How to Format an External Drive for Windows-only

I'm a mac user, and I'm selling a used external hard drive on eBay. I want to offer to format it correctly if a Windows user buys it, and I don't want to assume newbie eBay people will have the knowledge/interest in formatting themselves.
Will "MS-DOS (FAT)" work perfectly fine for a modern Windows user? If not, is there some other way I can format this thing on my end?

Thanks, Niel and Bob
I found s/w called Tuxera NTFS for Mac allowing you to format NTFS on a Mac. Costs $31 but there's a 15 day free trial.
There's also a freeware app floating around out there using MacFuse and NTFS-3G, but there are conflicting reports on Mavericks compatibility and overall reliability.

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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
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I recently got an external hard drive (2 TB seagate expansion) and I need to be able to use it with both my mac and my windows computer. I have read numerous forums and tried downloading various third party programs but nothing seems to work! One of the things i have read was to create a partition on the drive, this is easy enough and i did try it so i do have one side i can add stuff from from windows and one side i can add stuff to from my mac but then i cant access the other side. So say i need to get a file from my mac to my windows. I add a file to the mac side of the partition from my mac but then when i plug it into windows i cant retrieve that because its on the mac side of the partition (and vis versa). Is there some sort of easy way around this? or some way in which i can format the drive where i can move files back and forth from windows to mac without any expensive third party programs?
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Three ways to go;
Repartiton the drive (1 partition) as MBR and with FAT32 file system. This is readable and writable by both Mac and Windows, but has a file size limit (which I think is 4GB).
The alternative is to leave the drive formatted as NTFS for Windows (this is not normally writeable from Mac) and employ a third-party software application which can write to NTFS. NTFS-3G, Paragons NTFS for Mac and Tuxera NTFS have all been recommended elsewhere.
Or you can repartition as GUID with HFS+ (Mac OS Extended Journalled) file system. This would not normally be accesible to the Windows machine, but once again there is 3rd-party softwsre available to enable Windows to read and write to it. MacDrive is the only one I'm aware of, but there are probably others.

How to format WD external drive for Mac

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Connect it, power it up, go to Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities), select the WD disk on the left, go to the Erase tab, and choose "Mac OS Extended". Click Erase. That should do it.
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'FAT32'
But it has file size limitations.
Better to partition the external drive with Mac Extended on one, and Windows on the other.

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Hello,
I just bought a external 320Gb Western Digital Drive. I would like to use
the drive for windows and mac.I will not like to make partation on the drive
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If you want to use a disk for both PC/Mac file storage and Time Machine, you will have to create two partitions. Partitioning is sort of like creating multiple virtual disks on the same physical disk. One partition should be formatted for PC (which the Mac can also use) and the other should be formatted for HFS+ (Mac only) which is what Time Machine requires. The Disk Utility application makes partitioning and formatting very easy.

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In OS X, there's an app called Disk Utility that allows you to do whatever you want with hard drives and external drives.
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Hello!
I'm using an external USB/FW drive for back up. It's formatted as "OSX Extended".
1) If I copy the data off this drive, what format would I need to re-format it in, so as to be able to back up from both OSX and Windows?
2) Will I be able to reload the first set of data, once I re-format it in the other format?
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I don't recall either of those being mentioned in the OP's question, Niel. Only "backup" which does not necessarily mean Time Machine.
You might mention how much it will cost to buy MacDrive: Standard is $50 and Pro is $70.00.
BTW, I know you can't use FAT for Time Machine nor bootable backups. But FAT is not limited for use as a backup drive using other utilities that haven't the limitations or reliability issues of Time Machine.

