Is it possible to format a hard drive with HFS for a Macbook on a PC?

I recently received a Macbook hard drive for my niece. She trashed her Macbook to the point that i is not worth repairing. I usually work with PCs and am a hardware familar with Macs. I have a ineterested party for the hard drive but they want me to erase the drive and reformat it so they can use on a Mac. They will put on the OS. Is it possible for me to erase it and format it for use on a Mac with a PC? I don't own a Mac.

I do not know of any application that will do this on a PC. It would be almost trivial for the new owners to do this on their Mac, however. Disk Utility (located in /Applications/Utilities) will see the drive. Select it and click the Erase tab. Set the format to whatever you want and click Erase. Takes a few seconds.
Best of luck.

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HT1635 How do I know which Hard Drive to get for my MacBook 2006? The old Hard Drive is a Toshiba (MK8034GSX) S/N Z6APT2XUT 9H5 EC. A?

How do I know which Hard Drive to get for my MacBook 2006? The old Hard Drive is a Toshiba (MK8034GSX) S/N Z6APT2XUT 9H5 EC. A?

I've put a 250gb 7200rpm drive in an Early 2006 with no problems.
For a new hard drive try Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Dr ives&Order=PRICE
Or OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/
Here are instructions on replacing the hard drive in a MacBook with a removable battery. http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=45088
To transfer your current hard drive I like the free application Carbon Copy Cloner. It makes a bootable copy of everything on your hard drive http://www.bombich.com/index.html You'll need a cheap SATA external hard drive case. Put the new drive in the case then format and partition the new drive and clone your old drive to the new one. Check that it's set up right by booting up from the external drive. Then replace your old hard drive with the new one and put your old one in the external case.
Here's a cheap SATA external hard drive case on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/HDE-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B001AAVA08/ref=pd_bxgy_pc _text_b
If you don’t have the tools to open up the MacBook OWC has a set for $5
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TOOLKITMHD/

Can I Replace my Early 2009 Mac Mini Hard Drive with my Early 2011 Macbook Pro Hard Drive?

I am replacing my 2011 Macbook Pro Hard Drive with a Solid State Drive. Instead of keeping the hard drive on an external enclosure I was wondering if I can use it to upgrade my Mac Mini's 160GB hard Drive with the one Im taking out of the MBP. And if so, is there any special formatting I would need to do?

It should work fine. No special formatting required. It actuality, I suspect that if you connect the HD, the Mini will boot into the OSX that was on the MacBook.
When you replace the HD in the Mini just be careful with the antennas and their wires and connections I accidentally disconnected the wifi antenna on mine when I replaced the HD.

Is it possible to use multiple hard drives with iphoto?

I am pretty new to Mac's so bear with me, I used to use multiple hard drives on my pc with my photos seperated by catagory in different hard drives. Is it possible to run iphoto with multiple hard drives without the photos loading onto my Imac? If so, How do I set it up. I have tried importing to a external drive, but when I check the file path of the photos it shows my Imac hd in the address. I seriously dont know why I cant just add the external hard drive as a library and have Iphoto work, Help

There are instructions - and not the caveats - on how to do what you want below.
However, you'e not quite grasping iPhoto:
I used to use multiple hard drives on my pc with my photos seperated by catagory in different hard drives.
When you do this, you're using the Finder (or file manager) to categorise the photos. All well and good, but why? That's exactly iPhoto's job. iPhoto is a database designed to help you manage your pics - including categorising them.
Anyway:
*How to do it:*
Simply go to iPhoto Menu -> Preferences -> Advanced and uncheck 'Copy Files to the iPhoto Library on Import'.
*What Happens:*
Now iPhoto will not copy the files, but rather simply reference them on your HD. To do this it will create an alias in the Originals Folder that points to your file. It will still create a thumbnail and, if you modify the pics, a Modified version within the iPhoto Library Folder.
*Some things to consider:*
1. Importing and deleting pics are more complex procedures. You have to to put the files where they will be stored before importing them. When you delete them you'll need to remove the files from the HD yourself.
2. You cannot move or rename the files on your system or iPhoto will lose track of them on systems prior to 10.5 and iPhoto 08. Even with the later versions issues can still arise if you move the referenced files to new volumes or between volumes.
3. Most importantly, migrating to a new disk or computer can be much more complex.
4. *Because iPhoto has no tools for managing Referenced Files, if, for some reason, the path to the photos changes then you could find yourself resolving aliases for +each photo in the Library+ one by one.*
My own opinion:
I've yet to see a good reason to run iPhoto in referenced mode unless you're using two photo organisers
If disk space is an issue, you can run an entire iPhoto Library from an external disk:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
If you're concerned about accessing the files, There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
*For Users of 10.5 and later*
You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
*For users of 10.4 and later* ...
Many internet sites such as Flickr and SmugMug have plug-ins for accessing the iPhoto Library. If the site you want to use doesn’t then some, one or any of these will also work:
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. However, if you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
*If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running*:
For users of 10.6 and later:
You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu. Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and later:
Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
If you really want to spread your photos across volumes like this, Aperture would be a better fit.
Regards
TD

