External Apple hard drives usable with macbookpro running Windows?
My kids want to play windows games using our macbookpro. Only one game fits on the installed hard drive. Will I get into compatibility problems if I attach an Apple harddrive to the computer and install more games on it for use on the computer?
Or would we need to reinstall bootcamp and go through the initial partitioning process but using the external hard drive this time around?
MMCaravaggio
Macbookpro Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Mac OS X (10.4.9)
There is no such thing as an Apple hard drive. Hard drives are platform independent.
If you format the drive as FAT, then you should have no problem accessing it from Boot Camp, but you should post your question in the Boot Camp discussions just to be sure:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1165
Similar Messages
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Is 250GB External USB Hard Drive compatible with Mac OSX on an iBook G4?
Hello,
I just bought a Toshiba 250GB External Usb Hard Drive because the seller recommended it to telling me that it works in my computer iBook G4 Mac OSX.
I prepared it and I see it on my desktop with a folder named System Volume Information and 2.32 GB available.
I tried to copy a file and I received a message telling that the disc can't be modified.
Where can I find the instructions to initialize it if it is compatible?
Thanks in advance,
Joan
Message was edited by: jinglada
Message was edited by: jingladaI have a feeling this is a similar problem to my 400GB Usb2 drive. I reformatted it to the default Mac format in Disk Utility and it mounted!! Try this
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I cannot write (only read) on an external hard drive when I'm running Windows on BootCamp.
I'm running Windows thanks to BootCamp perfectly, but I have a problem. I can open and read files that I have on an external hard drive (HFS+) but I can't create or modify files in it. It's like I don't have permissions. Please, how can I solve this?
Windows can not write to disks formatted with HFS+ without third party software.
Available http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive
Allan -
External USB Hard Drive crashed with my Home Folder!
I have my home folder on an external USB drive that went bad, so now I can't log in. I get the message "You are unable to log in to the user account xxxx at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred". Well, I know the error is because my home folder on the external drive is not accessible.
My original home folder is still on the internal hard drive. How do I change the path to the home folder on the internal drive when I can't log in. I don't have any other User accounts on this MAC, so I can't log in as a different Administrative User to change the path to the home folder on the internal drive. This MAC is running Lion (OS X 10.7.5). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.First, find out your current user home directory for the User Account Name you wish to recover.
If your user accounts are not accesible to do this command from terminal, start the Macintosh in recovery mode.
This can be done by pressing Command+R during startup.
Select the terminal from the tools and enter this command.
"dscl . read /Users/User NFSHomeDirectory" .....obviously without the quotations and instead of "User" put the name of the user you with to recover.
Now if the name of hard disk is named "XXXXX 1" that is with a number one at the end of your home directory hard disk name, that means that the Mac OS has renamed your hard disk at a different mount point. Due to this flaw, the OS is not recognizing your hard disk, hence the error.
Gain root access in the terminal and navigate to the /Volumes directory. Print all the drives in that directory.
If you have duplicate folder names, like "xxxxx", "xxxxx 1", then eject your home directory hard disk (so you are sure you won't delete your files when you do the next steps), and print the contents of the directory. If there is a folder that has the name of your hard disk home directory, DELETE IT.
Now, still in the recovery terminal mode, make a local user account (unless you already have a valid account you can logon on to such as a guest account) so you can verify that your old account is still set to your hard drive home directory name.
Here's a shell script, where "Administrator" is any name you like.
#!/bin/sh
. /etc/rc.common
dscl . create /Users/administrator
dscl . create /Users/administrator RealName "Administrator Account"
dscl . create /Users/administrator hint "Password Hint"
dscl . create /Users/administrator picture "/Path/To/Picture.png"
dscl . passwd /Users/administrator thisistheaccountpassword
dscl . create /Users/administrator UniqueID 501
dscl . create /Users/administrator PrimaryGroupID 80
dscl . create /Users/administrator UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . create /Users/administrator NFSHomeDirectory /Users/administrator
cp -R /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj /Users/administrator
chown -R administrator:staff /Users/administrator
Now Logon to that account. Go to System Preferences ----> Users & Groups ----> Right Click on The User You Wish To Recover ----> Advanced Options ----> And MAKE SURE That The Home Directory Is The Correct Name i.e. "Home Directory", NOT "Home Directory 1". Voila.
Change this from the temporary user account, log off, and you should have access. BTW, I always recommend having a guest account enabled or a secondary user account when you wish to recover your account whenever you disconnect your home directory hard drive by accident or it crashes. Thanks for reading. -
External Hard Drive Compatible with Mac and Windows?
