Formatting hard drive for project compatibility PC /Mac

I'm editing a project for a friend who uses PC. I bought a Lacie Quadra d2 drive for the project. The media files I'm being give are DV and WMV files, which my friend will copy to the drive.
So my question is: Will there be any compatibility issues and is there any way to avoid them?
Should I (or how should I) format hard drive before giving it to my friend? And will I be able to take drive back as is and work with the files?
I appreciate any guidance.

Download this free driver: http://www.ntfs-3g.org/index.html#download and you can format the drive as NTFS, which both of you can read and write.
Once installed, NTFS will appear as a formatting option in Disk Utility.

Similar Messages

Help formatting Hard Drive for best compatibility with Mac OSX 10.5!

I have a 1TB hard drive that I recently purchased. I would like for format it for best compatibility with Leopard. I must be doing something wrong because everything I try, I get an error.
Here's the details of my drive.
What do I need to do in Disk Utility?
Disk Description : WL1000GS A1672 Media
Total Capacity : 931.5 GB (1,000,204,886,016 Bytes)
Connection Bus : USB
Write Status : Read/Write
Connection Type : External
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
USB Serial Number : 240077140FFF
Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record
Main Partition (Only managed to get it's name to CORY.):
Mount Point : /Volumes/CORY
Capacity: 931.5 GB (1,000,204,853,760 Bytes)
Format : MS-DOS (FAT32)
Available : 931.3 GB (999,959,166,976 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : No
Used : 1.4 MB (1,507,328 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 0
Number of Files : 0

Looks like that's working. My problem was I didn't select GUID Scheme. Thanks.
EDIT: Yup that did the trick. Thanks so much.

FORMAT HARD DRIVE FOR USE ON MAC AND WINDOWS

I'm going to start working on scanning a lot of old family photos and getting them put on an external hard drive for my parents. I'd also like to eventually put old VHS family home movies on the hard drive as well. However, I'm not sure what to do about the hard drive. I know if I format it to be compatible with my Mac it probably won't be compatible with their PC. I read about the FAT32 option but I saw something about a file not working if it's over 4 GB in size. I'm thinking maybe some of those home movies will be larger than 4GB. I also saw an exFAT option. If I go with that will I be able to scan the photos on my Mac, get the home videos converted and put it all on the hard drive will all of it be visible and usable on their Windows PC?
Thanks for your help!

matahari_1946,
if you’re not yet backing up your Mac’s internal hard disk, I’d recommend first that you purchase an external hard drive for yourself for exclusive use as a Time Machine backup destination; that way, in case of a disk problem, you won’t permanently lose all of your scanned photos and imported movies.
A 4 GB file limit does apply to FAT32 filesystems. If their version of Windows allows, the external disk which will hold those photos and videos should be formatted as NTFS from their PC, so that they can watch video files over 4 GB. (It’s unlikely that an individual photo file would be over 4 GB.) However, OS X doesn’t come out of the box with NTFS support. The exFAT filesystem is able to hold files over 4 GB, and it is supported by Mac OS X 10.6.5 and newer, but it’s optimized for flash drives; it’s more “fragile” on hard disks than other filesystems are. As a workaround, you could format a flash drive to have exFAT, copy videos over 4 GB onto the flash drive, and then use your parents’ PC to copy the videos from the flash drive to their NTFS external disk. Other alternatives would be to look for third-party software for OS X which supports reading from and writing to NTFS disks, or third-party software for Windows which supports reading from and writing to journaled HFS+ (the default OS X filesystem) disks.

