How should I format my external USB2.0 Drive

I just bought an external usb 2.0 western digital drive and would like to know what is the best way to format the drive so that I can read and write on both my mac book pro and my pc. My pc is running windows xp and my mbp is running leopard. For programs like imovie 08, the drive has to be formatted in os extended however the pc cannot see that format...when I format it in fat 32...I can read but not write from my mbp. Someone please help as I am tearing what few hairs I have left in my old body out...thanks in advance!

What bothers me with MacDrive is that it opens up your Mac drives to Windows. I personally don't spend a lot of effort defending my Windows installations as there's nothing much there although I'd hate for a virus or some malware to get their hands on my Mac data.
I'd make a FAT32 partition so that both can read/write and then format the rest for whatever use makes the most sense.

Similar Messages

  • How should I format an external hard drive to work with a Mac and a PC?

    I need to transfer some video files from a PC to a Mac, and would like to know to best format the drive such that I can move files from the PC to the Mac.
    Thanks,
    Hal

    MS-DOS/FAT32 if the drive doesn't need to contain files which are 4GB or larger. If it does, there's no solution which doesn't require third-party software; in this case, you may want to set up a network instead.
    (55429)

  • How do i format an external hard drive for use on both windows and mac book air?

    how do i format an external hard drive for use on both windows pc and mac book air?

    Use exFAT on the PC.
    (71374)

  • How can i format my external hard drive to write files from Mac without loosing the files that i alredy have on my external hard when i used it with windows?

    How can i format my external hard drive to write files from Mac without loosing the files that i alredy have on my external hard when i used it with windows?
    I have been using Windows to write files to my 1TB WD external hard drive and I do not want to format to loose the files capacity of around 500GB
    Someone, Please help

    Hi Allen,
    Is there any way to store the back up to Mac and restore after formating?

  • How can a format an external hard drive to Fat 32 format

    how can i format an external hard drive to a Fat 32

    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 MBR then click on the OK button. Set the format type to MSDOS (FAT)  Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

  • How should I reformat my external hard drive?

    I have just purchased a new 21.5" iMac and I will be moving from PC to iMac. I currently have a 2.5TB external hard drive which I have connected to my PC laptop that I use to store and watch movies. My question is how should I format/partition my external hard drive so that I can use it with my new iMac? The external hard drive will solely be used with my new iMac (it won't be connected/used with my laptop again) and I am ok with losing the data on the external hard drive as I have backed up the data currently on it onto another hard drive. I have tried to research what format to use but I am a little confused as to which one is the best and I am looking for some advice.

    Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    (73546)

  • How do i format a external hard drive?

    i got a external hard drive to use as a back out. but i have no idea how to format the external HD. what should i do? how?
    thank u

    connect the hard drive to the mac
    run disk utility (found in the applications/utilities directory)
    the drive should be displayed in the lefthand pane of the disk utility window, click on it to select it
    click the 'partition' tab, it should show the current format and allow you to alter it if necessary, for mac use the "mac os extended (journalled)" format
    once you've formatted and/or partitoned the drive it is a good idea to go to the 'erase' tab and use it to write zeros to the disk

  • How do I format an external hard drive to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?

    I am in Disc Utilities, but I can't figure out how to format my external drive. It is at 0, ready to go... Just need the steps...
    Thanks,
    Ham

    Hi(Bonjour)!
    The following process will erase everything on your external HD and reformat it to Mac OS journaled partition.
    1) open disk utilities application.
    2) click your external hard drive's name in the left column.
    3) select the "erase" tab in right.
    4) select "Mac OS X extended journalized" in local menu.
    5) click "erase button".
    Formatting a 250 Gig hd can take much than one hour...
    Michel Boissonneault

  • How do I format and external hard drive for my MBP?

    I have an external hard drive that I was using on a windows based system. I backed up the contents to dvd's and now I want to format the drive for my MBP? Can someone please tell me the best way to do this?
    Thanks.