What is the best external hard drive to purchase for a Macbook Pro with OS X 10.7.5?

I'm looking into purchasing a new external hard drive for video editing purposes. I own a Macbook Pro which operates on OS X Lion (10.7.5). I would like at least 1TB of memory (2TB maximum) and a FireWire 800 port for a reasonable price. Any suggestions of brands or specific models?

LaCie is a good brand name.
Avoid WD "combos" ... the pre-packaged boxes with WD drives. WD tends to pick controller/interface cards that fail and scramble the disk data.
But you can go to macsales.com and buy a "OnTheGo" enclosure and add "bare drives" from WD as their drives are good.
I ahev this "toaster" that allows easy chaning of "bare drive": http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/FWU3ES2HDK/

Looking for a Hard Drive RAID System for 17" MacBook Pro, any Suggestions?

I purchased my 17" MacBook Pro in Nov. 09 and it does have an ExpressCard/34 slot. What I am looking to do, is purchase a 4TB Caldigit VR External Hard Drive and put it on RAID 0. I Love the performance fact, but I don't feel too safe, because if that drives go down, there goes my data. So what I want to do is use Carbon Copy Cloner and find another External Hard Drive that will backup my Caldigit VR, since it will be RAID 0. Any Suggestions would help out very much! I am using this RAID System to store my HD Video using Final Cut Pro Studio. I know I can set up the Caldigit VR as a RAID 1, but I would rather set it up as a RAID 0 and have another hard drive back the data up. Let me know if you have set up a RAID System for your MacBook Pro and what you did. Also what express cards do you recommend?
Thank you,
Chad

There is a difference technically between this iStorage unit and the Cal Digit stuff. Cal Digit includes a hardware raid controller, and removable drives. The iStorage Pro unit relies on your computer's CPU to control the raid... so will tax things like render times... plus just to play a software raid can take as much as 30% of your CPU's cycles to do it...
That said, it may not matter if you're working in lower resolution files, or lower data rate stuff, either company makes great gear though. Both are intended for use with video systems. But ya do get something for the extra money on the CalDigit gear.
But if all you want to use it for is backup of data... anybody's drives would do this... doesn't have to be a raid either. Single FW drives will certainly hold the data as backup even if they won't play it without dropping frames.
OH, and Colorado... join the Denver FCP User Group... http://www.dfcpug.com We meet at the Colorado Film School in Denver on a monthly basis.
Jerry
Message was edited by: Jerry Hofmann

Please help, which internal hard drive is best for a MacBook Pro mid 2010?

Hello,
My hard drive on my macbook pro is done for it's 3 years old and I am getting the beach ball constantly, with loads of page outs. I can't afford a SSD so other than that whats the fastest drive I can get? I am guessing a 1TB 7200? Can anyone recomend any? These are the ones I found so far, any thoughts/ advice would be really apreciated.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/MacBook-MB470LL-Laptop-Internal-7200rpm/dp/B00DF2GKO0/re f=sr_1_6?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1381746696&sr=1-6&keywords=MTXtec
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Seagate-inch-5400RPM-Drive/dp/B007NVGWV0/ref=dp_ return_2?ie=UTF8&n=340831031&s=computers
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC729ZM/A/1tb-sata-hard-disk-drive-kit-for-mac -pro - this is so much more expensive and doesn't give the spec. I would like to avoid that markup if poss, without having an inferior product.
Many thanks.