Tricky stuff: formating hard drive for Mac and Windows

Don't know how to format an external USB hard drive for these purposes:
#1. Store a bootable backup for my MacBook (Intel)
#2. Must be readable and writeable by both Mac OS 10.4 and WinXP (mainly for file storage)
Can I do 2 partitions, with Mac OS Extended (journal) + GUID to serve purpose #1, and MS-DOS + Master Boot Record to serve purpose #2? My research suggests no, it seems both volumes must use either GUID or MBR? Thanks

Hi,
I have two Western Digital external HDs with nearly exactly these specs.
Partitioned them with GUID partition scheme and have Partition 1 as bootable OSX clone and partition 2 with FAT32 for file storage/sharing between OSX and Windows.
So, what you want is what I have/use right now.
Regards
Stefan

Want to partition a new External Hard drive for both pc and mac

Hello!
I am going to partition a new Seagate external hard drive for both my pc and mac. What format do I choose for the PC partition? MS-DOS (FAT), ExFAT, or Free Space.
Thank you!
Nikki

If I may suggest:
Drive Preparation
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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition 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 Options 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. After formatting has completed select the main entry for the new drive (mfgr.'s ID) then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Click on the large partition rectangle then click on the Add [+] button. The partition should divide into two equal volumes. Resize as you prefer. Select the second or bottom volume to use on the PC. Set the format type to ExFat, then click on the Apply button. Wait for the two volumes to finish mounting on the Desktop.

Apple Formats Hard Drive for Cosmetic Issue

So I sent my Apple Macbook in for service for the well know discoloration problem and the "Geniuses" formated my hard drive! I immediately called them to complain but it seems for some unknown reason they only take complaints in the morning. So called back the following day and I issued the complaint. Surprisingly they actually had a reason as to why my hard drive was formated (it wasn't a good reason but a reason none the less). Basically they said that it was formated because I had a password on it and they could not get into the machine to test, which I told them that the login prompt alone was test enough and then asked why they didn't call for my password before they formatted and they said the person who took the original call should have asked me for that information which I immediately told them I was never asked for that information and that I would have happily given it to them if it avoided formating my hard drive so the representative looked at the audit log for the original call and saw that the tech never asked me for my login information among other things (which was a big mistake on there part) and then I asked again since they saw that the information was missing and that there was a password on the computer why didn't they call me before formating my hard drive (they did after all have all of my contact information), the representative had no answer to this. So I went on to explain how formating people's hard drives for no reason was a bad policy especially when their computer was sent in for a cosmetic reason. Anyway the complaint has been logged and now I may or may not get a call back from Apple. So far no call in five days which is why I figured I would post this, I guess if they don't call I'm pretty much SOL. So a little word of warning to anyone sending a computer to Apple for repair don't put a password on it and backup your files even if it is only a cosmetic issue.

So -- everyone is always saying you should back up
everything, but HOW? Do you all have DVD drives or
external hard disks? Is there another way to do it?
I have my most important documents on a pen drive,
and my photos on a CD, and of course I have my
application CDs, but nothing else. It took me MONTHS
to get all my settings the way I like them and to
download all the freeware I like to use, and I would
have been HORRIFIED if my disk had been reformatted
when my case was exchanged, just HORRIFIED!
So do you all just invest in DVD writers and/or
external hard drives, or just what do you do to keep
it all backed up all the time?
Get an external Drive, you can pickup a 250 gig drive for less than a hundred dollars these days.
To the OP it's a shame that your drive was formatted and it should not have happened. However, this is why people backup their drives so when something unexpected happens, drive corrupt, bad customer service etc. you have all your important data and settings preserved.
Mac Mini 1.66 Mac OS X (10.4.7) 60 gb hd, 2 gb ram, 250 gb ext drive, 5g ipod, 2g ipod

Format Hard Drive for Capture w/ FCP and use on PC?

