Can I mount my external hard drive which will be compatible with both Mac and Windows?

Hello,
Can I mount my external hard drive which will be compatible with both Mac and Windows? If yes, then please let me know, because I intend to use my hard drive for both Windows and Mac, without losing any file.

Yes. By default, Mac OS X and Windows can read and write drives which are formatted as FAT32 or exFAT; NTFS drives aren't writable from Mac OS X without additional software.
(124553)

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How can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory?

i don't know if this question has been asked before: how can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory? just like itunes all my song are save on my external hard drive. make sense?

Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
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Can you use an external hard drive (G-Tech 1 TB) as both a time machine and for storing extra files?

I just got a new external hard drive and will be getting my macbook pro next week. I was wondering if the external hard drive could be used as both a time machine and to have extra files on it? And if so how would you do that?

Time Machine requires a drive that is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled), so you will need to check to make sure that this requirement is met.
A drive that the manufacturer says will work with both Mac and Windows will not work with Time Machine.

External hard drive use with both Mac and Windows

I know that you can't use an iPod (through iTunes) with both Mac and Windows, but can you still use it as an external hard drive with both operating systems?

Yes, if the iPod is in Windows format. Mac OS X can read and write Windows formatted iPods, but Windows can't access Mac formatted disks unless special software is installed.
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I am considering purchasing a new Mac desktop. I have, at present, a Liteon 851S ext CD/DVD write and a Maxtor 3200 USB ext hard drive. Will these work with a Mac desktop? My local Apple store could not answer my question.Happy New year to all.

I am considering purchasing a new Mac desktop. I have, at present, a Liteon 851S ext CD/DVD write and a Maxtor 3200 USB ext hard drive. Will these work with a Mac desktop? My local Apple store could not answer my question.Happy New year to all.

Yes the Mac can read that drive but you would need to Copy the data off of it to the Mac as apposed to Move, which implies Deleting them from the drive as they were transferred from the external to the Mac. Since the Mac can Not Write to NTFS drives it can't Delete anything as that is really a Write operation, IE Making changes to the NTFS formatted drive.
Once you have that Data on Both your New Mac and you Older Windows PC you can format that drive to work on both system.
If you want to and plan on doing that post back and I'll explane how, it is simple but should be done on a Windows PC.
If you only plan on using it on the Mac from now on that is fairly simple also and is done on the Mac, Once you have the files from it stored on the Mac.
Yes you could burn those photos to DVD but that is just a waste of DVDs, you don't need to.

How come a USB will work with both Mac and Windows (as in that there are already files from Windows and Mac can still read and write onto it) but a external Hard Drive won't (as in there are files from Windows on there but Mac can read but not write)?

I have a Seagate Drive that I'm hoping to copy some movies from my Mac onto (because it only has a 512 SSD and I'd rather keep that empty and handy for more readily needed files) but it won't work. It shows up as a drive when connected (with the orange USB drive icon popping up) and is appropirately labeled "FreeAgent Drive", but when I try to copy files onto it it won't work. There are already windows files on there, such as some windows backups and lot's and lot's of pictures and videos. However, I have several USBs which already have windows files on them (namely movies, music, and other stuff) and copying and stuff works fine. Why won't it work with this hard drive and would work with USBs? Please help me out here guys, I am not experienced with Hard disks and formatting and stuff like that. 10 points for whoever helps me out the most. Thanks.

We will need to reformat your EXT, but it will then work on both Mac and Win
Connect the drive to your Mac, open disk utility
Go to the partiton tab and select '1' ... format should be ExFAT ... in options select MBR
Format the drive
It should now work on both OSs; report back

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I have an external hard drive that's been formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" (the default option from Disk Utility). I'm in single-user mode and want to mount the drive. I noticed that when I plug in the drive to the USB port I get some new items in the /dev/ directory, namely:
disk3, disk3s1, disk3s2, rdisk3, rdisk3s1, rdisk3s2
I imagine I'm only interested in the disk3*, but I'm not sure which one (or what the differences are, there's only 1 partition on the drive).
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/usr/sbin/diskutil mount /dev/disk3