So my old laptop is a Dell Latitude and I bought a Western Digital external hard drive and put all my files/pics/music on it. The information the WD came with said its compatible with Mac and Windows, but when I plug it into my brand spankin new Macbook, it doesn't register with the computer and won't show up. What's going on?
Message was edited by: philliesphanI recently ran into that problem. In order to have the hard drive compatible for both PC and Mac it must be in a FAT32 format. In order to do this though all your files will be deleted (in order to reformat). You can do this by plugging in the hard drive into you mac and going under disk utility and there you will find your hard drive and under erase change the format to FAT32 and then you press erase (all will be deleted off the external drive though)
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External usb hard drive conflicting with Airport...
I am having an issue on my Macbook Pro....when I have my 500gb WD Passport Drive plugged in to either USB port, my Airport signal drops. If I unplug the drive, the signal comes right back. The odd thing is that this only happens on my FiOS network at home…..yet does not happen on my network at work. This has recently started to happen, where it previously used to work at home without any issues. Also, when this happens, the Airport icon in the top bar shows that I have full signal. Nothing that I know of has changed with my FiOS service, or my router set up.
Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Rob
Setup Info:
Macbook Pro 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 (mid-2010)
OS 10.6.8 Snow LeapardA USB master and USB peripheral devices cannot be connected to each other in "daisychain" fashion. Two or more USB peripheral devices must be connected to each other and to the USB master using a USB hub.
Firewire is designed to allow connection from a Firewire bus master to a Firewire bus peripheral device, and then in turn on to another Firewire bus peripheral device, in a "daisychain" fashion. Note that there must be one Firewire bus master - usually a computer - in the chain.
You cannot connect a USB master to a USB hard drive, then daisychain that drive via Firewire to another Firewire interface drive, since a hard drive won't function as a Firewire bus master on its own. -
External Mac hard drive to be viewed on Windows OS
I took the hard drive out of an old Mac 6116 that was in a house fire. I don't think the hard drive suffered smoke or water damage so I want to mount it in an external USB enclosure and look at the contents on a Windows 7 laptop.
Is there a program that I need on the PC to do this?I heard about something called HFSExplorer as a read only program and it's free from what I understand.
There should be no reason to write to this HDD however I may want to pull some photo's and maybe some txt files.
I'm guessing that the trial version of MacDrive might limit use in the trial version; otherwise what would be the benefits?
Thanks again to both Niel and Allan -
I want to creat for the first time on my Mac Mini an iPhoto library. I have many seperate hard drives with pics I want to import but are concerned I will fill the hard drive with pics alone. Can I install the pics on one larg (1TB) external apple hard drive and use iPhoto functions still with the pics being installed on a seperate drive from the iPhoto OS?
This is our resident iPhoto guru, Terence Devlin's, advice:
You can move your iPhoto Library to an external disk:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library Folder as an entity 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.
Once that is done you can import directly into the iPhoto library on the external HD. -
I have a new Windows tablet computer with limited hard drive space (32 GB), and cannot transfer my itunes library to the hard drive. Can I run itunes from an external hard drive? I have tried to follow some of the directions on this site, but am having no success. Thanks.
iTunes will run fine with the media on an external drive.
However, I suggest that a tablet computer with a tiny hard drive is not ideal as the primary computer for managing an iTunes library, even a small one. If you have another machine, perhaps a big, boxy, inexpensive old desktop with a decent amount of storage, that might be a better choice.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364 -
Sirs or madams,
Is my Powerbook G4 12” PPC 10.5.8 'bootable' with a Western Digital My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive? Western Digital says officially no, but that it MIGHT be. I primarily live in China and bought a datastorage.com.cn Clearlight s400+ external hard drive enclosure with a 320GB disk drive a few years ago in China. My computer 'boots' fine from it, but since I got it in China all the paperwork, etc. is in Chinese; my Chinese isn't quite sufficient enough yet to read it. But there are references to something called "SATA", whatever that is.
My level of computer 'under the hood' knowledge is extremely low. I've been told that SATA has some relationship as to whether or not an external hard drive will boot a computer via the Firewire connection, something relating to 'interface', which I assume is how separate electronic gadgets work, or don't work, with each other.
I frankly don't care much for computers, the internet, or their related gadgets such as all these fancy phones. I longingly reminisce about the days when there were no such things. I use a computer & the internet because I have to, and unfortunately unlike a car where one doesn't have to have 'under the hood' knowledge to operate it, just knowledge of the steering wheel, brake, gas, etc., one seemingly must know a ridiculously great amount of 'under the hood' knowledge, including jargon, to operate computers.
