External drive for Mac & WIndows?

I hope this is the correct forum for this question.
I need to format an external hard drive on a Mac, so that it can be read on a Windows PC. The drive will contain QT movie files, specifically media from FCP, which need to be referred to on a PC outside of FCP. Is it possible to format a drive this way? I looked at Disk Utility, where it seems I can choose the FAT32 format, but I understand this has a file size limit of 4GB, which may be a significant limitation with video files. If I can format a drive to to be read on a PC, will I still be able to read that drive on a Mac?
I have successfully accessed on my Mac, without a problem, media files which were written onto a PC formatted external drive. Can I do the same in reverse?
John

Mac OS X can read NTFS drives, but not write to them without third-party software.
Windows can't do anything with a Mac formatted drive without additional software.
These don't apply to drives shared over a network; in this case, treat all computers as if they had the filesystem capabilities of the computer the drive is directly connected to. If plugged into an AirPort base station's USB port, the drive can be either Mac OS Extended or FAT32.
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Advice on External HDD for Mac & Windows

Hello
I am looking for advice regarding using a external HHD for Mac & Windows.
I searched the forum, but failed to find a updated thread on this subject matter.
I will be using the drive on both platforms regularly.
Should i use HFS+ with a small FAT32 partition to keep MacDrive on?
What is a good way to approach this?
Im not sure what would be optimal for both platforms.
Thanks in advance for your input.

Why just one?
Shopping list I can think of:
Vista: NTFS for backups and storage. Can be read by, but not written, Mac OS.
MacDrive 7: can access HFS+ from within Windows (but not x64 versions)
WinClone 1.5: to make backups of Windows from within Mac OS (requires disk image or partition to hold volume image)
SuperDuper: essential for OS X backups and bootable clone.
A drive that is used for emergency only and maybe backup partition, separate from your OS X and windows clone drive.
You can create large partitions with Disk Utility to be FAT32. Read and write in both, but not the best file system and limited to files less than 4GB.
FW800 would be fast and efficient interface. Also, eSATA if possible.

Formatted External drive for Mac OS extended

Hi,
I actually change from windows to Mac (no comparison...!!) but trying to transfer my photos (Pictures in finder) to an external hard disk i can`t drag and drop and i do not know why....i read in one forume that i have to formatted the external drive for Mac OS extended. First question: how could i do that? if my hard disk was originally formatted for windows, do i lose the info when i formatted?
Thanks!!

You will lose the files on the HD when you reformat it. So copy what you want off the drive to a folder on your Mac temporarily.
select the HD on the Desktop and launch Disk Utility.
select the HD in the left hand page of DU.
click on the Partiton button
select 1 Partition
select OS X Extended (journaled) in the drop down Format menu.
click on the Apply button
drag the folder of files onto the EHD to copy back and then delete from your Mac's drive after verifying that they all copied back successfully.
OT

How to format an external drive for mac AND pc use

i want to format my external drive so i can use it on my mac and on pc's as well. i've gathered that the MS-DOS format is the way to go. my question is this: would this create any problems for my mac then?
can i partion one part for ms-dos and part for macos extended?
cheers
-j-

MS-DOS format (or FAT32) will be fine for both Mac and PC. However there is a 4GB file size limit with FAT32.
You could use a dual partition, however the HFS+ partition would not be readable by the PC unless you installed the third party MacDrive.
Look at this page for more information on a dual partition drive for Mac and Windows.
http://macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812
iFelix

New external drive for mac and windows

Hello,
I am looking to buy a 500gb maxtor external drive. Partition it 250gb for winxp and 250gb for my imac. I am really looking to make these drives as backup drives. I currently have an old 250gb (not all used) formatted as os x entended. I use it for all my itunes, photos, movies... photoshop, you get the picture... I just want to drag and drop to that drive. The same for my windows.
Does this sound correct? Has anyone done it this way?
Another way, would be to have it formatted for windows and drop and drag into two different folders : win and imac. But then I will be losing the naming conventions from the os x? isn't that why and want to use os x extended?
Thanks for all ideas,
Charlie

Piece of cake!
For those who want to know:
usb connection to imac first. I started disk utility. Split the partition to two parts and formated only one partition as OS X extended. After done, copied my directories as a bkup.
usb connection to windows. I started computer management and saw that the usb disk had two partitions: the first was healthy but unknown. That was ok, I wanted the second partition to be NTFS and formated. Then copied my directories to that drive as well.
Connected back the imac and saw both partitions, imacbkup and winbkup. I forgot, just like what I do with the imac and winxp, I can see the c: drive via the mac.
Very cool and easy. Maxtor drives are very reliable and easy to use.
Thanks,
Charlie Cooperman
If anyone wants more detail info, you can email me at [email protected]

