Formatting portable HD to be used by Mac & PC

Hello, hope someone may be able to help me. I am a photographer and I need to load up an external portable lacie hard drive with photos (tiffs and jpegs) from my Mac Intel (Snow Leopard). The client has to be able to download them all onto his PC. I have heard about reformatting the hard drive to MS-DOS (FAT) using disc utilities so that the PC can read it, but also that there is a file size limit of 4Gb. I have 2 folders to load up, one is 97 Gb and the other 300 Gb ..so am I going to have problems getting all these files onto the hard drive? ..BTW no single Tiff file is bigger that 300 Mb. Many thanks

No, you won't. There is no folder size limit; only the sizes of individual files are limited to 4GB.
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Step by Step how to re-format portable hard drive for pc and MAC

Using a Mac book pro with Lion OS Any help with this would be appreciated .

TXNgage wrote:
Using a Mac book pro with Lion OS Any help with this would be appreciated .
Easy.
You should format the drive on the PC.
For most compatability and for any files under 4GB in size format in Windows FAT32 (MSDOS on Mac)
For any sized files 4GB or more, then format exFAT in Windows.
If your running a Windows XP machine, search Microsoft for a free download and install exFAT for XP.
FAT or exFAT can both be read and written too by Mac's and PC's alike.
Most drives come from the factory already formatted FAT, if this is what you want then there is nothng you need to do.
If Windows asks to format the drive then choose FAT or exFAT, but not NTFS.
A bit harder, if you have no choice but to format the drive on the Mac, then open Apple's Disk Utility and hook up the drive, select tthe drive on the far right, it should be obvious with the drive makers name and size, select that it's on the far left.
Now select Partition Tab, Options: MBR, format: MSDOS (FAT) or exFAT and click apply.
that's it, but I suggest you format on the PC for better results.

Trying to use portable hard drive on both my Mac and PC...

I just purchased a Toshiba Canvio Plus 1TB portable hard drive for my three Macs. Out of the box, I need to format the drive for Mac, which is fine, but I just found out that my fiance would also like to use it for her work computer, which is a PC running Windows XP. I need your help in finding out how to read and write to this portable drive from both a Mac and PC.
I thought about partitioning the drive but that wouldn't work because we want both systems to access the same data. After doing a few Google searches, I thought formatting the drive to a FAT32 would be the answer but I read that file sizes can't exceed 4GB. Since I purchased this specifically to complement my new HD camcorder, a 4GB file size limit will not work for us.
One last thing, since she has a company-issued PC, I'm pretty sure she's unable to install third party software and/or drivers. So please factor that in.
What would be our best solution? Thank you so much for all your help.
Message was edited by: madeinguam

madeinguam wrote:
What would be our best solution?
two possible ways:
(a) format the drive for Mac and install MacDrive on the winsloth machine(s)
(b) format the drive NTFS and install the _*NTFS 3G*_ driver on the Mac(s)
JGG

How do I transfer data/videos from a Mac-OS formatted portable hard drive to a Windows-formatted portable hard drive?

I was trying to drag-and-drop the contents (most of them are downloaded torrent movies) of my Mac-OS formatted portable hard drive to my Windows-formatted portable hard drive. It didn't work. How do I go about this?

Hi FornPLAY,
Your Mac will not be able to write to an NTSF formatted drive, as Mac OS X only supports reading from NTSF natively. You have a few options to be able to use that Windows formatted drive. You could try reformatting the drive using Disk Utilty to a format like MS-DOS (FAT). That would allow for both Mac and Windows cross-compatibility.
~~
Austin

Mac Formatted iPod Mini, want to use on PC then back to Mac?

I want to use my Mac formatted iPod Mini on a PC when I'm away for Christmas, but when I return home I want to use it on my Mac again. Is formatting the iPod to a PC required to do this? I don't want to lose all my music when I'm away because there will be no way to get it back till I return home. And, if I must format for a PC, what will happen when I plug it back into a Mac? Do I have to reformat again? Has anybody accomplished this successfully?

An iPod formatted with Windows will work with Windows or Mac.
An iPod formatted with Mac will not work on Windows. WIndopws cannot read Mac.
If you format with Windows, you will not need to reformat with Mac.