My personal experience is as follows. I initially installed 1 TB HGST 5400 rpm HDDs and then were replaced by 1 TB HGST 7200 rpm HDDs. Both performed satisfactorily.
Currently I have 1 TB Seagate SSHDs (Hybrid) in my MBPs and they have reduced the boot and shutdown times by over 50%. They are also satisfactory.
Note that there will be cheerleaders and detractors for all brands of HDDs. I merely report my empirical results.
Ciao.
Note that I also have a 2010 MBP as well as a 2011 MBP.

Which external hard drive is best for the MacBook Pro? Can I use the SuperDrive?

I am looking to buy a new external hard drive for my new MacBook Pro and just want the best one for this laptop. Can i use the SuperDrive? It looks like the SuperDrive is for the MacBook Air but wasn't sure if it could be used with the Pro as well.

Apple does not make external harddrives, except maybe the TimeCapsule which is Router/HD combo for use with the TimeMachine software.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/mac_accessories/storage
There are many to choose from, and you will I sure get much advise across the board.
I would stay away from WesternDigital.
Othere then that OWC are a dependable supplier.
I am using a 1TB/QuadInterface/DiskGo/ by Edge they had a very sweet back to school discount promo.
Look around for your "sleek and thin in design" and a good deal as they all go on sale periodicly.
Think along the lines of USB 3, Thunderbolt if your machine supports it or at a minimum FireWire800.

Formatting a PC-formatted External Hard Drive to work in Mac OS

So I have a 300 gig external hard drive formatted for Windows XP with NTFS. I recently got a Macbook Pro and as it stands in Mac OS X the hard drive is read only. I can copy files from the hard drive to my Mac, but I can't edit files on the external HD or copy from my Mac to my external HD. This of course is a problem and so I need to reformat it to work in Mac OS. While I will not be using PCs anymore, if possible I would like for the external HD to be Mac and Windows compatible.
First things first I have to get all 300 gigs of files off the external HD in order to reformat it. This will be a pain but I have the means to do this. Once I get everything off, how and with what method should I reformat it to work in Mac? Should I use the HFS file system or MS-DOS? Also, what utility in Mac OS lets me reformat it. As I said, I probably won't be hooking up this external HD to Windows anytime soon, but if there is a way to format it in Mac to work with Windows, then fine.
So what exactly are my options here? I understand that I can format the hard drive in Mac OS with either MS-DOS or FAT32. I just don't know which is better/faster/more reliable in Mac OS, as I'm still a Mac newbie. I don't have files that are over 2 gigs as far as I remember, so I don't think that will be an issue. If it helps, it is mostly media files (videos, music). I've read up online about formatting a drive to work with Mac OS, but there's just so much info I'm getting confused. Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.
So from what people are saying, I can format the drive in Mac OS as FAT32 (aka MS-DOS) and it will work fine between the two operating systems.
I've been reading more though and it seems that FAT32 drives can not be larger than 130 gigs? Or is that just for partitions.
I have a 350 gig hard drive and I don't plan on having any partitions. Can I just format the drive as FAT32 in Mac OS and the whole 350 gigs will be available? There's so much conflicting info in articles I've been reading.
thanks

How to Format Toshiba Hard-Drive for Mac with Parallels?

Hello,
I recently bought a Toshiba Hard-Drive with the following features:
500GB
It is a Canivo Basics 3.0
It is USB 3.0 and 2.0 portable hard drive
It has already been formatted NTFS for Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8
The box says that it can be reformatted for Mac
I have a Macbook Pro with Retina Display that I bought this year in late March/early April.
It runs OS X Mavericks, and Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac.
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.
I have never formatted a hard drive before, and I would like to use a completely safe software, or no software at all, if it is possible.
I am sorry but I don't have a very high knowledge of this.
Thanks,
Sandy-Wood

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.
If you were using Boot Camp, I would advise leaving it formatted as NTFS and purchasing NTFS for Mac to access the drive on both OS's. You can mitigate that by formatting the drive for Mac:
Good luck,
Clinton

Cannot Write Files to my Formatted External Hard-drive

I've been struggling with this problem for awhile now. I have a 200GB external hard drive that I used on my windows box. I have music on it and would like to use it on my macbook. When I plug it into my macbook, it mounts and shows up on the desktop. I can go into it in finder, and view the files and folders that are on it. I can also create new folders. However, when I try to read or write files to/from the hard drive, finder stalls at 'zero KB of x MB written'. If I try to copy a file to the drive, the file will be created but it will be of zero or very very small size.
I reformatted the drive with Disk Utility and also via the command line with 'diskutil reformat /dev/disk1s5' and these reformat the drive successfully, but the same problems occur.
What could be going on? The drive is not faulty, and it mounts just fine. I just can't read or write from the drive in OS X.
Please help! Thank you in advance.