Can someone tell me how I can format a hard drive that will ultimately be used by a client with only PC's -- so that I can capture video on my Mac using FCP?
In the past, I thought FCP broke up captured video into 2 GB segments when a hard drive was formatted for MS-DOS. But tonight I formatted my client's external hd using Disk Utility and the drive wasn't even available under system settings on FCP.
I'm really not at all PC-savvy anymore...can someone tell me if there is way to do this?
If it matters, I'm capturing home video from several sources: Canopus ADVC-300, and mini-DV tapes using a Sony camcorder.
Thanks!
Jenny

Thank you so much. The NTFS-3G did the trick. I have one more dumb question (again...I'm completely PC-illiterate). Would .dv be the best format for me to capture video again for a client who is a home user of a PC? I was planning to capture with FCP (in .mov format) -- but perhaps for ease of use for the client, I should use Toast or iMovie and capture in .dv?
Again...thanks for your help. This is the first time I've encountered this situation!
Jenny

How can I move my itunes library from pc onto an external hard drive for use on a mac

I have a large itunes library on my PC (roughly 200gb) and I want to transfer this to an external hard drive to then use on my new mac. I have tried this before using software which converts from NFTS to mac, but this didn't work properly (songs kept disappearing), so I also want the external hard drive to be mac formatted. Any suggestions? It seems much harder to do this than I expected.

Yes you can go to > Music > iTunes folder and copy the whole iTunes folder and drag the folder to your external and then on the new Mac click and highlight the iTunes folder and then in iTunes click on the button at the top (add folder to library) and you should see all your songs transfer from the external to the Mac and all songs start filling up in your iTunes library on the Mac.
This is the easiest method all songs and other media such as songs, movies, apps will be transferred over however you may not be able to keep ratings & last played counts using this method.
To keep all metadata including ratings & play count use the Apple method exclusively for this if you have to have your metadata, play counts and ratings saved.
I used scenario one above because it one of the simplest methods and I was just satisfied enough just to transfer all media over.

Can't format hard drive for time machine

I couldn't find a better community for this question so here goes: I just purchased a 1 TB Toshiba hard drive to use as a Time Machine device. I installed the NTFS software, but know I understand that I need to format it in HFS+ (MacExtended Journal) in order to make it work with Time Machine. I have attempted to do this with Disk Utility but I keep getting "file system formatter failed error." what to do?

If this is the inexpensive Toshiba USB drive I suggest you exchange it for something else as they tend not to work well with Macs.
Drive Preparation
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 Partition 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.

External hard drive for both windows and mac

hello, all - just bought a western digital 500gb my book premium edition external hard drive. will be using for both pc and macbook, not necessarily to share files (though i may on occasion), but rather as a backup. been researching the discussion boards and concluded that i should use it as pre-formatted fat32. few questions...
1) if i do use to share files, from what i understand i will be able to read windows files with my mac but i can't read mac files with windows (unless i have macdrive installed). is this correct?
2) since mac can read/write to fat 32, is it necessary to partition the drives and keep the files separated? i talked to a "computer guy" earlier today and he said i should consider having two completely separate external hard drives as having files from two different operating systems on the same drive could cause major problems for both... i didn't really believe him.
3) i have seen different posts stating using fat32 format for mac limits file size to 4gb. another post said 32gb. which is right? i have os is 10.4.7 if that makes a difference.
thanks in advance for any insight.

2 - i don't mind partitioning at all. but he strongly suggested not even partitioning but using two completely separate hard drives. yeah, the 500gb was a bit overkill, so if i can use it for both as opposed to one and buying an additional, i'd rather.
2/3 - if i partition, is it best to divide it into ntfs and hfs+? or should i keep the pc portion fat32? if the mac portion is hfs+, can i store any size file? i have videos that are anywhere from 10-20gb, and i'd like to get them off my computer and into the external drive.
thanks.

Formatting hard drives for HD

I am preparing to transfer my first AVCHD footage from a demo Panasonic HMC150. I am using FCP7 on a new MacBook Pro 3.03GHz with 8GB RAM. I am planning to use two 1 TB internal hard drives with a 2 bay Blacx eSata dock through a Sonnet eSata Express34 card. How should I format the drives to work most efficiently? Also, will this system handle the HD? I think my plan is to convert to ProRes for the edit but I am really not sure yet. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Echoing others - don't use RAID. It'll only create problems.
I have two 1 TB Firewire 800 drives for video editing - one is exclusively my scratch disk, well the other I use to store project files, still images, exported files, encoding files, etc.
I did some speed test when I first got the drives and there was a negligible difference in speed between the RAIDed drives and un-RAIDed drives.
I would suggest you purchase a 2 TB USB drive to use a time machine volume. I know Time Machine isn't an ideal backup solution (I often turn it off when I'm editing) but it works.