How to format external drive for mac AND pc use

hi
i want to format my external drive so i can use it on my mac and on pc's as well. i've gathered that the MS-DOS format is the way to go. my question is this: would this create any problems for my mac then?
can i partion one part for ms-dos and part for macos extended?
cheers
-j-

There are a couple of disadvantages with formatting a
disk as FAT32. Firstly, there is a limit on the file
size for FAT32. I think it like 2 GB so if you
capturing video the results will probably not fit
into this file limit. Secondly FAT32 will not be
bootable. I alway clone my system to a backup disk as
bootable. That way if anything goes wrong with my
system, I can just boot from my backup disk and fix
it.
The problem with doing this though is that the drive will not be usable with Windows (which was in the original posting) unless you use the third party MacDrive software on the PC.
iFelix

Can't format external drive for Mac

I got an external Seagate Freeagent 750GB drive to use with my new Mini. It came formatted as a windows FAT volume. Since I don't have a FW400 to FW 800 cable yet, I have it connected via USB. When I try to reformat as a Mac drive (with any of the 4 case-sensitive / journaled options), I get an error, but I can then reformat as FAT. Does anyone know how I can format this drive as mac and what the problem is?

It may have something to do with the partition scheme. There are at least three different schemes. One is used for windows formats (so you can use FAT32 or NTFS format), one is used for Intel Mac (probably GUID, not sure), and one is used for PowerPC Mac (probably the Apple Partition Map, again not sure). I don't know whether it is smart enough to choose the appropriate scheme for you when you have selected a format for your partition. Try to select the right scheme for Intel Mac first, and then decide on the format on each (if you have more than one partition on that disk) partitions.
I think you have to make sure the format is compatible with the scheme, especially when you have multiple partitions on one disk. You can't format one partition to FAT32 and another to HFS+, although it will try to do something, but it will end up with error.

Format external drive for Mac and PC?

Can I format an external Drive to have 1 partition for OS X and another for my wife to use with her PC?
thanks!
ray

Yes, just use Disk Utility under OS X to create two volumes on it, one Mac OS Ext, the other FAT. Use a Master Boot Record partition scheme (also known as “fdisk”).

Apple physically replaced the HD on my Imac. I backed up everything on a Seagate Go Flex Desk for Mac external drive for Mac. I went through the motions to restore my Iphoto Library back to my computer. Can't find them!!!!!

Apple replaced my hard drive on my Imac. I'm lucky I backed up everything on a Seagate Go Flex Desk for Mac external drive via Time Machine . I followed directions in order to restore my iphoto library , but I can't seem to find it on my computer. Are the files locked?

No reason to assume they are locked. The library will be restored to the location it was backed up from, unless you specified somewhere else. Have you looked in your Pictures Folder?

External drive for Mac Mini !

Does the new Mac mini work with any other third party external Drives? Or must it by all means be a MacBook Air external drive?

any of these should work
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/
but I did get the MacBook Air external optical drive form Apple.

How to format WD external drive for Mac

Just got the WD MyBook 2TB. It's not the one specifically for Mac. It says it is compatible, needs to reformat. How easy is it to reformat? It is for Time Machine. Thanks.

Connect it, power it up, go to Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities), select the WD disk on the left, go to the Erase tab, and choose "Mac OS Extended". Click Erase. That should do it.
You should then a) see it mount on the desktop, and b) automatically get a prompt to use the drive for Time Machine - if not, you can go into the Time Machine menu (top right of the screen), go to TM Preferences, and select it.
Matt

Best portable external drive for mac laptops

Any suggestions about the best portable hard drive for my mac lap;top.

There is no "best." Everyone has their favorite manufacturer.
My suggestion to you is to do research for the HD that you are interested in. Read its reviews.

External drive for MAC and PC?

My client wants to be able to view all the .mov files I've shot for them and due to file sizes, I need to deliver them all on a hard drive.
Is there any easy fix on my end or their end to facilitate this?
Thanks!

I was assuming that with Quicktime they'd be able to view full size .mov files
QuickTime .mov is a container, the video inside could have been made with any one of a number of codecs. If they do not have that particular codec, they won't be able to play the video. Not even all Macs have the same codecs, many are installed by FCP and unavailable elsewhere.
Also - do you know someone that has had success with MacDrive 8 on a PC?
It goes exactly what it says on the tin. Another alternative is for you to install the MacFuse/NTFS 3G package, which will enable your Mac to write files to a Windows NTFS formatted drive.