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I have two external hard drives on my iMac. One for Time Machine and Aperture Library Files (My Book Essentials formatted Mac OS Extended Journaled) - this works fine.
The other is an older WD 500Gb drive which is partitioned Windows_Fat_32. (Keep in mind, I'm not even sure what this means exactly). It contained my iTunes library and a lot of photo backups. It worked fine on my iMac with Snow Leopard, but since upgrading to Mountain Lion, it won't mount. I get an error that says "this drive is not readable by this computer" and I get options to "intialize", "ignore", or "eject". Disk Utility sees the drive but won't let me do anything with it. Is there a way to salvage this data? I don't mind reformatting after I move the data or getting a new drive, but I don't want to lose the data. My iTunes music files are extensive and they are on the good external drive, but the "library" is on the bad one...
Sorry if I haven't explained well..

hi,
it is kind of late, but I wonder, did you manage to solve the issue?
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I have two external hard hard drives, both Western Digital MyPassports, and when I connect both disks at the same time to my MBP, I encounter all sorts of problems. One will usually start making clicking noises and then randomly mount and unmount. This problem only occurs when I have both discs connected at the same time. If I connect each disk separately, they both function perfectly. Is there a reason why 2 external hard drives cannot be hooked up at the same time?

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Does it show up in disk utility?

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I bought a LaCie porsche design 2TB external hard drive from the Apple Store to use with time machine on my MAC 2 months ago. It will no longer show up on my desktopn. After speaking with LaCie, they sent me a replacement. However, I have to send the brooken one back to them and since we could not erase it or anything on my Mac is there anyway to erase the hard drive before sending it back to them with all my information on there?
Message was edited by: carolsh

I know. But after Yahoo, Target , Neimans and others. But I agree. They even sent me a more expensive replacement as they did not have my model in stock and is backordered. So, a win win situation. I was impressed that the tech person spent about an hour on the phone with me trying a variety of options. At first, they were going to charge me shipping- but then she changed her mind and shipped the replacement 1 day fed ex. I guess that is why I always buy LaCie vs others. My older LaCie which I still had but was smaller- I plugged in and did a back-up and I had just enough room on it so I have that for safe keepings now as well.
Thanks again for your pleasant response. I guess I need to limit my profile to "registered members" only. I hope Apple monitors these discussions and people's responses periodically.

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Launch the System Preferences application (under the Apple menu) and select the Startup Disk preference pane. Set your internal drive as the startup disk. Close the window.

I want to purchase iMac i7 and want to know if my pc based LG dvd player (usb) is compatible ? also my external Hard Drive (usb) is it compatible with iMac?

wiil my PC extermnal dvd player and external hard drive be compatible with iMac ore do I have to by all new stuff?
Can data be recovered from Hard drive and transfered to new iMac simply?
Thank you for your time and consioderation,
depending on this answer will decide if i change over to iMac or not
Pierre

All USB drives should be compatible hardware-wise. If the drive is formatted NTFS, then you can copy from it, but not write to it. If it is formatted FAT or exFAT, then you can both read and write.

What external hard drives for backup are compatible with Yosemite?

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Understood.
I don't receive any compensation for promoting any product from any computer, hard drive or computer peripheral manufacturer. I don't receive any compensation from any of those manufacturers or sellers for any reason. In fact I was not promoting any product, I was responding to the poster's query and was stating that I have observed the drives in use and working with the Mac OS.
My workplace is a consumer of these items and we buy and use thousands of PCs, Macs, WD and non-WD drives, and so forth. I was providing information about whether WD drives work with Macs running various operating systems. I don't promote any particular brand, we use many different ones here.

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I don't understand the need to daisy chain. I have one Firewire port on my MacBook Pro, and I use a Firewire hub. I've been connecting two 1TB Western Digital My Book Studio Edition hard drives (one for FCE and iMovie projects; one for the media files I create via export), and a Canon NTSC ZR200 miniDV tape camcorder, or a Sony Digital8 tape camcorder, or sometimes a Canopus ADVC 110, without issues. Why not use a Firewire hub? . . . except to save the small expense.

Can I mount my external hard drive which will be compatible with both Mac and Windows?

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