Does an external hard drive need to be "mac compatible"?

The reason I'm asking is because I am planning to transfer a lot of information to an older external drive (which I'm not sure is made to be used with a MAC and that I've used with a PC its entire life) and am planning on re-formatting it. However, I see a lot of hard drives for sale that claim they are made for a PC or a PC and a Mac.
I just want to make sure if I transfer information to the older external drive I have, my MBP will be able to read it and will work on a consistent basis. Thanks for the help.

If your current drive happens to be USB1 keep your eye out on elctornics store ads. I picked up a Seagate USB2 400G external drive from Officemax for $149.95 before Christmas with instant rebates. Keep your eyes peeled and you can catch a killer deal with a little patience.

Similar Messages

  • I made a bootable disc on an external hard drive, with Yosemite on it.  I am running Snow Leopard on my iMac.  How can I open the Yosemite disc from the desktop on my iMac?  Does the external hard drive need to be connected to my iMac by firewire to

    I made a bootable disc on an external hard drive, with Yosemite on it.  I am running Snow Leopard on my iMac.  How can I open the Yosemite disc from the desktop on my iMac?  Does the external hard drive need to be connected to my iMac by firewire to do that?

    kahjot wrote:
    Snow Leopard's Startup Disk pref can’t see Yosemite volumes. So the only way to switch from Snow Leopard to Yosemite is to do what Niel mentioned. Doesn't matter whether it's connected by USB or Firewire, although performance via FW would be faster.
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  • If I have to format an external hard drive to make it Mac compatible, will it delete all the content in the external hard drive?

    If I have to format an external hard drive to make it Mac compatible, will it delete all the content in the external hard drive?

    As others have said, the answer to your question is a big YES.  Formatting a drive will delete everything!
    To keep your data, yet reformat the drive for optimal Mac compatibility, you will need to:
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    2) repartition/format the external drive
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    http://support.apple.com/kb/ph5845
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  • HT2518 my external hard drive isn't showing up on my Mac desktop.  Does the external hard drive need to be an apple one?

    I have recently bought a Mac Book Pro and I am trying to transfer my files from my old PC to the new Mac.  I have put my files onto an external hard drive but when I plug it into my Mac is doesnt show on the desktop? 

    Check the settings in the General tab of the Finder's preferences.
    (66178)

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    Mac Book Pro   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

    Hi and welcome to Discussions,
    the reason why your MBP could not write to the HD was, because it was most likely formated using NTFS as file system, which OSX can read from, but not write to.
    The best file system for all three is FAT32, which is read- and writeable for all three.
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    2. Windows can not format partitions with FAT32, that are bigger than 32GB.
    The first limitation can not be overcome with FAT32.
    The second can be overcome, when using Disc Utility from OSX with MBR as partititon scheme and MS-DOS (OSX name for FAT) as file system.
    Or you can use command-line program to do this with your PC: http://www.heise.de/software/download/h2format/40825
    (Sorry, link is in german).
    That way all three should be able to see and use the external HD.
    Although it is a fact that Parallels can be picky sometimes with USB-connected drives, but with the newer versions of it, this problem has become less evident.
    And since up to now Parallels does not support FireWire, you must USB with it.
    Regards
    Stefan

  • How can I use my external hard drive from PC to Mac without reformatting???

    Ok, so I am computer illiterate. I have always used PC's and have just bought a MacBook. When I plug in my external hard drive into my new Mac, it says it needs to be reformatted to use with Mac, which would cause all data to be erased. Is there anyway to get around this?
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    OK... as Woggledog indicated, OS X cannot write to NTFS formatted drives. NTFS is a proprietary Microsoft format. Conversely, Windows can neither read nor write to an OS X formatted drive.
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  • Hey, can i clone my Macbook Pro internal hard drive and then paste it all onto a formated external hard drive, then make the Mac use the external as the primary hard drive?

    hey, can i clone my Macbook Pro internal hard drive and then paste it all onto a formated external hard drive, then make the Mac use the external as the primary hard drive? please help for i only have around 618mb left out of 189GB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • TS1550 Do external hard drives mounted on my Mac get backed up by time machine on a time capsule wireless Apple external back up disk? How can I see what folders have been actually stored in the wireless back up disk?