Migrating music to an external hard drive for access by Windows & Mac

Hey folks
I recently migrated my collection of music to an external hard drive by:
1) changing the iTunes music folder location from the default (Music/iTunes/iTunes Music) to my external hard drive through iTunes Preferences.
2) Selecting "Consolidate library" from the Advanced drop-down menu.
Afterwards, I moved my library file to the same parent directory I put my iTunes music folder in on the external (in fact, I moved my entire iTunes folder excl the music folder which was obviously already on the hard drive). When I restarted iTunes I held down OPTION and then chose the library file on my external as the iTunes library file to be used. This was all done on a Mac.
No problems - all swell. But... I moved the library file to the external because I want to be able to use the external with multiple computers from which I can import music that will automatically be copied to the same folder (the music folder on my external) and managed accordingly. When I tried to open the library from my Windows laptop at home nothing happened. The library file I copied from my Mac had no extension, so I renamed it .itl so the Windows version of iTunes would pick it up, but selecting it as the new library did nothing.
Q1: Are iTunes library files (I assume always .itl's?) interchangeable between Mac and Windows? If not this might explain why the library didn't load up.
Q2: Is my method wrong? Is there a different procedure for getting multiple copies of iTunes on different computers and operating systems to all use the same library, saved on an external hard drive, which itself references music from the same external hard drive? Is this goal even possible?
Q3: Is it possible to have 2 or more libraries for a given installation of iTunes?
Bonus Q4: How is the album artwork saved? When I consolidated my music on the external, did this move the artwork across with it (integrated with each music file?) or was it still sitting on my Mac hard drive in the Album Artwork directory? I have since moved this folder to my external as well, when I moved the entire directory including library file across, and album artwork is visible when the library is open on my Mac, but I don't know whether its getting the images from the hard drive or the external hard drive.
Okay last one - I swear! Q5: When I couldn't get the laptop version of Itunes to open my Mac library file, I imported all my music into the default laptop library which references the music files still all located on the external. Considering the 130GB of music I'm dealing with, this took a while, but what took even longer was "Processing album artwork", which dragged on for ages. What is actually happening during this procedure - is iTunes accessing an online database to find the artwork, or is it working with the artwork already processed and saved in the album on the external?
Thanks very much in advance! Sorry for all the questions but I'd like to crack this thing once and for all.

