Convert External HD from PC to Mac

I have an external hard drive hooked up to a PC. I no longer use the PC and would like to use the external HD with this iMac. I have a feeling that it will not work because it's probably formated for the PC. How can I make it work with the iMac.
Can I just plug it into the USB port and reformat it? If so, how do I configure it to re-format it?

Hello and Welcome to Apple Discussions.
I've never used a MacBook Pro nor TimeMachine so you may be best to ask in a more relevant forum.
Windows can't read HFS+ drives by default but the application MacDrive (link) will enable them to do so. Clearly you can't install this on the PCs at school.
Also TimeMachine takes up large amounts of space so I would serious recommend purchasing different drives for these two distinct purposes.
In fact, for transferring a few files between school and home a USB Thumb Drive formated in FAT32 (can be write/read by both) is probably more than enough.
cheers
mrtotes

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I tried to re-format an external (LaCie) hard drive from Windows to Mac using the Erase option in the Disk Utility, but it would not go through. The error message is not informative; it just states the formatter encountered an error and was unable to finish the operation. Any pointers on how to solve this issue? Thanks!

Hi and welcome to Discussions,
you should use the 'Partition-Tab' from Disk Utility and then click on the 'Option'-Button to set the partition Table to GPT (GUID partition Table).
Sounds to me like the external HD is till using the MBR (Master Boot Record) common to Windows PC on which you can't make a partition using the 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' file system.
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Hi kim
Your drive is probably formatted NTFS, the default Windows format which Macs can read, but cannot write to.
If you want to continue being able to use it on both Mac and PC, you should format it to "MS-DOS Format" (also known as FAT32)
If you only want to use it on the Mac, format it as Mac Extended (Journaled).
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Hi there, apologies for my ignorance however after suffering Windows PCs for 35 years I have finally changed over to 2 iMacs and loving it.
I have a new model WD 1 TB (MsDOS formatted) external drive attached to my router via ethernet.
My iMac (imac7,1 a running OS X 10.5.2) recognises the external drive as a "PC Server" fine and I can access it from Finder and copy files to it.
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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.
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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

Convert External HD from PC to Mac

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