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  • I am not much of a computer technician. I bought a time capsule thinking I could use this for an external hard drive and keep my MAC hard drive free. Was I mistaken? One I back everthing up on the TC, can I delete everything off of my MAC?

    I am not much of a computer technician. I bought a time capsule thinking I could use this for an external hard drive and keep my MAC hard drive free. Was I mistaken? Once I back everything up on the TC, can I delete everything off of my MAC and then use my TC as my hard drive??

    Once I back everything up on the TC, can I delete everything off of my MAC and then use my TC as my hard drive??
    TC was designed to backup your Mac. The TC literature is pretty clear about this:
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    But.....if you move all of your data to the TC from your Mac....you only have one version of that data now, and it is on the TC.
    Have you thought about what will happen when....not if....the TC has a problem?  Since the only version of your important data was on the TC, and the TC has failed......you lose all of your data.....because you have no backup.
    A much better plan would be to add a USB or FireWire hard drive and connect it directly to your Mac. Move the data on your Mac over to the hard drive.
    Then, the TC will backup both your Mac and the hard drive.  So, you have original data on on one drive and backups on another drive.
    That would be a minimum backup plan. Most of us have more than one set of backups.

  • I have an Acer external hard drive 500GB.  Is it compatible with Apple MacBook Pro laptop?

    I have an Acer external hard drive 500GB.  Is it compatible with Apple MacBook Pro laptop?

    There are only a handful or Hard Drive mechanism manufacturers left. Acer is not one of them, although they may make the enclosure (but probably not that either). So in essence you have a Brand-X enclosure with some sort of Hard Drive inside.
    Most of those work fine once they are re-Initialized for use on the Mac. For me, I prefer to use the Re-purposing of a drive as an opportunity to re-write every block with Zeroes (which can take several hours but can be done in the background), assuring that every block is good.

  • How does an external hard drive compliment Time Capsule?

    Hi, I am relatively new to iMac and time capsule. I am a novice computer and Mac user so things have to be simple. I have been reading a number of threads in the forums gleaning as much information as I can. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
    My iMac is running OS 10.6.4 with a 313 GB HD and my time capsule is 500 GB. I purchased my first iMac 2 years ago. Shortly thereafter I decided that I needed to be backing up files that I have been creating and building especially my photos and music files so I purchased a time capsule which I have been using as an external hard drive not as a wireless router. It is hard wired to my Mac. I use another wireless network. I have used Time Machine a few times and it has worked well for me. So far this simple set up has met my needs.
    Just recently I got two error messages, one that "Your startup disk is full." and "The disk containing your iPhoto library is running low on space.
    While I was exploring my memory capacities and possible ways of freeing up space on my computer my Time Capsule croaked. Apparently all hardware has an expiry date. It has since been replaced under an extended warranty and the new one reinstalled. I have done a complete back of my hard drive and deleted some useless stuff on my computer's hard drive to create 17 free GB. I am pondering what further steps I should take to safeguard my data. I hopefully will be building a much more extensive photo library both in iPhoto and Aperture. I wonder whether I should be looking at an additional external hard drive which seems to be the easiest thing to do. My Time Capsule (500 GB) is not quite twice the size of my computer's hard drive. Maybe it is too soon to invest in an external hard drive seeing that it may have a shot life span such as my first Time Capsule did.
    Does Time Machine only work with Time Capsule or will it work with other external hard drives? The folks at my Apple store tell me that Time Capsule can be used just to store data but I have heard otherwise in the forums. How would an additional external hard drive will work with Time Capsule? What is the difference is between USB and firewire? Is it possible to open files stored on the Time Capsule to see exactly what they are?
    I do realize that Time Capsule only backs up new files and any changes so I wonder how long I can continue with this arrangement.