So, please try to respond accordingly; thank you.
If this particular external hard drive won't, for certain, be bootable with my computer, can you advise as to what readily available brand/model would be in the 3TB range for a similar price, roughly $150ish??
Thank you very much.Mr. BGreg,
Thank you very much. "...under the covers...". I think you meant "under the hood", as in a car. I suppose "under the covers" would be man/woman interfacing, which I am familiar with!
Actually, I'm back in the US now for a few months. I looked at the OWC web site, but only cusorily so far. I'll contact them; they appear knowledgeable about Apple computers.
As to what you wrote about Western Digital's cases, I certainly wouldn't want a poor case. In China I had over time gotten 3 different external drive cases, 3 different Chinese brands, and separately bought Hitachi brand disk drives that 'simply' plugged into the cases. The drives are roughly 80GB 120GB and 320GB. The two larger ones are in cases that have Firewire plugs/jacks, which are bootable with my computer.
So my understanding, as you wrote, has been that my Powerbook will boot from an external hard drive, provided it connects via Firewire, and the disk drive itself is 'normally' formatted with however my computer's own disk drive is formatted, (HFS OS extended (journaled) or some such??). So I was left wondering why Western Digital would indicate that even though their such-and-so external hard drive case/drive was Firewire capable, that they would then say it would not be bootable with my Apple PPC computer......
Well, anyway, since you indicated Western Digital's case quality is suspect, then I'll try OWC and disregard Western Digital.
Naturally, OWC should be able to address this, but your thoughts are also welcome. You mentioned the OWC cases are good with Apples. Would the disk drives OWC supplied with the cases also be of relatively dependable quality?? From my so far only cursory look at their web site they appear to have various options, including case only options where I could insert my own or their own drives. These sorts of options seem preferable, also along with quality components.
My Powerbook has been in use since 2004. In China I put in a 1.25 memory 'chip' in the bottom and installed the 10.5.8 operating system, which I understand are the maximum workable with my Powerbook. When I inquired with Chinese friends if my 1.33 GHz processor could be taken out and a more powerful one put in, they said it wasn't feasible because in my particular computer my processor was, as I recall them saying, soldered/'permanently' connected with the 'motherboard', that it would just be easier to get a new computer.
I would be with them and they would nonchalantly open it completely up showing me all its tightly arranged 'innards' while at least giving it a good internal dust/dirt clean job for cheap lunch and a beer (& so much dirt/dust/lint there was!)...these are the same folks who build the things of course...fast moving hands with tiny screws flying everywhere, but everything 100% all back in place when finished.
My Chinese friends also said that nowadays Apples are not as well built as when my Powerbook was built, that nowadays an Apple's life expectancy was considerably lower, so I fear that when I get a new computer that, though it will be more up-to-date and powerful, etc., it most probably won't last near as long as my Powerbook has. They also said that in an older computer the fan was often the first component to go bad, and if a new one couldn't be easily found, as they said was my case, then you're just left with having to get an entirely new computer. Part of why I dislike electronic computer gadgets generally is that they are obsolete so quickly.
So, anyway, thanks very much for your information. -
The hard drive on my MacBookPro recently crashed. The Apple store replaced it. Since then I can't open iphoto. It asks to rebuild library; when I click yes, I get: "Aperture cannot access this library; reset permissions." I don't own Aperture! Any thoughts on how I can rebuild the iphoto library? Currently I can't even get into it.
Back up all data. Don't continue unless you're sure you can restore from a backup, even if you're unable to log in.
This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default. If you've set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it.
Step 1
If you have more than one user account, and the one in question is not an administrator account, then temporarily promote it to administrator status in the Users & Groups preference pane. To do that, unlock the preference pane using the credentials of an administrator, check the box marked Allow user to administer this computer, then reboot. You can demote the problem account back to standard status when this step has been completed.
Triple-click the following line to select it. Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):
{ sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear, then quit Terminal.
Step 2 (optional)
Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1 or if it doesn't solve the problem.
Boot into Recovery. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open.
In the Terminal window, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.
Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
Select
▹ Restart
from the menu bar. -
Want to use my iPad (4th gen) to edit a movie using iMovie - easy enough if the movie file is on the iPad - but what if it's too large - can I keep the source file on a USB stick or external USB hard drive and edit from there? How can you do this?
