Formatting my external drive.

I'm going to be reformatting my LaCie 250GB Firewire drive.
Is there anything specific I should do?
Also, would having partitions create less or more possible directory corruption problems in the future?
Any drive formatting hints or suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks

You're both right
partitioning a drive without having a valid reason
And having an emergency boot partition (like creating your own eDrive) would be one; or having a partition for backup set #A and B.
With LaCie, I would say be sure to have a 2nd FW drive based on the number of users having problems.
Sometimes, all you need is a disk image (or sparseimage) and then restore the image you need, and use the image even for backup.
I had one drive that had at least 4-5 test versions for OS X at the time. But people doing testing are not the average.
One reason I always partition - I use the last 1/3 or more of a drive to store static files, large images, disk images, stuff where speed and performance is not critical. AND, I want to keep the active system on the outer 1/3 tracks of the drive to maintain the best I/O.
Outer tracks on WD 320GB 62MB/sec using FW800
Inner tracks 35-42MB/sec
Of course FW400 could be as much as half that with a max of 40MB/sec (a "D2" RAID type FW400 can get almost 50MB/sec).

Similar Messages

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

How do I format an external drive with mountain lion?

How do I format an external drive with mountain lion?

Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
select the external drive in the left pane
partition and format in the right pane

Format an external drive from mac to pc

How do I format an external drive (My Passport) from mac to pc (iOS Snow Leopard) without losing my data?

kwnola wrote:
How do I format an external drive (My Passport) from mac to pc (iOS Snow Leopard) without losing my data?
1: Remove the data off the drive
You can do this by installing MacDrive on the Windows PC to access the Mac HTFS+ format
Or you can use a Mac to remove the data.
2: Format the drive on the PC (preferably) by right clicking on the drive and choosing format
A: If data on the drive will have larger than 4GB sized files, then the format you want is exFAT
(if your using Windows XP, you can download exFAT from Microsoft)
B: If the data on the drive will always have less than 4GB sized files, then you should choose FAT32 for most compatibility with all other machines.
3: If you can only format the drive on the Mac then open Apple's Disk Utility in the Utilities folder
Select the drive on the far left, it should have the makers name and a size, then click Partition.
Now select the box and click Options: MBR Then select Format: exFAT or MSDOS (FAT32) and click Apply.
4: If any chance you need to secure delete any data remaining on the drive form being recovered, use the Erase with Zero (or 7x for very secure) before formatting.
Note: Formatting a drive on the PC there will be a option for NTFS, this is for access by Windows only, but software can be installed on the Mac to read/write this format.
If you use exFAT or FAT32, the Mac can read and write this format just like Windows can, no need for extra software.
Linux can read/write just about any format.

Mac novice needs to know how to format an external drive

How do I format a memory stick or external hard drive? I remember in PCs you could right click and click on format.
Thanks!

In OS X, there's an app called Disk Utility that allows you to do whatever you want with hard drives and external drives.
In order to format an external drive, read > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html The Pondini's site guides you through the steps, so you just have to follow them. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as right-clicking the external drive

Is it safe to format ANY external drive to Mac OS Extended?

Some Seagate tech told me a while back that Seagate drives should ONLY be formatted with their proprietary formatting and that my data is vulnerable if I use something else. (I may have misunderstood this, but I'm 98% certain that's what he said.) I do remember him saying not to use the Mac's Disk Utility to format the drive.
I want to reformat this drive so that it's 100% compatible with my new Mavericks iMac.
Is there any concern about formatting ANY external drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Or are there some hard drives that should not be formatted to Mac using Disk Utility?
I'm under the impression that all external drives are basically the same and I can format them however I want. No drive is "made" to be formatted with a certain OS or a certain format.
Is that correct?

Formatting a drive simply will remove any data currently stored on it. There is no such thing as "proprietary formatting." Drives come out of the factory with no formatting.
Whatever the person told you it was patently wrong not to mention mis-informed.
To use a hard drive properly with any computer it needs to be formatted with the tool that is required for the operating system with which it will be used. For the Mac you use Disk Utility (the tool) and you format the drive using Mac OS Extended, Journaled (the format.)
Your impression is correct.

I want to format my external drive so that my new imac and my pc can read and write ,what should i do?

i want to format my external drive so that my new imac and my pc can read

Start by partitioning the drive as required for the Mac:
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.
Now click on the Erase tab in the main menu, then select ExFAT from the Format Type dropdown menu. Click on the Erase button. This format is read/write on both the Mac and the PC. If you have a problem with it on the PC, then format the drive the same way using the Windows formatter.