The procedure for sharing a library between a Mac and Wintel PC on an external drive is quite simple. I did this myself so that I would have my music available to me when I worked in my lab.
First before you transfer anything to your external hard drive, the music library on your Mac should already be consolidated. Once that is done, transfer the iTunes folder (./Music/iTunes) to the external drive. Unless your music files are in a folder outside the iTunes folder—for instance, my music files are on a separate, larger volume on my Mac from the iTunes folder that is on the boot volume—copying your iTunes folder will put everything that iTunes needs onto the external drive.
Now you have two options for using your library on two machines. The first, which I prefer, is to leave your Mac’s iTunes library in place and use the external strictly for the Wintel PC. In this instance, you would need to add the .itl extension to the iTunes Library database file. When you attach your external to the Wintel PC at work and choose the library, your should be taken into iTunes with your music library intact.
In this instance, your external drive can also serve as a backup of your iTunes library because it is highly improbable that both your external drive and Mac Pro’s iTunes folders will go bad simultaneously. For backup purposes, you will need to place another copy of your iTunes Library database file on the external drive, without the extension, for your Mac; I have had issues with Macs recognizing .itl files. Of note, the content of your library on the external drive will be the same if you need to recover from the external drive, but as the Wintel PC will not update the database file without the .itl extension, any settings you change or playlists you add in Windows will not be transferred to the Mac unless you recover the Mac’s library from the iTunes Music Library.xml file that the PC would have kept current.
In the second instance, if you wish to run your library off of the external drive for both your Mac and Wintel PC, you would follow the same procedure described above, but you would need to have both an iTunes Library (Mac) and iTunes Library.itl (Windows) database files. Effectively, this would mean that once a change is made on either system, it will not be reflected on the other. As you are most likely to add new songs via your home computer, you will need to replace the .itl file with a copy of the Mac database file whenever you add music, playlists, etc.
Given the storage capacity of my Power Mac G5 and the logistics involved in managing a library stored solely on an external volume going between a Mac and PC, I find the second option to be more trouble than it is worth. For me, it is easier to maintain my Mac’s iTunes library then copy the iTunes folder over to the external drive overnight when I wish to make any updates (e.g., new content, playlists, etc.) available to my work computer. In the morning, I just add the .itl extension to database file before disconnecting the external drive and taking it to work.
Now that your first two questions are answered, yes you can have more than one library, but doing so is poor database management. You should have all of your content in a single database and use iTunes to separate content. iTunes already separates music, movies, podcasts, audiobooks, etc., but further division of content is up to the user. iTunes has had playlists and folders for a few versions now, so it is quite easy to organize your library’s content in as simple or complex a folder/playlist structure as you please.
How album artwork is saved depends on how you acquired your music. Music you purchase from the iTunes Store has its artwork placed into a separate artwork database built in the Album Artwork folder in your iTunes folder. I believe that the same occurs if you allow iTunes to find and import album covers. If you rip CDs or acquire music from other sources, you manually add the artwork, in which case the images are stored in the music files.
Lastly, when iTunes has to build a library it can take a while. Your library is twice as large as mine and on a slow(er) laptop drive the time to built a library will be excessive. Unless iTunes is crashing or freezing, let it runs its course until the library build is completed. Also, if you have copied your music files to your laptop’s internal hard drive, you should not leave iTunes referencing the external drive. In the worst case, you would want to copy your iTunes folder from the external to the laptop’s internal drive’s default iTunes folder location. Remove the iTunes Library file and allow iTunes on your laptop to rebuild the library from the XML file.

Can I use one external hard drive for 3 of my Macs?

I have a 2007 white MacBook, a 2011 MacBook Pro, and a 2013 MacBook Air.
I want to be able to transfer all of my precious family photos off of my MacBook and Macbook Pro onto an external hard drive and then wipe those computers clean, and then I want to be able to backup and wipe clean my Macbook Air so that I can update it to Mavericks.
Can I use one external hard drive to do this for three of my Macs? Will it be compatible with all of them? And will I still be able to use the hard drive with my Air once it is updated to Mavericks?
Which hard drive do you recommend?

1. Yes. Note that anything you want to keep should be on at least two drives in case one of them fails.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
(110959)

Problems using ipod as portable hard drive for school (going from mac to pc

I was trying to use my ipod as a kind of flash drive, but when i got to school to retrieve my paper off my ipod, the pc computer said that my external disc was not formatted. I DID NOT format my ipod. Any Ideas on how to remedy this?

Open up an iPod Updater on a Windows machine and restore the software. I'm not sure if it works on the Update option
iMac G5 with iSight Mac OS X (10.4.7) iPod with Video (60GB)

Formatting external drive for read/write PC/Mac & files greater than 4GB

I'm on Snow Leopard and deliver an external drive off-site to a video editor who needs to read/write to the drive and return the edited files and then I need to read/write all over again. All video files are greater than 4GB. How would I go about this? Third party applications like MacDrive create too much overhead when processing video files. FAT32 limits file sizes to 4GB.

Hi WillDuffy;
Your requirement of files greater than 4GB eliminates FAT.
In your case since you don't have access to the PC, I am afraid you are forced to use the NTFS. This will require you to use the reverse engineered effort called NTFS-3G to be able to write to the disk from your Mac. Sorry.
Allan
Message was edited by: Allan Eckert

Formatting hard drive for project compatibility PC /Mac

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