hard drive has?
Thanks.

Select it on the desktop or in the Finder's sidebar and choose Get Info from the File menu. If it doesn't show up in either location, check the settings in the General and Sidebar tabs of the Finder's preferences.
(63966)

How can I get my new Mac book Pro to read my external hard drive?

I have recently upgraded to the new MacBook Pro and have a new 2T external hard drive. I used my old MacBook Pro to transfer all my files from my old 1T hard drive of the same make to the new one. This all worked without isssue and I can open the ne external hard drive on my old Mac but my new Mac is reading it. It does not show up in finder at all but it does show up in Disk Utility. Any suggestions? Do I need to do something on my new Mac for it to be read? The new Mac has no problem with the smaller USBs I use.

How do you have Finder Preferences set?
Ciao.

Hi Everyone. I have an old Mac Book. I have saved a ton of emails in my inbox 'On My Mac'. There are so many it is slowing down my computer. Where do I find the folder with all the emails so I can cut and paste them to an external hard drive?Pls.help.

Hi Everyone. I have an old Mac Book with software updated to 10.6.8. I have saved a ton of emails in my inbox 'On My Mac'. There are so many it is slowing down my computer. Where do I find the folder with all the emails so I can cut and paste them to an external hard drive? Pls.help. Tks.

Depending on which email client software you use
the files should be in 'your home folder' library, esp.
if you use Mail application.... ~/Library/Mail
Since you don't specify what mail application,
that would most be associated with the file.
I notice there are some items to the right of your post
where it says "more like this' so that may be worth a
look to see if similar issues were answered. Also, the
Help viewer in your system is a searchable database.
Seems that google also brings up fair information, too.
Do you have a complete bootable clone of your entire
Mac system on an externally enclosed hard disk drive?
Good luck & happy computing!

Deleted iTunes Media off the Mac, Can i now get it to read from my Hard Drive ?

I started looking into this as my Mac was using Roughly 500 of 750 gig on Music. But I've only recently noticed that this is due to duplicates in My Music folder and iTunes Media. Ive done Some reading up and can't seem to find a definitive answer to what to do.
Ive Backed up My Music and iTunes media on a External Hard-drive, My Music folders are all neat and organised and would like it to stay that way, But I've noticed iTunes media folder was a mess, This is My fault as i had the make a copy to iTunes media ticked in preferences. And the other one De-selected ( Keep Music Organised )
So to free up space on the Mac I'm going to delete iTunes media as this is no use to me the way it is, I can't find anything in there and it looks a mess. The Problem with this is iTunes reads from iTunes media and i would rather it read form my organised Music files on the internal Hard-drive so i can keep ontop of it.
All my Playlists are built within iTunes as i use them in Serato for DJ Purposes , So i would like to keep these playlists and just let iTunes read from the hard drive instead Is there a way once iTunes media is deleted i can highlight a 2014 playlist for example with 250 songs in and change where iTunes looks for them so i don't have to reload all the music? with iTunes media deleted there coming up saying can't Locate File , but i will have to manually show iTunes 25000 where they are manually , Can this be done per Playlist in one big Hit?
Thank you and hope it all made sense

Unfortunately it is not making enough sense for me to try to make real suggestions.
If you are going to disable iTunes media preferences then you have to be 100% organized and know how iTunes works because from that point on iTunes will stop helping you maintain your files in any way.
Yes, it may look a mess but the whole thing is designed so you should never need to look in your iTunes folder yourself, just at the iTunes application window. Maybe you need to do this to use your Serrato thingy but that's because you're doing something special.
If you add a file to iTunes and have the "copy to" preference set then it will place a copy of what you add in the correct folder inside iTunes Media folder. The only way you should have media files actually directly in other folders is if you put them there yourself or you have residual structure from pre-iTunes version 9 before media was split into folders of different kinds.
If you disable iTunes media preferences then iTunes is absolutely terrible at following media moved to other drives. Moving to a different drive is not really moving, it is copying and then deleting the original, and that means iTunes sees the file as being gone.
I really get lost on your fourth paragraph.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660 More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391 iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847

Can I take my old mac and make it into an external hard drive

Can I take my old mac and make it into an external hard drive? It does not work anymore but I would like to make it into an external hard drive. I heard it is not to hard to do myself but I have important information I would like off of it and only really trust the apple store to do it. I know it is possible because I have had a friend that had it done after water went on her laptop. I would like to also know how much is this going to cost and if it is even worth getting done at the store or just do it myself.

Can it boot to Target Disk Mode
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
Otherwise just take the HD out and put it in an external enclosure.

