New external harddrive already formatted as FAT32 for OSX

I have decided to purchase a new external harddrive already formatted as FAT32 for OSX for me to move files between my pc amd macbook. what would you recommend that is functional and not expensive-less than 150 bucks? 50 gigs would be sufficient for me. please advise.

thanks guys!
which of these 3 would you recommend for my
purpose?as a photographer my purpose is moving back
and forth high rez photos (none in the 4g range
though) between my pc at work(dell XP intel 4 ) and
my new macbook at home. i have to pay for the EHD out
of my pocket. the advantage of the best buy options
would be i save on delivery since there is one close
to home.
if i buy one of these could i just plug and play it
or do i have to do something more to make it Fat 32
and speak to my pc and mac?
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computi
ng/MEXPFW80GBST/
Good buy, not the best quality (chipset)
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&la
ngid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10074956&catid=20238
This one needs an external power supply. I don't think you want to lug that back and forth to work with you.
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&la
ngid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10077276&catid=20238
Pricey for 40GB's but looks portable. Wish I knew if it was a 3.5" or 2.5" drive. If its a 3.5" it too will need an external power supply.
With Erik's comment in mind, this might be your best bet (my pick, budget in mind):
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MOFWU60GB54H/
Greg
You might have to format any of the drives you purchase, but its no biggie

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Hi,
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cosifan wrote:
I want to back up the TC's internal harddrive to the new external harddrive through TimeMachine. How do I make it happen?
you can't. time machine will not backup networked drives such as the TC's internal disk. 3rd party applications (for instance ChronoSync) may be able to do that, though.
An alternative way would be replace the TC's internal harddrive with 2/3TB one.
click here for information.

My time machine backup external hard drive has failed. I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it?

My time machine backup external hard drive has failed. I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it

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Because ALL Hard Drives fail. They have been since they were invented. It is just a fact of Spinning hard drives.
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Formatted for Mac is not a format - for iPhoto you MUST verify that it is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled)
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other media questions need to be ask in the forum for the software you use for them - this forum is only for iPhoto and the above instructions are only for iPhoto
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Swappable external hard drive format pc/mac for atv2

i would like to point itunes on a mac and pc to a single swappable external hd for use with atv2. the storage will be mainly used for atv2 encoded sd home video, stored sd movies, and music. all individual files will be less than 2gb.
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magnumip wrote:
Alley_Cat wrote:
I wouldn't get hung up on eSATA, unless you want it for any particular reason, USB 2.0 will more than suffice for ATV2 streaming and may well be cheaper.
Good to know, I didn't know this. So a 5400rpm hdd would not make any performance difference either?
Should be fine - I've streamed from USB 2 and FW drives directly connected, even some small portable USB drives powered by the bus which probably have 4200 rpm drives.
iTunes store content, even HD, will not exceed 5Mbps on average because this was the max spec for AppleTV1 h264 - while AppleTV 2 is more powerful and may well support 20-30 Mbps if things were encoded as such you're still looking at only a couple of MB/sec of data transfer
Coming to think of it, a portable USB 2 drive might even be worth considering if you want to quickly swap with minimum fuss, and they come up to 1TB in size these days.
Organise your material in a hierarchical folder arrangement and alter iTunes Preferences not to copy added content to the library - keep the library on the Mac/PC then import from the external drive which will add references to the external library and not copy the files.
What is the easiest way to import batch movies.
Not sure what you mean - do you mean how to import multiple files - I generally drag and drop into iTunes - I know it works with mac, don't see why it wouldn't on PC.
Also I would like to transfer a music library on os hdd and consolidate all on external hd. Any easy ways to accomplish this or a good tutorial available.
Probably simplest just to manually copy the files from the iTunes media folders, but you should be able to do so by changing the iTunes Pref for the media folder and then choosing the Consolidate option which will move the files over. Personally I tend to manually do these things, but I would advise you to make a backup just in case, whatever you do.
AC
Thanks in advance AC

ID CS3: how to input new data into already formatted table

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I am backing up my macbook 10.5 to an external harddrive probably formatted for a PC. I was trying to move instead of copy and the folder partially copied then said i did not have permission to move all my files.

I am backing up my macbook 10.5 to an external hard drive probably formatted for windows. it was let me move most of my files. however i tried to move instead of copy a very large folder (60gb) and it transferred most of the files onto the external hard drive then gave me an error message saying i did not have permision to move all the files. i am worred that some were moved and some were not. it is showing all files when i checked for some of them
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Typically when you drag files from one drive to another, Macs copy them, not move them. You usually have to copy them and then delete the originals.
Which files were you trying to back up? If this involved system files or application files then there may have been hidden files, or files with certain permissions set on them.
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Need help with new external harddrive

I have a 4 yr old emac & I bought a Seagate 250 gb(usb 2.0) external to use with time machine.
What do I need to do to set up as I am unfamiliar with formatting & using partitions.
Also, if I want to upgrade the internal drive does my current system configuration limit me to any size HD? Would adding another external firewire drive be my best solution?
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To prepare a new drive do this:
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. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. 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 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.
You can install any 3.5" ATA hard drive. There is no capacity limit except that of the maximum hard drive size you can find. Upgrading is not particularly easy since the eMac was not designed for user upgrade other than adding RAM.

