Formatting external hard drive for mac

Hi I am having trouble reformatting an external Hard drive from my Windows computer to my new Mac any guidance would be appriciated thx.

http://www.cultofmac.com/92845/formatting-external-hard-drives-in-os-x-video-how -to/

Similar Messages

  • Formatting external hard drive for MAC and Windows

    I have an external hard drive that I would like to make compatible with BOTH Mac and Windows. I don't want to split it but is there any way that I can make it compatible to where I can use it back and forth between both? I have classes and use Photoshop on both systems and need to be able to read and write to the hard drive from each system. Please let me know if this is possible and how? Thanks

    I have a 500GB external HDD which I had to format o Fat32 a while ago. I don't remember exactly how I did it, but I remember it was a pain in the *** and took forever (I was under Windows XP).
    So short answer to your question is yes. It is possible and as the above person said, you need to format to Fat32. Long answer is it will take some time and effort. Here are a few links to help you get started:
    http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm
    http://macosx.com/forums/mac-os-x-system-mac-software/270038-format-new-hard-dis k-into-fat32.html
    http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-676-formatting-your-drive-with-fat32
    I haven't tried any of these (I believe I formatted mine downloading a third party app), but you might be lucky. Good luck.

  • Formatting external Hard Drive for Mac and PC Access

    I have a USB External HD by Seagate that I want to add to my Airport Extreme BS that creates my LAN for a Mac PB, WinXP laptop and HP OfficeJet printer. The disk is currently formatted as NTFS and I don't think a Mac can read that. My HD manufacturer (Seagate) told me 1) FAT32 is unstable for PC and/or Mac usage and 2) my 300GB Pushbutton HD (3 years old) "will not work" on a LAN.
    I think both issues are BS as they now have the Maxtor "network HDs" to sell. Any truth to this??
    Second question: Seagate forums suggested that I format HD to FAT32 or Mac format and then buy "MacDrive" software so the PC can read/write to the drive. Same question: BS or truth.

    I think there is a decent amount of BS in there...
    I have a USB HD that came out of the box formatted as FAT32- both my MacBook Pro and PC laptop can read & write to it just fine. I haven't had it long enough to comment on stability, but haven't had any issues yet. I don't have any special software on the PC, either- I think the info from the Seagate forums sounds like people remembering the "old days" of Windows 98 and pre-OS X systems, when you did need software like that for true cross-platform drive access.
    As for the drive not working on a LAN- well, the hardware doesn't know the difference, so as long as it's connected via USB to the AEBS, it's fine. What could cause an issue would be your PC OS version. I have found WinXP to be really good (well, for a Win OS, anyway) at playing nice with others. Vista is a train wreck for many, many reasons, but may be OK for this too. Anything earlier than XP may be a bit more troublesome.
    Hope my 2 cents helps...

  • One Format External Hard Drive for Your Mac and PC...

    I have Formatted my External HD Passport 500GB = (465.8) and split it in two partition Mac OS Extended (Journal = 232GB) and FAT32 (Ms-Dos-FAT = 232GB) and reformat to NTFS using Windows...
    How to use one External HUD for your Mac and PC you have a PC and how to have two Partition in Mac OS Extended (Journal) and FAT (Ms-Dos-FAT)as you desire the size of your partition under application, Utilities and Disk Utility and covert the (FAT32) to (NTFS)using Windows Control Panel or just search by Start, search Computer Management or just right my Computer and format the second partition to (NTFS)
    Tips for Mac OS Extended (Journaled) FAT32 vs NTFS, what works and don't work...
    (1)Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Partition can't be use in Windows to transfer files but NTFS Partition can be use in Mac by transferring file from Windows to Mac and NTFS support for files over 4G in size...
    (2)FAT32 can be use in Mac and Windows but with a limitation that a file cannot be transferred to a FAT32 partition if the file is larger than 4GB such as a video file and FAT32 file system performs more slowly than NTFS...
    (2)Mac OS Extended (Journaled) can be use in Windows when you Reformat your HD to HFS+ by third-party app such as http://www.macdrive.com/ MacDrive for $50.or http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/ NTFS For Mac 6.0 for $30...
    Reference link 1 External Hard Drive for Your Mac and PC...
    http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/1-external-hard-drive-for-your- mac-and-pc
    Best regards...
    JamesUFOs...
    http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesEBEs

    I have many external drives I use between my MacBook Pro and my Windows PC's. I use a free NTFS driver for Mac OS-X to give me full read/write access to any NTFS formatted partitions when running Mac OS. I also use MediaFour's MacDrive v8 on some of my Windows PC's to access any HFS+ formatted partitions.
    Most of my drives are formatted NTFS because I have more Windows machines than I have MacDrive licenses, and with the driver for Mac OS, they are fully accessible. I have a few drives I do keep formatted as HFS+ because I have encountered an app or two that don't work quite right when they don't get to write to files on an HFS+ partition (one of my backup programs is picky about this).
    As said before, FAT32 is fully accessible between the two OS'es but it also has it's own limitations.