Using a mac formatted ipod on a PC iTunes

My iPod is synchronised to my Mac at home but I want to be able to use it at work (PC environment) on iTunes on my PC. However, when I plug it in using a USB connector, it does not show on iTunes at all.
Is this possible or is there a problem crossing between Mac formatted iPods and PC iTunes?
any pointers are welcome - thanks.
jamie

Probably the easiest way to use an iPod on both Mac and Windows computers is to format the iPod (using iPod Updater) using the PC. This will force your iPod to use the Windows file system (FAT32) which both the Mac and PC can read from and write to without the help of additional software. Of course then all your software updates for the iPod will have to be done on Windows.  If you need to use a Mac (HFS+) formatted iPod on a Windows PC, you'll need to install some 3rd party software such as XPlay 2.0 (which you can get from MediaFour Software). This will enable your Windows PC to read a Mac-formatted iPod.

Doesn't play songs, "itunes is not configured for use with mac-formatted"??

Hi, new ipod shuffle. Seems to charge fine, all indicator lights function as expected. Everything looks fine in itunes. But it doesn't play songs. I have the most recent versions of itunes and the ipod software. Re-set, updated, and restored, nothing works. Even restored using the restore utility. Re-started computer. Checked for volume control. Won't play songs. Tried different file types. Songs play fine from itunes library and from the device's library within itunes. Tried different headphones. Hooked it up to computer speakers. Turning volume all the way up on device and speakers, heard some very faint rhythmic static, so my guess is the jack socket (or whatever you call it) is just messed up, but it seems weird that it can transfer power and data to the device but doesn't work for sound...
The only other issues that have come up is that the drive disappears in explorer once it syncs with itunes. Other people who've noticed this seem to have completely different problems so I don't think it's related.
Also, I have MacDrive on my computer. And when it starts up with the ipod plugged in, MacDrive offers the message "Itunes is not configured for use with Mac-formatted ipods." It offers to automatically reconfigure itunes so it can read mac-formatted ipods. Since I've restored the device, I don't see why formatting should be an issue so I say "no."
Should I try letting macdrive do its format thing? Should I try formatting the ipod disk on the My Computer menu? Or should I just email apple and tell them the jack's busted?
Thanks for any thoughts!

Well, I have had my iPod for about 3 years, it is a 4th generation non-video 40 GB. One day it just stopped working, and now it does not play any songs. when I turn it on it makes this odd whirring sounds that computers make when they try really hard to do something. I cannot charge it, and it is not recognized by iTunes. Also when I turn it on, I get the apple.com/ipod/support (or whatever it is) screen. Needless to say, my warranty is expired, and so I cannot do anything for it except get a new battery, or buy a new one. Is there any way to fix this problem, or anyone out there who is experiencing the same thing?
I'm having the exact same problem with my wife's iPod. However it will play about 3 seconds of a song and go onto the next song.
If there is anyone out there that can help please do!
Windows XP

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.

1 hd with 2 file formats for use between mac and windows?

Think this is the right forum...
I want to instal a program onto an external hard drive for use on both mac and windows. The program supports both mac and windows.
My plan is to get an external hd and partition it in half. One half i will format mac os extended and the other i will format ntfs. I'll instal the mac version on the mac partition and the windows version on the ntfs partition.
This should work i'm thinking, yes? I.e. when i plug it into windows it'll run the windows installation no problem and when i plug it into the mac it'll run the mac installation no problem?
Thanks.

An easier solution might be to just connect the drive to a Windows PC and format it as FAT32. Both Windows (98 and higher) as well as Mac allow full read/write access to FAT32 formatted drives. No need to download any drivers, etc. It just works.
Yes, this solution is not perfect, but none are. The free NTFS drivers for Mac are not most efficient drivers for speed/performance, the HFS+ drivers for Windows are not cheap, and have their own performance issues, and FAT32 has the limit of file sizes over 2GB (or is it 4GB now?) not supported. No one solution is perfect, but for the many one is better than the others, but it all depends upon their circumstances which is "better".

Hey, can i clone my Macbook Pro internal hard drive and then paste it all onto a formated external hard drive, then make the Mac use the external as the primary hard drive?