External Harddrives - Manufacturers using the words 'for Mac'?

Hi,
I've learnt about the difference between PC and Mac HDD formats, and was about to buy an external HDD when something got me questioning my knowledge. I see that some manufacturers use the words 'for Mac' in their product name. And that the models with 'for Mac' in the name are about 20% more expensive than the same model name without the 'for Mac' wording. Eg
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=700
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=719
The manufacturer specs don't seem to explain anything, so I wanted to ask here: are these products exactly the same, except that the 'for Mac' version comes pre-formatted in HFS Plus?
Can I just buy the standard model, and then do the formatting myself with Disc Utility?
I questioned my knowledge, because it seems daft that a manufacturer can charge 20% more just for pre-formatting the disc in the correct format. Is there anything special about the 'for Mac' models?
Are there any other considerations I need to make? Is there anything special I need for the disc to work with Time Machine?
Thanks,
Yeti

Hi Yeti
Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can reset the Partitions Scheme and Format of most all off the shelf External HD's. I have several that came MS-DOS/FAT-32 that I have changed to GUID Partition Table/Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
See > http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/partitioningtiger.html
Some manufactures include partitions with windoz backup programs that should be eliminated, as they are of no use to you anyway.
Time Machine will format the drive to it's own liking, however I always reset the Partition Scheme and Format to make sure it is properly cleaned and setup.
See: Time Machine 101 > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
and Time Machine -- Frequently Asked Questions > http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018
Lastly you might want to consider a desktop drive over a portable for Time Machine, Time Machine need lots of room and you can get more GB for your money.
Dennis

New external drive choices -- what's best for Aperture?

Hi. Hardware, I'm sorry to say, generally makes my head hurt.
Today Apple's delayed Thunderbolt-to-FW800 adapter made it appearance in Apple Stores.
Purchasers of the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display (rMBP) now have a nearly full set of options for using external drives with Aperture. I had been using a stable of FW800 drives (with my MBP 5,5). I'm looking for recommendations on what to upgrade to.
(Aside: I've been too busy to post a comment recommending the rMPB. It's my main Aperture machine (I use Aperture every day, but work in two different locations) -- I'm _very_ happy with it. Highly recommended. My machine is 16 GB RAM and 500 GB SSD. But there's still this ports problem ... .)
The options I know of:
- use the new adapter and use the old FW drives. These can be daisy-chained, as before. Afaik, the total throughput is limited by what TBolt allows (which may be more than enough).
- move drives to USB3 enclosures. I did this as a stop-gap measure while waiting for the adapters. I got my enclosures from OWC. The drives are not daisy-chainable. The rMBA has two USB3 ports.
- buy eSATA hubs and use the eSATA ports on the drives. This one just became available. Expensive, imho. Not sure how the Mac will handle it (I always have Originals referenced to external drives; I sometimes have Libraries on external drives).
- move drives to TBolt enclosures. These are slowly coming on the market. They are very expensive (imho).
- replace the drives with TBolt drives. Also very expensive.
- replace the drives with USB3 drives
I'm looking for a reasonable middle-term (3-5 years) solution. Fwiw, I'm not convinced that external drive throughput is even an issue with running Aperture. It seem to run well on my rMBA even when a large library is connected via USB2. (I assume Aperture is good at taking advantage of the 16 MB RAM and the SSD "scratch drive".) I need to have one USB2 port, and one TBolt port, available at all times (various peripherals; the TBolt is for external monitors).
Thanks!

Good stuff. Thanks. Agree in principle re: "TBolt for displays; USB3 for storage".
I did get a USB 3 hub. (Amazon link. There is a 7-port hub as well.) Highly recommended (at least for rMBP users). This works well with how I use Aperture: I have several external drives with mostly Referenced Originals and some Libraries. Since I rarely use more than one of these at a time, it doesn't matter that the hub throughput is limited to a single USB 3 channel. The USB 3 hub, for me, functions as a quasi-data-server for Aperture, and takes up only one of the two USB 3 ports on the rMBP. (Fwiw, with the rMBA I don't think there's much reason for storing Referenced Originals on a fast drive; because of the efficiency of the way Aperture caches, USB 2 may be fast enough. I haven't measured this yet.)
I mentioned eSATA only because almost all my external drives came with eSATA ports and cables. I have never used eSATA. At this point, I don't plan to.
I have moved a few drives into USB 3 enclosures (purchased from OWC). With the USB 3 hub, and the newly-available Apple TBolt-FW800 adapter (which supports daisy-chained FW devices), I am no longer in any practical way limited by the four ports on the rMBP (2x TBolt, 2x USB 3). Whew.
I backup my system drive wirelessly to a Time Capsule every night (by design, the machine doesn't have access to the TC during the day when I'm working), and use SuperDuper to backup all Libraries and Referenced Originals to specific sparse bundles kept on leap-frogging external drives, with one always off-site. At this point I make no practical distinction between FW800 and USB 3 drives for back-up, as they are all fast enough and the back-ups run unattended. (But USB 3 seems to be much faster.)