External Drives for Mac Experiencing Data Loss with Maverick OS -- UPDATED FOR NOVEMBER 6, 2013

--- Updated November 6, 2013 ---
On October 30th, 2013 Western Digital informed registered customers of affected products via E-mail regarding reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9). Our investigation to date has found that for a small percentage of customers that have the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and/or WD SmartWare software applications installed on their Mac, there can be cases of a repartition and reformat of their Direct Attached Storage (DAS) devices without customer acknowledgement which can result in data loss.
WD has been tracking this issue closely through our WD Forum and through our Technical Support hotline and the occurrence rate of this event has been very low. A specific set of conditions and timing sequences between the OS and the WD software utilities has to occur to cause this issue. Should this event occur, the data on the product can likely be recovered with a third party software utility if the customer stops using the device immediately after the OS X Mavericks (10.9) upgrade. WD will be issuing updated versions of these software applications that resolve this issue.
WD strongly urges our customers to uninstall these software applications before updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9), or delay upgrading until we provide an update to the applications. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks, WD recommends that you remove these applications and restart your computer. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks and are experiencing difficulty in accessing your external hard drive, please do not save anything to the drive, disconnect the drive from your computer, and contact Western Digital Customer Service at http://support.wdc.com/contact/.
--- Updated November 5, 2013 ---
There are reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9). Western Digital is urgently investigating these reports and the possible connection to the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications.
Until the issue is understood and the cause identified, WD strongly urges our customers to uninstall these software applications on their systems before updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9), or delay upgrading. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks, WD recommends that you remove these applications and restart your computer. WD has removed these software applications from our web site solely as a precaution as we investigate this issue.
If you have already upgraded to Mavericks and are experiencing difficulty in accessing your external hard drive, please do not save anything to the drive, disconnect the drive from your computer, and contact Western Digital Customer Service at http://support.wdc.com/country/ for further assistance.
You can now download the WD Software Uninstaller. This utility will remove Mac WD SmartWare and WD Drive Manager software. You can find the uninstaller under any of the Mac Drive Downloads sections such as the My Book Studio below.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=124&sid=214&lang=en

I agree. After installing Mavericks I was troubleshooting and reinstalling drivers for days. Many Apps did not work anymore, although the updates slowly arrive. As total divergence of the old Apple philosophy, I had to use endless library cleaning terminal commands to get a new Canon network printer running again. Canon provided the procedures after updating from OS X10.6 to 10.7 already. Now it seems, that the first time I used the Super Drive (CD-DVD Drive) trying to burn an audio CD with baffling error messages (Drive already used..). After this, the RAID1 status of the two MyBook archives changed to JBOD. The changes of OS X10.8 to 10.9 I find unnecessary (iBooks could be an App, Maps we have already the same on other channels). Some changes are even a step back (calendar graphics), the so much more user friendly Office suite iWorks is free, but degraded an of limited use!MadOverlord wrote:
I have had multiple cases of data loss on WD drives since upgrading to Mavericks, and I do not use any WD software. I was using a 4-bay PROBOX USB3 enclosure with 4 independant drives, each with 1 volume, no RAID. I have managed to copy large files off the WD drive onto my MBP internal drive using the finder, and then find that they are not identical. This problem is intermittent, does not generate any Finder errors, and the drives all show 100% health via SMART. The configuration was rock-solid before Mavericks, and has trashed the directories of 4 drives since I upgraded last week. I am attempting to find a solid replication case for this, but it is difficult. I have not been able to replicate the issue on another 2-bay USB2 dock that I have (different manufacturer). One thing is clear: only one thing changed -- I upgraded to Mavericks.

Formatting SimpleTech external drive for Mac

Many, many apologies if this is a repeated question, but I've looked for a while and not found a solution.
I am trying to format my SimpleTech prodrive for my PowerBookG4 Mac. The error "could not unmount disc" keeps appearing.
This is despite some of the fixes I've seen online (i.e. using Partition1 instead of the 'erase' as the instructions do, and also changing from Master Boot Record to GUID partition or Apple partition)...
Nothing I've tried seems to work.
Does anyone have any other advice? It would be greatly appreciated. And apologies again if this is somewhere else on the forum...
J

Odd. Which interface between computer and drive are you using?

External drive for Mac & WIndows?

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