    All you need to do is…
    1) Connect the drive
    2) Launch Disk Utility
    3) Select the drive and go to the partition tab
    4) Click on Options… and chenge it from MBR to GUID Partition Table
    5) Create a partition using MacOS Journalled
    6) Apply the change and you should have a Mac drive

  • How do you format an External Hard Drive

    I'm New to Mac. I have a Mac Book Pro Intel. I need to format an old PC hard drive so it works as an external drive. I have it in a enclosure and connected by firewire. The Mac reads it but can not write to it. Plus I don't even know if you format like I did in windows PC.
    Mac Book Pro   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

    Hey,
    Here is a great way on how to format your drive for Mac. You would need to choose the MS-DOS format.
    To do this:
    1. Go to Disk Utility
    2. Find Your External HD on the left hand side and click on it
    3. Go to the Erase panel
    4. Choose the Volume Format as MS-DOS File System
    5. Name the Drive if you wish
    6. Erase
    For a more graphical representation follow the link below:
    Formatting an External HD (Note: In this case where it says "Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or Mac OS Extended" you would pick the MS-DOS option instead.)
    This allows you to use your dirve with both OS's and having the option of writing and reading for both. If you have any important documents or things on your HD I would just copy them over into a folder on your internal HD and then when the drive is formatted, just shoot them back over.
    -Tom

  • HT3275 How do you Format the external hard drive been used for time machine?

    Error reads "Not enough space on the external hard drive" How do i format the memory and start again?
    Thanks Geremy

    ON an external hard drive.. that is easy.. just open disk utility and reformat it. Make sure you use Mac Extended Journeled. (HFS+)

  • How can I format an external hard drive to Fat 32?

    My brother wants to connect an external hard drive to his Sony PS3 for backup purposes. He bought a Western Digital 3TB "MyBook for Mac".
    The PS3 requires the drive to be Fat 32 format. So I hooked the drive up to my new-ish iMac and went into the Disk Utility, selected "Partition", then said I wanted one partition.
    I named the drive "FAT32", selected "MS-DOS (FAT)" for the Format.
    HERE'S THE PROBLEM: when I go into the "options" menu in order to select "Master Boot Record", it is grayed out. One guy told me that it was because my computer was corrupted, but the same thing happens on my parents (older) iMac.
    Another person said it had to do with the fact that the drive was 3TB. Whu...?
    If anybody could help with this issue, I would be VERY grateful.

    Thank you AnaMusic... this is a nice resource for information.
    However I am still not sure I understand why I can't actually DO the partition/formatting. Any idea why the "Master Boot Record" is grayed out? That's the part that has me stymied. As far as I can tell I'm doing all of the required steps correctly.
    Again, thank you for your help.

  • Is it possible to format an external USB drive with XFS or EXT3 ?

    Greetings all.
    I am running a 2,8Ghz 8x core with 6Gb ram. I have a NAS, (Buffalo Pro Duo Linkstation) which has a built in linux which saves data using XFS (I think). It has a built in backup routine, but the drive it backs up to MUST be in XFS or EXT3 (Fat 32 works but it drops all files over 2GB ;( ... ) So - here's my question:
    How can I format the external USB drive (A seagate freeagent) in XFS or EXT3 so that it can run on my Buffalo? My preference is to use a GUI mac program (does one exist?) or to use a command line UNIX command (FSK? - but then, how????). I could also use (GASP!) a windows utility on parallels, or even install a linux distro via parallels. But it should be easy I hope...
    Looking forward to any ideas/thoughts, tips, etc.
    thanks and best to all from Berlin,
    Jason

    Download a "Live CD" (one you can boot of into running copy of Linux without having to install anything; for example, [OpenSUSE Live CD|http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.0/iso/cd/openSUSE-11.0-GNOME-Li veCD-x86_64.iso]).
    Use OS X' Disk Utility to burn it to a CD.
    Insert the CD you just burned (if it ejected afterwards), and then restart your Mac.
    Hold down the 'C' key on the keyboard as the Mac boots, and it should switch to booting off the CD. Once the CD starts loading, you can let go. It will take a couple of minutes, but it will eventually boot into Linux.
    Attach your USB drive.
    Run gparted (you need to search the menus for it, it's under system administration, I think -- or you can open up a terminal window and simply type 'gparted').
    Find your disk (/dev/sdb or /dev/sda) and partition and format it using the filesystem you want.
    When done, restart the computer. You'll boot back into Mac OS X and have an EXT2/EXT3/XFS formatted external drive (that OS X won't recognize, by the way).

  • Advice on how to format an external hard drive for a MacBook Air

    I have an external USB hard drive plugged into a 64GB MacBook Air. How should I format the hard drive so that when I run out of room on the small 64 GB SSD drive on the MacBook Air, it will start putting some iTunes or other files onto the external hard drive? I only put iTunes and other small music files on the MacBook Air in order to save room. I do have iTunes set for iCloud.

    You cannot format a drive so that files will be automatically put on that drive when you run out of room on another drive. Transferring the files must be done specifically by you. You will need to learn how to manage free space on the SSD because 64 GBs is a bit small for much more than OS X.
    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 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.

  • 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

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