Do i need to re format my external drive if i am planning on using super duper for my bootable backups or does super duper do that for me?

do i need to reformat my external drive if i am planning on using superduper for my bootable backups or does superduper do that for me? thanks

You need to format a external drive using Apple's Disk Utility
Partition 1
Option: GUID
Format: OS X Extended Journaled.
Before OS X can be installed or cloned onto the drive, or else it can't be booted from.
Formatting a drive erases all data on it, so backup up any data you want to retain off the drive.
I really do not advise SuperDuper for the fact that it doesn't copy the RecoveryHD partition and restore it, as this is needed to reinstall a fresh copy of OS X from Apple's servers.
Erase, formatting, OS X installs on Mac's
A better, more powerful and more intelligent tool is Carbon Copy Cloner.
See the cloning section of my User Tip here
Most commonly used backup methods

Formatting an external drive for both 10.4 & windows?

I just installed windows xp on my macbook pro.
What is the safest/most reliable way to format an external drive so I can use it with both windows and 10.4?
Thanks in advance

'FAT32'
But it has file size limitations.
Better to partition the external drive with Mac Extended on one, and Windows on the other.

How can i format an external drive so as to read and write from both windows and mac side

i recently bought a macbook pro and used bootcamp so as to be able to run win7 and mac. I now wish to have an external drive so as to backup and tranfer files between the two os's. Specifically to read and write form either windows or mac. How can I do this?

Format it as FAT.

Format an External Drive to Work on PC and MAC

I am trying to format my external hard drive so that I can view files stored on it on both my MAC and PC. I think this can be accomplished through the disk utility, but trial and error have not gotten me far.
Thanks
joe

Hi,
The best best is to use Disk Utility in Mac OS X to format the drive. Pick the Erase tab, then select Windows FAT-32 for the Volume Format. Both Windows and OS X readily read and write FAT-32. Oddly, newer versions of Windows won't format a drive in FAT-32 even though FAT-32 is a Microsoft standard. Go figure.
There is a limitation of maximum file size of 4G in FAT-32, so if you are backing up DVD ISO images on a FAT-32 drive, you may encounter the limitation. A lot of applications will inexplicably just quit without generating a reasonable message when they hit the 4G file size limit. If you are just trading music and pictures between machines, you probably won't have any issues.
-Bill

Mac-formatted FAT32 external drive: cannot read with windows

I'm posting here in the hopes that it's a mac problem. I have 2 external drives, each USB and each very large (120+GB each). both contain a few files larger than 4 GB each. I formatted each drive using my Mac, one in Leopard and one previously in Tiger; each is FAT32 formatted and can be read easily with my Macbook in Leopard. I also have a 4GB flash drive that is FAT32 formatted, which was formatted using my Macbook.
when I plug either drive into a Windows machine (Vista or XP Pro SP2) it goes through the new hardware wizard but the drives do not show up in Explorer. the disk management service shows the drives but they appear as "unallocated space" and cannot be accesed. the option I have when I right-click on the drive is "Initialize". I sold my Macbook and don't have access to it anymore, and even if I did, the process of moving all of these files (a total of ~150GB) to an FTP server and then onto my new Vista machine is not possible. the even weirder thing is that my FAT32 formatted flash drive shows up on any windows machine without a problem.
Can someone explain what might have happened here? since the drives are both easily readable with any Mac (I've tried two, one with Leopard and one with Tiger) and they both show up in the Mac as FAT32 formatted, I can't imagine why they cannot be read with a Windows machine.

You cannot give yourself full access when connected like this. It is not supported. the only way to access an NTFS device with write privileges is while it is connected to a Windows host. This is because your Mac doesn't know what to do with the ACL information. While it's connected to a Windows host, you can get at the share and use the host's information to authenticate to it.
If you want to use it directly attached to the Mac, you need to have it formatted in a Mac readable format. Mac OS Journaled, HFS+, FAT32 among others... It'll need to be FAT if you want Windows to access it too though (and you can't set permissions on FAT drives like you can NTFS or HFS etc).

Formatting an external drive after use on NSLU2

I have a Western Digital 1TB My Book that I am trying to reclaim for use on another windows system.
When I plug it into a Windows 7 system it fails to find the HID driver - but I think this could get fixed by downloading the right driver. Seems to work without the HID driver anyway, so I carry on.
The drive is not visible in Windows Explorer, so I open Manage and go to Storage -> Disk Management. A window appears informing me that "You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it.". I select the disk and use the MBR partition style, then click OK. A new pop up appears with the title "Virtual Disk Manager" and the message "The system cannot find the file specified.".
Right, I'll fix this. Time to break out the big guns. I start DISKPART, the command line process. "LIST DISK" shows me which disk number I need. "SELECT DISK 1" makes it active. "CLEAN" clears it. "CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY" will activate i... Oh. "DiskPart has encountered an error: The system cannot find the file specified. See the System Event Log for more information.". Not good.
Any ideas? The drive has been used as the backup drive - drive 2 of a two-external-drive set - and has been reported fine as of last backup. I've done a lot of searching for this and found nothing so far, any idea why the NSLU2 has made the drive unformattable?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