    curious r wrote:
    Does Time Machine only work with Time Capsule or will it work with other external hard drives?
    Yes, Time Machine works with external HDs. That's how most folks back up. Connecting directly via USB or FireWire is much faster then Ethernet, but you're right -- all disk drives fail, sooner or later.
    The folks at my Apple store tell me that Time Capsule can be used just to store data but I have heard otherwise in the forums.
    It can be used for Time Machine backups and other things, but trying to use the same one for both presents problems, because of the way Time Machine works (filling-up all the available space before deleting the oldest backups) and the fact that you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal HD to separate your backups from the other data. Plus, you can't back up the other data.
    How would an additional external hard drive will work with Time Capsule?
    It won't extend the TC's internal HD -- backups can't "span" the two. In your setup, you'd be much better off connecting an external HD directly to your iMac. The advantage of a TC is, since it includes a wireless router, you can use it to make a wireless network and do backups wirelessly. That's what a lot of laptop owners do.
    What is the difference is between USB and firewire?
    FireWire is faster and more reliable for large amounts of data transfer. It also requires less use of your Mac's CPU, since the FireWire chipset does some of the work that your CPU has to do with USB.
    Is it possible to open files stored on the Time Capsule to see exactly what they are?
    Yes. Files you put there (other than Time Machine backups) are just like files on any other disk.
    I do realize that Time Capsule only backs up new files and any changes so I wonder how long I can continue with this arrangement.
    Yes, that's a concern. It varies greatly depending on how you use your Mac, but our general "rule of thumb" is that it needs 2-3 times the size of the data it's backing-up.
    There's another consideration: Time Machine can back up FROM your internal HD and external HDs that are directly connected via USB or FireWire (if they're formatted for a Mac), but it cannot back up from any network drive, including a TC's internal HD or a USB drive connected to it. So if you move some data from your internal HD to an external HD connected to the TC, you'll need some other way to back it up.
    Forgive me, but I'm not sure why you have a Time Capsule in your setup, if I understand it correctly. You have one iMac, no laptops or other computers, and you use a different router for your network, right?
    Your best bet may be to get one external HD for the "overflow" of things you don't have room for on your iMac's internal HD, and another, much larger one, for Time Machine backups of both.
    I'll press my luck here and also suggest yet another external HD, perhaps a portable, for "secondary" backups. With a portable, you can take it to a secure off-site location, such as your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, etc., and also be protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] for more.

  • Does my external hard drive have to be always connected to my Mac for T.M?

    Hi there,
    I have a MacBook and I back up my files onto a external hard drive using Time Machine, but when I come to back it up a second time it always say's failed so I have to reformat it and start all over. I was wondering if it needs to be constantly connected for it to work? If that's the case I might as well get a time capsule and do it wirelessly. I would keep it connected if I didn't have to move it.
    Thanks guys for your time and for your comments in advance.
    David.

    David Robinson Art wrote:
    Hi there,
    I have a MacBook and I back up my files onto a external hard drive using Time Machine, but when I come to back it up a second time it always say's failed so I have to reformat it and start all over. I was wondering if it needs to be constantly connected for it to work?
    No.
    When the backup finishes, are you ejecting the drive before disconnecting it? If so, that's the problem -- OSX can't "close out" the disk properly, so the file system on it gets corrupted.
    If not, A clue may be lurking in your logs. Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Navigate to the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages for that run here.

  • Why does my external hard drive LACIE shut down on its own

    I have an LACIE 500G external hard drive connected to my iMAC via USB which has recently (a couple of weeks) started to shut down by itself. This does not happen when I use it on a PC. What's the problem and how can I solve it?

    Go to: Apple > System Preferences > Energy Saver and check to make sure that the box for "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" is unchecked.

  • Why does my external Hard Drive not save album artwork? Help!

    I have quite a lot of music saved digitally, so to save space I have been storing it on an external hard drive. Some of the music does not have any artwork attached (and does not download any when I select 'get album artwork').
    So, as an example, starting with the music on iTunes, I have manually added some artwork via the 'Get info' option.
    I then saved the music to my external hard drive.
    However, when I next transfer the same album back onto iTunes, none of the artwork has been saved.
    Why is this? And how can it be corrected?
    Thank you!

    Hi,
    thanks for the reply, limnos, But let me explain: I have about 80gb-100gb of music.
    I can't keep all of this on my computer (on iTunes) as it simply takes up too much space for the rest of my computer to run at a decent speed.
    I therefore use my hard drive as a kind of library, where i store my music and occasionally transfer some music onto iTunes to listen to, and then transfer it back whe I'm done. Do you see?
    I have done a bit more exploring and I think maybe I only have a problem with artwork 'disappearing' when it is albums that I have requested 'get album artwork'. i.e. the artwork downloads onto an album; then i copy the album onto my hard drive for storage; then when i want to play the album again and copy it back onto itunes, the artwork has been lost.
    Do you know why?

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