New External harddrive

Using two internal harddrives in my G5, one I keep just for editing and clean it after every project(the other is the original 250gig with OS on it). I just bought a 500gig LaCie external firewire harddrive and was wondering if I am on the right track. I want to partition it and have one side for a static OS and the other for backing up my editing harddrive. I can't sleep in the middle of a large project wondering if the drive will hold till I am done. Thanks for any info.

Hi! "I want to partition it and have one side for a static OS and the other for backing up my editing harddrive"? If your meaning to partition it so you will have one volume as a bootable backup of the main boot drive and the second for a backup of the editing drive then the answer is yes and you have a good plan. You can make the bootable backup using the disk utility, CCC or SuperDuper. I usually have at least three bootable backups these days myself. I've started having a third partition that contains only a fresh install of the os, no apps except for utilities such as Diskwarrior which is a must have app. That way I have an emergency partition for repairs and also in case I ever want to start from scratch again. Tom

Read only permission and already formatted to fat32

Please need some help
Message was edited by: Shinjitom

it say the usb need to be reformatted but i cant cause it says `'
Volume Erase failed with the error:
File system formatter failed."
and it is brand new 4gb usb but dont know why it is saying last opened 1969

What kind of format is best for OSX?

I just bought a new iMac loaded with OSX Tiger. I have an existing external hard drive which I used from my PC machine and I want to use it in my iMac. Which format do I format the disc into? There are so many options and I'm unsure which is the best. OSX Extended, OSX Extended (Journaled), etc, what is the difference of these formats in terms of usage?
I would appreciate some help.:)

The default file format OS X Extended Journaled is the most common one to use. It provides support for OS X file system, as well as supporting file journalling, which can help restore files that may become damaged if the computer should freeze, or shutdown unexpectedly. Journalling keeps a list of files that have pending modifications to be made, but have not yet had the data written to the disk. Should your iMac freeze up on you, then the next time you start the iMac up, it checks the current state of the hard drive against the journaled list. If a file didn't finish being updated, the iMac completes the needed updates to the file system.
The disadvantage to journaled file systems, is that they are slightly slower then non journaled counter parts, however, they have an advantage when it comes to protecting data integrity of your hard drives.
Journaled file systems have another slight disadvantage, they tend to be more difficult to repair when a major drive failure or corruption occurs. However, this should be a non issue, since you should not be relying on data recovery utilities for major problem, but should instead have adequate backups in place.
Tom N.

Setting Up New External Hard Drive to Backup Windows and OSX

I've just ordered a Western Digital My Book Home Edition 500GB external hard drive from Amazon for £79.17 (c/w 1m eSATA to eSATA cable and shipping in the UK). For the time being, I intend to use it mainly for backup. My MacBook3,1 has a 149.05GB internal drive, which is nearly full. I'd used PC's for more than twenty years before rare financial circumstances enabled me to take the plunge and migrate to the Intel-based MacBook last year. Although the migration process hasn't been without teething troubles, I'm glad I've got a Mac and pleased to say I now feel as comfortable using it as I used to feel with PC's. (But it has taken a year of concentrated effort.) The relevance of this is that I have an awful lot of work in old Windows-based programs, which I need to keep backed-up and accessible. The MacBook's internal hard drive currently has 87.88GB dedicated to the Macintosh HD and 60.86GB dedicated to Windows (Vista, Business edition).
Could you advise me, please: how should I set up the new hard drive with a view to using it to backup the Mac with Time Machine while dedicating a partition for Windows? Actually, I have another desktop with Windows XP, which I'd also like to back up. That hard drive (the XP machine's) is 80GB. Presumably, I'll need to set up partitions for: 1) Time Machine, 2) OSX.5.5 bootable, 3) Windows Vista (on the MacBook) and 4) Windows XP (on the old desktop). If I give 80GB to XP and 70GB to Vista, that leaves 350GB (probably closer to 320-or-soGB in reality) for the MacBook. I don't use virtual machines or any other software to access operating systems - just reboot through BootCamp. What's the best way to go about doing this?

Check out the following Apple Support article to see if it will help: AirPort: How to mount an AirPort Extreme USB hard disk volume in Mac OS X and Windows

New external harddrive already formatted as FAT32 for OSX

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