hey, can i clone my Macbook Pro internal hard drive and then paste it all onto a formated external hard drive, then make the Mac use the external as the primary hard drive? please help for i only have around 618mb left out of 189GB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If what doesn't work?
If cloning your internal drive to the external drive is not successful, I expect CCC will tell you so. Assuming that doesn't happen, you will have a bootable replica of the internal drive on the external drive once CCC has finished.
You can then do any of several things:
1. Replace your internal drive with a much larger one (320GB or 500GB, or even larger), and clone the external drive's contents onto the new drive so you'll have all your data in one place. Note that if you do this, you'll also need to buy an external drive that's large enough to back the new internal drive up on.
2. Boot from the external drive as a temporary measure while you clear at least 30-40GB of data off the internal drive, allowing you to keep using it and saving small amounts of data to it. The external drive will then contain the only copies of the files you've deleted from the internal drive, so you'll need a seond external drive large enough to back both the other drives up on.
If you can't comfortably clear a minimum of 30GB off the internal drive, you really need a larger internal drive right now, and you shouldn't bother fooling around with the inadequate one you have — you'll just quickly overfill it again.
3. Replace the optical drive in your MBP with a large conventional hard drive, giving you two hard drives inside the machine. You will then need one or more external drives large enough to back up both of the internal drives.
If you sense a theme here — back up, back up, back up — you are correct. It's flat-out foolhardy to own or use a computer without maintaining complete, up-to-date backups of everything at all times.

I am trying to cut and paste from a program, IEP DIRECT, and normally on my PC I have no problems; however, when using my MAC the formatting gets all mixed up

i am trying to cut and paste from a program, IEP DIRECT, and normally on my PC I have no problems; however, when using my MAC the formatting gets all mixed up

If you refer to this
https://www.iepdirect.com/iepdotnet/hub/index.html
then they have an issue with mac version.
At a first glance, their website is optimized for Windows only, it displays badly in Safari, perhaps it would be better in Firefox or other browser.

External HDD formatting for use in Mac OS X and Windows

I've been gifted with WD (My Passport) 1TB External HDD. On the box it says it requires reformatting for use in Mac OS X.
I used the earlier discussions. I couldn't decipher the steps details as it was mostly by level 4 above.
Can any honourable member advice me on how to reformat my new external HDD for use in Mac OS X and Windows (As in office and during meetings I might haveto use wwindows system)
Also if done with formatting will this be allowing to setup Time Machine back ups.
Please be sure that I want to use time machine exclusively for backup, some earlier discussions mention that TM can also be used for OS booting etc.,
I would be greatful to all who will help me in these regard

Normally the drives are formated as exFAT which could be used by both a Mac and a PC out of the box. Connect the drive to your computer it should be able to read it. If not then the system will ask you if you want o erase the hard drive. Select yes, it will format the drive for use with a Mac only. This is the required format to use it as a Time Machine backup. As stated in our post you would like to use this hard drive on both Windows and Mac, you should reformat the hard drive as exFAT in disk utility.

Can a USB drive be formatted using a Mac book pro

Can a USB drive be formatted using a Mac book pro

Yes, use Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

Using a Mac formatted ipod with windows itunes

Any ideas how I can update my mac formatted ipod on windows based itunes without losing all of my music? Every time I connect onto my pc I just kept being told I need to restore factory settings, yet when I connect to my mac it's fine.
Any help is greatly appreciated

If your iPod is formatted for Mac it won't run natively on a PC because the Windows OS does not support the HFS Plus file system and therefore will not see the drive: How to determine your iPod's disk format
Macs can read Windows drives so you could restore and format the iPod on a PC then connect it back to the Mac and reload your songs. iTunes will allow you to use an iPod formatted for Windows on a Mac but Apple currently only fully supports using the iPod shuffle in FAT32 format on Mac, in other words all future software updates for the iPod would have to be carried out in Windows to maintain the formatting. Alternatively there are third party programs that will allow you to use a Mac formatted iPod on Windows, this is one for instance gets good reviews. It's a commercial program so you'll have to purchase a license to use it:: XPlay 2

Is it possible to format an external hard drive on my mac?

I purchased a portable external hard drive to back up my former pc in the hopes of using it on my mac. Obviously, I did not research this seeing now that I can integrate my files and photos from my pc to my mac. It appears possible to format the external hard drive to my mac os, which should be done prior to downloading files from my pc to the hard drive. Has anyone dealt with this or am I the only idiot that purchased the external hard drive thinking that was the thing to do before my pc dies completely?

A HD formatted in EXFAT will transfer data between both PC and Mac.
However dont make the titanic error most do in having merely a single external HD backup of your data, thats a tragedy waiting to happen.
HD are cheap as dirt.
Ideal situation is 3 HD , 1 for Mac backups, 1 for data archives stored away safely and updated as needed / often.
and a 3rd HD in Exfat for data transfers (or a thumb drive for the same thing to save $$)

Formatting portable HD to be used by Mac & PC

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