Can I move all my photo that I can see on iPhoto from my Mac hardrive and put them on an external hard drive and still be able to see them as thumbnails in iPhoto? Thanks! The reason, I need to know if I can do this is b/c I am running out of HD space!sp

can I move all my photo that I can see on iPhoto from my Mac hardrive and put them on an external hard drive and still be able to see them as thumbnails in iPhoto? Thanks! The reason, I need to know if I can do this is b/c I am running out of HD space!sp

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

I have updated my software on my Mac to OS X v 10.9.5 and now my mac doesnt read any external hard drives? please help

HI, I updated my software of my Mac Pro to OS X v 10.9.5, after I installed it, my MAC doesn't read any external hard drives. Not sure what to do now. Please help? Is there a way of updated drivers

I have no idea where to change that
Finder/Preferences/Sidebar and General for the Desktop.
Do they show in Disk Utility?

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

sydababy wrote:
and then deleting them off of my computer.
BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous. One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
follow here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

Hi, Can anyone recommended software to import dvd to iMovies. I need to import about a dozen homemade DVD's and edit them into a single DVD comprising the 'best bits'. How best can I do this. I have an external hard drive available for the job

Hi, Can anyone recommended software to import dvd to iMovies. I need to import about a dozen homemade DVD's and edit them into a single DVD comprising the 'best bits'. How best can I do this. I have an external hard drive available for the job

You need to convert the VOB files in the TS-Folder of the DVD back to DV which iMovie is designed to handle. For that you need mpegStreamclip:
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
which is free, but you must also have the Apple mpeg2 plugin :
http://store.apple.com/us/product/D2187Z/A/quicktime-mpeg-2-playback-component-f or-mac-os-x
(unless you are running Lion in which case see below))
which is a mere $20.
Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:
http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm
which costs $25.
For the benefit of others who may read this thread:
Obviously the foregoing only applies to DVDs you have made yourself, or other home-made DVDs that have been given to you. It will NOT work on copy-protected commercial DVDs, which in any case would be illegal.
And from the TOU of these forums:
Keep within the Law
No material may be submitted that is intended to promote or commit an illegal act.
Do not submit software or descriptions of processes that break or otherwise ‘work around’ digital rights management software or hardware. This includes conversations about ‘ripping’ DVDs or working around FairPlay software used on the iTunes Store.
If you are running Lion or later:
From the MPEG Streamclip homepage
The installer of the MPEG-2 Playback Component may refuse to install the component in Lion. Apple states the component is unnecessary in Lion onwards, however MPEG Streamclip still needs it. See this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3381
To install the component in Lion, please download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta above; inside the disk image you will find the Utility MPEG2 Component Lion: use it to install the MPEG-2 Playback Component in Lion. The original installer's disk image (QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg) is required.
The current versions of MPEG Streamclip cannot take advantage of the built-in MPEG-2 functionality of Lion. For MPEG-2 files you still need to install the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is not preinstalled in Lion. (The same applies to Mountain Lion even though that has it preinstalled.) You don't have to install QuickTime 7.

I had a windows laptop, and I save files like photos, documents, videos and other things on an external hard drive, and now I want to move those files to the Mac book Pro, and then move those files again to another external hard drive 1T. My question is:

I had a windows laptop, and I save files like photos,documents, videos and other things on an external hard drive, and now I want tomove those files to the Mac book Pro, and then move those files again toanother external hard drive 1T. My question is: Is it possible? Doing this willnot affect the files that I had in windows? No information is lost? or how cani do it?

Connect the external drive to your Mac and drag the files from it to your Mac's internal drive. Then dismount and disconnect the external drive, connect the 1TB external drive, and drag the files from the internal drive onto the external. Nothing will have been deleted from any of the drives up to this point; the files will only have been copied. Verify that the files are readable. There's no reason they shouldn't be; this is just a precaution.
Now if you wish to delete the files from any of the drives, drag them to the Trash, and Empty the Trash while the drive from which they came is still connected. If you disconnect the drive before emptying the Trash, the files you were trying to remove from it won't be deleted. They'll remain in the Trash and continue to take up space on the drive.
Note that if your external drives are in NTFS format, you won't be able to write anything to them or delete anything from them, though you will be able to read and copy the files they contain. The NTFS disk format is read-only to the Mac OS, unless you have a third-party NTFS driver installed. To make your drives cross-platform readable and writable, you must reformat them in the FAT32 or ExFAT format.

Can a PC and a Mac read my external hard drive?

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