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I need to know how to format a new HD to install in my Apple TV where I can't use the old HD to clone or otherwise create the new structure on the new HD.
I have an Apple TV that was syncing to a Mac Mini that had a defective HD and logic board. I was unable to backup the Apple TV to the Mac Mini for some time before I had the mini repaired by AppleCare.
When the mini came back, it registered on the Apple TV as a new computer and I couldn't sync with it without losing hundreds of dollars of content.
All was okay until the other night when Apple's defective update for the ATV erased ALL my content. I updated it to 3.1 this morning, which Apple indicated might fix the problem. It didn't. The old content is all gone.
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Hi Atagahi,
Firstly, have you emailed Apple iTunes support indicating your issue? There have been instances in which Apple will allow re-downloading of all content you've purchased on the iTunes store.
Secondly, I highly recommend you get an external usb hard drive, attach it to your mini and use it as a Time Machine drive to keep your iTunes purchases safe. It's a fact of life that all hard disk drives will eventually fail. The Apple TV should never be used as any kind of permanent storage space; think of it as a 'temporary holding' zone. And as you've unfortunately already experienced, a glitch wiped out all content on the Apple TV.
As regards your original question, it seems like there have been folks who've done just that...taken the internal drive in the Apple TV out and attached it to a mac and copied files from the Apple TV hard drive. I have not had to do such, so I cannot offer any help here except for Linda's suggestion on googling the net for solutions.
Good luck and hope you get all your purchased content back Atagahi!
Message was edited by: Alec

Use a partition on external drive for windows support software

Hello
I am trying to install Windows 7 on my MacBook AIR 13" 8GB. I have an external drive that i created a partition for the Windows Support software but when I choose to proceed in Boot Camp Assistant to download the windows support software it says the entire drive has to be one partition formatted to MS DOS.
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I do not want to install Windows on the external drive.
An external drive is needed to download the windows support software as stated in Boot Camp. It seems I cannot use a partition on the external drive to download the support software.. Wondering if there is a work around this..

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I would like to reformat it so that I can use it on my laptop both with Windows and Mac OS at the same time. I do not wish to use a partition as I want to access the hard drive through Mac and Windows at the same time on my laptop and I also want to be able to access the Mac things on a Windows computer and vice versa.
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I am sorry but I don't have a very high knowledge of this.
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It would be easier, using Parallels, just to format the drive for "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". You can see it both in the Windows/Parallels and the Mac side. Leaving it formatted as NTFS is not going to allow you to access (write to) the drive unless you use third-party software. Formatting it for Mac lets you use it, as I said, on both the Parallels VM and the Mac side.
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Is it possible to use Boot Camp to partition an external hard drive so there is a OSX partition and a Windows partiton? I want to use the external drive for backup only, NOT to load Windows and NOT to use as a boot drive.

I have partitioned the internal hard drive and am running Lion and Win7 Pro on my iMac i5 2.7GHz with 16GB RAM. Can I use Boot Camp to create a Windows partition on an OSX external hard drive to use for backing up both systems to the same HDD? I do NOT want to install OSX Lion or Windows 7 Professional on the external drive. I do NOT want to boot either system from the external drive. The 3TB external drive is for backup only.

Use NTFS for Windows and buy Paragon NTFS for OS X
You can also try Paragon HFS for Windows
As long as you are using for data and backups, you can leave the drive as GPT too.
I would recommend strongly to always have a 2nd bootable Mac OS drive, only need 30GB partition. System maintenance. Though LIon Recovery Mode finally makes it less but not totally unneeded.
And yes you can use Windows to create a partition.
Boot Camp is too broad. Do you want or mean BC Assistant? not needed but probably possible.
MBR has trouble with 3TB drives.

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How to format a hard drive for Linux?

I have a hdd (500gb) that used to be my internal drive for my MBP 2012. It currently has Mac OS 10.10 and Ubuntu 14.04. I want to erase the drive though so I can make it strictly for Linux. The question is which format do I choose in disk utility. These are my options:
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)
MS-DOS (FAT)
ExFAT
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Format it from the Linux installer. You cannot format it using Disk Utility because you cannot format a startup volume.

How to Format an External Drive for Windows-only

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