When you first plug in a WD mybook straight out of the box, it has an autorun.inf that runs the installer for the HID driver. I think you can download the software from the Western Digital website.
The HID driver is not strictly necessary, by the way: it's only used for the button on the back side and the light on the front side. The drive itself is controlled by the USB Mass Storage Device that's included with Windows.
From your post, it sounds like you are doing the right thing: use disk management or diskpart to re-initialize the partition table (CLEAN does that). But then CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY fails? That's strange and it shouldn't happen. Perhaps you have a virus scanner running that is trying to protect your disk from writing the MBR.
Try switching off any virus scanners you have; if you can't, you can try burning a System Rescue CD and booting it to do the partitioning and formatting. See the link in my signature.
===Jac
Frequent NAS200 Answers:
1. DISABLE the "convert failed logins to guest logins" option to fix permission problems.
2. NEVER insert or remove hard disks while the power is on. NAS200 doesn't support hot swapping.
3. ALWAYS use the power button to turn the NAS200 off, don't just unplug it.
4. Don't trust RAID. Make BACKUPS!
5. To ACCESS the disks directly, you will need ext2 and/or XFS file systems. I recommend using SystemRescueCD.
6. Disks will get HOT with standard fan, use "green" disks or consider replacing the fan.
7. FTP server is insecure and doesn't work behind a NAT router. Use my firmware and SCP instead.
8. MY FIRMWARE supports SSH shell prompt and SCP for secure file access, and allows running other software.

Should I format my external drive to MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFAT ??

Hi ,
Which format would be most appropriate for reformatting my external drive whilst keeping it compatible across platforms (mac and windows)??
Thanks.

FAT:
Works natively with all Macs & PCs, but can't handle files larger than 4GB.
exFAT:
Works with large files, but requires OS X 10.6.6 or later, & Vista SP1 or Windows 7 or later. Don't use your Mac to format exFAT, as Windows machines won't be able to use the drive. Must be done on a PC.

I have Home Movies from iMovie to back-up. What format for external drive?

Hello,
I have Home Movies imported into iMovie 11 on my iMac 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo.
I am saving the cpmleted movie projects onto an external hard disc. A Seagate 1TB.
I have had problems with file sizes as I keep getting the message that a movie project is too large for the medium. It seems that I can't store anything in HD.
I've looked at the disc and it's formatted as MS-DOS (FAT32)
Am I right that this imposes a maximum file size that I can save?
If so I have looked at the Disc Utility on my iMac and I can see that I can reformat the external drive.
I have a choice of -
Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled)
MS-DOS(FAT) is this the same as MS-DOS (FAT32) it already is formatted as?
ExFAT
Windows NT Filesystem (Tuxera NTFS)
I'm guessing I should choose the MAC OS Extended (jounaled) or the Mac OS Extended (Case- sensitive, journaled)?
The Seagate Hard Drive is model SRDOSPO
I don't understand the differences between the above formats and would like help on chosing the right one for my Home Movies.
I also have an Apple TV3 which I use to watch the movies on my tv.
Are the home movies stored both in the iTunes file on my iMac, so I can see them via AppleTV, and the external hard drive.
If so can I just use the external hard drive without having these large files filling my iMac disc?
Hope that all makes sense.

The difference between case sensitive and non-case sensitive is self-explanatory. Non-case sensitive iis easier to work with as it can avoid confusion with files names.
The others are weird and wonderful/partly useless Microsoft formats only of interest to Windows users, or those who want to have both Apple OS and Windows on the same computer. Not all of them can be read by a Mac at all, some of them have inconvenient file size limitations.
More info here:
http://formatharddrive.net/types-of-hard-drive-formats.html
Message was edited by: Klaus1

Help needed with formatting an external drive

Like some of you exoerienced problems with my external drive on upgrade to 10.5.5. To cut a long story short, bought a Western Digital 500GB Studio already configured for mac. Backed up with time machine. The drive does not boot on startup of my Intel iMac as its the partition map is APM and not GUID. For some reason, when I access the drive in Disk Utility and select Partition, the Option button is greyed out i.e. read only and therefore I can't select GUID. Any ideas how to resolve this?

You cannot boot from a TM backup in case you did not know that.
In order to re-partition the drive for GUID you must:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Select the number of partitions from the drop down menu. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
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.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
Be aware that this is a destructive process and all data currently on the drive will be lost.

Formatting my external drive.

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