You can't export any type of file using the camera connection kit, so a USB flash drive or SD card won't work.
There are some wireless external hard drives that can be used with the iPad.
The Kingston Wi-Drive, which costs $50 for the 16 Gigabyte, and then $30 more for every 16 gigs more. It works by you turning it on and then accessing the files on it from an app that you download on your iDevice. You can access music, movies, and other stuff. No connections or anything, it works like a WiFi connection, you connect to it from the setting on the iPad under wireless networks.
Then there is the Seagate GoFlex, which some would recommend over the Wi-Drive. But this one costs $199 and had 500 Gigabytes of storage. It works the sameway as the Kingston: no wires, runs over its wireless connection. You can actually fit up to 300 HD movies on it.
Another option:
Expand your iPad's storage capacity with HyperDrive
http://www.macworld.com/article/1153935/hyperdrive.html
On the road with a camera, an iPad, and a Hyperdrive
http://www.macworld.com/article/1160231/ipadhyperdrive.html
Cheers, Tom -
Can I install snow leopard on an external hard drive in order to run my quicken 2006, and install lion on the hard drive of my imac?
You don't need to erase the drive and repartition from scratch. You may be able to add a second partition on the fly. The caveat here is that once you do that you cannot create a Windows partition using Boot Camp. Of course if you have no plans for Boot Camp then it isn't relevant.
To create a second partition on your existing startup volume:
To resize the drive do the following:
1. Open Disk Utility and select the drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list.
2. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.
Now, you cannot add a new partition that exceeds the amount of contiguous free space at the end of the drive. Disk Utility will fail to add the partition if it cannot find sufficient contiguous free space. If that's the case then you will need to follow your state outline - backup, boot from clone, erase internal, repartition internal, restore backup to one of the partitions (or both in your case.) -
Is my external hard drive powerful enough to run my macbook without any working internal harddrive?
A couple months ago my laptop suffered a crippling blow to its internal HD. I assessed the problem and fixed it by installing my software disc to a 500 gb WD external HD and worked with it this way for about a month. Now the same has happened with the external HD and I can not access my Macbook. My question is if I shell out for a new internal hard drive will it hold the same fate? or was the external WD Hard drive device just not powerfull enough to run a computer?
Hi ..
Several things to try ..
Try a different USB cable.
Try restarting your Mac.
Try Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM -
1 x iMac and 1 x Macbook Pro with iPhoto 11 on each and an external network hard drive
Sorry in advance if this has been asked already - I scrolled down to see but could'nt find it......
Anyways, here is my situation: I have approx 7 yrs worth of digital photos stored on my external network hard drive. I've recently turfed my Dell and replaced it with an iMac as my family's main computer. Now I have 2 Apple computers at home - the iMac and a Macbook Pro that I am its only user. Both have iPhoto 11. I've been playing around with the pgm and have been importing photos from my external network hard drive (not many but enough to get the idea of iPhoto) on both computers only to realize that the work I do on one is not reflected when I go on the other. After reading some of the comments in this forum, I now realize that a copy of the pics go right on the computer's hard drive.
Is it possible to just edit, etc the pics on my external network hard drive and replace the old pic with the edited one?
Also, is it possible, for the work I do on pics on one mac to appear in the other's iphoto library? Meaning, when I do "events" and "faces" on one mac, is it possible to see that work on the other?
If not, then at this rate, I will have 3 copies of the same photo - one on the external network hard drive, one on the iMac, and one on the Macbook pro!!! I've read some stuff ref iCloud and it sounds like this could be a possible solution but am not sure.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thx,
CraigSort of?
Is it possible to just edit, etc the pics on my external network hard drive and replace the old pic with the edited one?
That's a straight no. iPhoto is a Digital Asset Manager and as such always preserves the original file. Basically, to iPhoto, your original file is the "digital negative" and it protects that the same way a film shooter will protect his negative. So it will never edit or replace an original file.
Also, is it possible, for the work I do on pics on one mac to appear in the other's iphoto library? Meaning, when I do "events" and "faces" on one mac, is it possible to see that work on the other?
There are a couple of ways to make this happen.
A: If you only edit nd manipulate on one machine, then simply back up the library to the other machine. Net result: The same editions of the same photos on both machines.
B: Create one Library and share it across both machines - best way to do this is to put it on an external hard drive and then plug that into whatever machine needs the library at whatever time.
But... This can't be your "network hard drive". The disk needs to be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
I suspect that iCloud will make all of this moot, but until we see it in action we won't know for sure.
Regards
TD
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