The NTFS file format is not really that compatible with macs (you can only "read" files, but not "write" to them). Also, while you can reformat a hard drive with the same or different file type, the NTFS type is the only one that will not let you go from having a NTFS formatted drive and reformatting it as a different format (you can do it again as NTFS but that's it). If you have a FAT or FAT32 formatted drive, you can go and reformat it as NTFS, but once it has had the newer windows format style done to it, you can't change it to anything else.
Also, as I think you said you could read from it at first, and then were not able to?, this would be because the reading of the files would have been fine, but as soon as you went and reformatted it again (which basically wipes the slate clean), you lost all the data that possibly was on there, and now as an NTFS format with no data, therefore nothing for a Mac to get a chance to "read", you have nothing and can only use this as an NTFS drive for windows (or any other possible OS that is NTFS compatible).
Sorry about the bad news... Try to sell it to a windows person and get another external hard drive (formatted as FAT32 or not pre-formatted yet, then format as FAT32) so that you can use that with your Mac...

Will formatting my hard drive remove my bootcamp partition? Also, downgrading...?

Hi!
I have 2 partitions, one for Mavericks and one for Windows 8. I would like to do a clean install of Mavericks. I have already redownloaded Mavericks and I'm about to put it on a USB so I can boot from it and reinstall the operating system. I read somewhere that to format your hard drive and do a clean install, you have to boot into the USB and then you'll have an option to format your hard drive from there. I'm not sure if that's correct so that's another thing I would like to inquire about.
Another thing I would like to know about, although not relevant to my previous questions, is this: Is it possible to get a free download of Mountain Lion (legally, of course)? I would much rather do a clean install of Mountain Lion than Mavericks, but I've searched google and there seems to be no way to get it for free. However, I did read that it's possible to get it free within 30 days of purchasing your Mac but that 30 days have long passed for me.
So my 3 questions are the following:
1) Will formatting my hard drive remove my already existing bootcamp partition? (If it does, I don't mind but I would still like to know)
2) How exactly do I format my hard drive?
3) Is it possible to get Mountain Lion for free so I can downgrade?
Thanks to anyone who helps!

Formatting a HDD will delete all user data on the drive. Yes you can do it on an older MBP by connecting to it via USB, but do you really want to? If the repair shop says the HDD is functional, there is no need to wipe it and reinstall the OSX. The problem then is something else.
It would be helpful if you indicated the EXACT model/year MBP that you have.
Ciao.

Format new hard drive

Hello,
I have some issues with the new hard drive I am currently installing. My old hard drive crashed on my MacBook Pro (Mid 12) and I bought a new hard drive to use. The problem is that I can not erase and format the hard drive to work with the operation system in the Disk Utility. I managed to partition it on a different mac, but then only changed the external settings. Is there any way I can change the internal settings through a USB with a different MacBook?
Thank you for any suggestions!
Tobias

Do this:
Install OS X Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your newly installed 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.
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. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.

HT5628 Is it possible to format entire hard disk and install windows 8 only in mac mini?

Is it possible to format entire hard disk and install windows 8 only in mac mini?

You can, but it's not recommended. If you are going to use Windows all the time, at least give some GBs to OS X, because you will need it to install firmware updates.
Use Boot Camp Assistant to create a Windows partition. You can find it in /Applications/Utilities. Then, follow Apple's steps to install Windows 8 > http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_10.8.pdf You must use a 64-bit version, and note that not all Mac minis support Windows 8. Check if yours is supported > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5634?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Boot Camp Assistant will ask you to download the Windows support software onto a USB drive. You will need to install it in Windows, so it's very important to download it. If not, you will have problems in Windows.
If your Mac doesn't support Windows 8, install the Windows version the site gives you

Is it possible to increase the hard drive capacity on my Macbook Pro?

is it possible to increase the hard drive capacity on my Macbook Pro?

If you feel confident, you can do it yourself.
If not, Apple can do it for the small matter of money.
If you go to http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/
Find you Mac on this page it has videos that show you how to replace the disk drive.
After you view the video then you can make your mind up as to which is the correct way for you to go.
Alllan

Is it possible to format a hard drive with HFS for a Macbook on a PC?

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