  • The best external hard drives for macs

    Can anyone recommend a good external hard drive for a mac computer; preferably the IMac OS 10.5.6 desktop. Thanks!

    Personal Experience with the One Touch Series:
    Keep a VERY CLOSE EYE on that Maxtor One Touch!
    I had two of the 1TB Firewire 800 models at one point. Hard drives failed on one of them within a month. Warranty replaced the unit but not the data. After a year, the tiny fans died and the drives overheated, resulting in total loss of both enclosures and all the data on them (within a week of each other).
    Those things are not meant for continuous use. If you only use them for periodic backup purposes, and then shut them off, they may be fine.
    Maxtor's setup software for the Mac was a PITA, too. The version included on the disc was worthless. Disk label indicated one version, actual version on the disc was an older, incompatible version. Maxtor sent a replacement disc. It was the same disc with the same problem. Finally located the correct installer on their website. That was a few years ago.
    I'll never touch the touch series again as a result.
    On the other hand, I've had a SmartDisk FireLite 60 GB (FireWire model) for my Powerbook for 5 years now with excellent performance. I have no problem recommending SmartDisk drives.
    -mt

  • Looking for external hard drive for Mac book air

    I'm looking for a external hard drive for my Mac book air

    What features are important to you?
    Size?
    Capacity?
    Speed?
    Price?
    Reliability?
    HDD or SSD?
    Desktop or portable?
    Just about any USB external drive will function properly, with only a few exceptions. I would avoid the Toshiba Canvio using USB 3.0, as it has been the topic for numerous threads here wherein users have had problems using them with the MacBook Air.
    My personal favorite external HDD right now is the Seagate GoFlex, as I can use them with the Thunderbolt adapter. But I have been eyeing the new LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt.
    For super speed, I use a Crucial model M4, either using the Seagate Thunderbolt adapter, or I have some mounted in USB 3.0 housings.

  • I want to format a Seagate Expansion External Hard Drive for Mac and PC

    I ordered a Seagate Expansion 2 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive to use with my new Mac and my old PC (or at least get my photos off of both and put them on the drive).  I thought all HDs could be formatted to use by both, I was able to get a Mac HD to work with my PC in 2008 (but it died). I am reading that this drive is PC only.  I have Parallels and Windows 8 on my Mac if worse comes to worse but I would like all of my computers, real, virtual old and new to be able to access the external drive.  Has anyone encountered this issue before?  What should I format it in? FAT32? If yes, how would I go about that on a Mac.  Or should I just return it? 
    I'm kind of Mac clueless.  I spent my childhood through college on a Mac but I graduated right when OSX came around and I don't know how to work with the Mac "under the hood" like I did with OS9 and with Windows.  So please talk to me like I am an an adult idiot.
    Thanks!!!! 

    The optimum choice is to format it ExFAT, but do so on the PC, not the Mac. Alternatively, you can make two partitions - one for the Mac; one for the PC. Partition the drive using GUID when you make the two partitions. Format one using Mac OS Extended, Journaled. Format the other on your PC using NTFS if you won't need to write to it from the OS X side or use ExFAT if you do.
    Drive Partition and Format
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) you will use for Windows from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to MSDOS.
    6. Click on the Erase button.
    When you connect the drive to your PC reformat the PC volume to either NTFS or ExFAT.

  • I cannot find the best way to format an external hard drive for MAC, PC, TV?

    Hello,
    I have a problem: I want to use an external hard drive on my Mac as well as on a PC and a TV. The normal structure of Mac (Journaled) isn't supported by PC/ TV. I changed the structue into DOS(FAT)  on my Mac. That's suppoerted by TV and PC. But I'll use the hard drive for storage of HD films so I'm afraid that the structure is not good enough for this (it seems old to me DOS.....) And I don't want the quality to be influenced by a bad structure.
    Then I've formatted into NTFS on my PC, but then I cannot put files from Mac on the hard drive.
    What is the best solution?
    Hope someone can help me!
    Regards, Kim

    FAT works great, but the problem is that it's old and that you can't store files that are bigger than 4 GB. In this case, you have exFAT, a filesystem compatible with OS X and Windows, but I don't think that the TV will read it.
    If you want to use NTFS, you need a third-party application to be able to write in it on OS X, like Paragon NTFS

  • How do I format a new external Hard drive for Mac?

    Simple question I know for many of you out there but I could do with some advice as I have never done this before. I would like to buy a new external hard drive to store my music and photos on. I will get one with firewire and usb2 connectivity.Could someone walk me through the steps needed to format and prepare a hard drive for use with my Macbook (if it is not already Mac formatted). Will any brand of hard drive work with Mac or are some better than others?

    In addition to what Templeto Peck said, make sure that you select the formating to be OSX Extended.
    As far as the best esternal drive, type into the "Search Discussion" box: Best external hard drive. This will bring you to several previouslly posted threads that discuss quite thoroughly your question. The following is extracted from one thread:
    The best drives are those that use the Oxford 911 chipset. I like the Mercury Elite Pro drives from OWC, but there are plenty of others that use the same chipset.

  • Formatting an external hard drive for mac.

    Hi- I just bought a SimpleTech Pro 1TB External hard drive from Best Buy. I already own about 4 other external hard drives of various brands (WD, Maxtor, Seagate, Etc.). If I remember correctly, in the past to format those drives for OSX, I've just gone into disk utility, selected the drive on the left, and went to the erase tab, chose volume format: Mac OS Extended, named it, clicked erase and a few minutes later my drive was ready for use. For some reason now I am getting an error (format failed) shortly after I click erase. It will allow me to choose fat32 to format the drive, but whenever I try for a Mac OS format I get this same error. Any ideas?
    By the way, I tried this on a Seagate drive yesterday and the same thing happened. So I returned it thinking it wouldn't work with a mac. So I don't think it's the drive.

    Choose partition and GUID in option and after format in HFS+
    Message was edited by: Nardac

  • How can I format external hard drive for both Mac

    Hi, I want to use my Seagate external Hard Drive 1 TB on both Mac & Windows. I go to know that FAT 32 supports both but it can not transfer more than 4 GB data at a time. Is there some better alternative? Please suggest.

    As said above Use exFAT but do the formatting on a Windows PC as I have had problems of Windows seeing the drive when done on a Mac. Once done on a PC it was seen by both platforms.
    Also if you are running XP on the PC you may need an update for XP to see and use exFAT drives. It may be included with XP SP3, i'm not sure, but Microsoft has an update for both XP SP2 and SP3 so that exFAT drives are usable.

  • External hard drive for Mac and Windows?

    Hey all,
    Is it possible to set up an external hard drive with a partition that has one side compatible with Mac and the other with Windows, similar to a Boot Camp setup on an internal drive? If so, how do I do that? Thanks for any advice you can give.

    Rekishika:
    Yes it is possible. Use Disk Utility from Leopard and partition the external drive to the desired space for each. Format one side with Mac HFS+ Journaled and the other with FAT32 (You can reformat the FAT32). You can also format both external partitions to FAT32 if you want Leopard and Windows to access (read and write)either one of them.
    Axel F.

  • Partitioning an external hard drive for Mac and PC

    I want to partition an external hard drive (3TB) into 3 even partitions. I want to use one for PC storage, one for Mac storage and the last for Mac backup. Is this possible and how do I do it?

    Drive Partition and Format
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    7. Re-partition the drive to create the three partitions. The one you wish to use on a PC you should format MSDOS (FAT).
    When you connect the drive to your PC it should have no problem reading the partition set up for a PC. Now while on the PC you may wish to consider reformatting that partition using ExFAT (if supported on your PC.) This format is more compatible with both OS X and NTSF supporting long file names and other FAT filesystem irregularities.

  • Same External Hard Drive for Mac and PC?

    Hello,
    I just bought an iMac and a Lacie external hard drive. I plan to format the Lacie for the Mac. However I'd like to use it to tranfer my files from the PC. Will the Mac formatted Lacie External Drive work with both the iMac and the PC?
    Thanks!
    Jim

    Another alternative is to get a Lacie drive and use it native to MAC. To acess read/ write capacity to your NTFS partitions refer to my post in:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1425010&tstart=0
    regards,

  • External Hard Drive for Mac AND PC

    I need to purchase an external Hard Drive to be able to back up both my iMac and my partner's PC. I am currently looking at buying either:
    Iomega UltraMax Hard Drive 500GB FireWire 400/USB 2.0
    OR
    Iomega 500GB Minimax Hard Drive with Dual Interface + USB/FireWire Hub
    Can anyone tell me is it possible to format either of these Drives to be able to accept both Mac and PC, and if so, do either of these drives let you have a permanent connection to both at the same time, so they can be set up and left to do their backups automatically without always swapping cables over etc.
    Does anyone have a preference between these drives?
    (Oh, and for info, I won't be using Time Capsule as I only have 10.3.9!)
    Thanks

    I think there is a decent amount of BS in there...
    I have a USB HD that came out of the box formatted as FAT32- both my MacBook Pro and PC laptop can read & write to it just fine. I haven't had it long enough to comment on stability, but haven't had any issues yet. I don't have any special software on the PC, either- I think the info from the Seagate forums sounds like people remembering the "old days" of Windows 98 and pre-OS X systems, when you did need software like that for true cross-platform drive access.
    As for the drive not working on a LAN- well, the hardware doesn't know the difference, so as long as it's connected via USB to the AEBS, it's fine. What could cause an issue would be your PC OS version. I have found WinXP to be really good (well, for a Win OS, anyway) at playing nice with others. Vista is a train wreck for many, many reasons, but may be OK for this too. Anything earlier than XP may be a bit more troublesome.
    Hope my 2 cents helps...

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