PC to Mac external hard drive question

Hi All,
I have an external hard drive that I used as a backup for pics and music from my old PC. I've read about there being issues transferring between a PC formatted external HD and a Mac, so wanted to ask the community if there is anything I should know before plugging it in. Just don't want to lose everything. Thanks!

You should be able to read from it however it is formatted, write as well if it is FAT (read only if NTFS). Plug it in and try.

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Mac External Hard Drive Question

I have a MacBook with a 60 gb hard drive, as well as an external usb drive with 60 more gb of room. The drive inside the MacBook is filling up with all the pictures in iPhoto, and songs in iTunes. My question is: is there a way (i.e. maybe with software) that, when the usb hd is plugged in (which would be quite frequently), that although all the photos and music would be stored on the external drive, they would still show up normally in their respective applications (i.e. iPhoto, iTunes)? Thanks a lot!

Hi
Yes! There are a few ways, but here's how I've always done it. You'll create "links" on your main drive, replacing the Music and Photos folder, which will point to your external drive. Of course, you won't be able to access your library unless the external drive is attached.
This is how you do it: First, quit iTunes. Drag your Music folder to your external drive to copy it. Once that's done, double-check the external drive and make sure the files are there (and that you haven't created an alias, which I've seen happen). Delete your original Music folder. Now, go into Terminal (in your Utilities folder) and type exactly as shown, with the exact spacing, replacing YOURDRIVE with the name of your external drive:
ln -s "/Volumes/YOURDRIVE/Music" Music
(I enclose the first path in quotes in case your external drive has spaces in its name. They're optional otherwise.)
This will create a new link, called "Music", in the same place as your previous Music folder, which actually points to the Music folder on your external drive. Now, when you launch iTunes, it'll happily find the external drive and treat the library in exactly the same way.
(Note: I set the Music folder as a link, but you may want to drill down one more level and set "iTunes" as the link. Why? Well, other applications - such as GarageBand - store their files in Music, and if the Music folder is "missing" from the main drive, they may not work correctly.)
Do the same for "Pictures". Copy, delete the original, and make the link:
ln -s "/Volumes/YOURDRIVE/Pictures" Pictures
Let me know if you have any trouble getting that to work. Good luck!
Matt

I am new to mac and have an external hard drive question

Hello
I am new to mac. I used a PC before and stored all of my files (documents, photo's and music) on an external hard drive. The new mac is communicating with my external and is allowing me to open word/excel documents into pages/numbers. However when I go to save the document to my external the mac tells me "your document could not be saved. you can duplicate the document or discard your changes to close it."
Is this happing because the external is formatted to PC and not mac? Will I need to get a mac external hard drive if I wish to continue to save my documents like this? or will I need to get Miscrosoft office for mac for me to continue to use my existing external? or will i need to duplicate everything to save?
Please help.
Thanks
Janice

Is this happing because the external is formatted to PC and not mac?
Yes that is correct.
Will I need to get a mac external hard drive if I wish to continue to save my documents like this?
If you no longer use a PC you could format this drive for the Mac. However be aware that formatting a drive will erase all the data on it. So you would need someplace to copy the data off this drive to while you did the re-format and then you could copy the data back.
You could get another drive, format it for the Mac and copy the data to it. Then re-format the original drive and use it as a backup drive. Always good to have backups.
Post back with the drive type and size of the current drive, if you are doing backups now and how and if you still need to access this drive from a PC.
regards

Moving Garageband Music Files to MyBook for Mac External Hard Drive on OSX 10.5.8 I'm a musician and need to make space on my mac hd. Is it safe to move music files there and delete them on the mac? Thanks!

use a MyBook for Mac external hard drive.
I need space on garageband or the entire hard drive, since I am getting the "need space on the hard drive" messages.
It's scary to move my precious music files!
How should I move them to the external and feel safe about doing so?
Or are there other methods besides the obvious, clearing caches, deleting the trash and downloads, etc., that are recommended?
I am doing music now and producers are waiting for the new vocals!
Help!
Thanks!

The process is as simple as just copying your Garageband project to the external drive and deleting from the macs hard drive. But before you delete anything you really need to back them up to someplace else also. Having just one copy is not safe. Get another external drive, DVDs or even flash drives, you absolutely need anything important in more then one place.

My Passport for Mac external Hard drive is not recognized

I recently had to purchase a new MacBook Pro, and when I tried to get files off of my Passport for Mac external hard drive. I get an error stating "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." And when I try to initalize, and verify disk, I get this message "Partition map check failed because no slices were found.". I have already updated firmware for the external hard drive. One site I found stated that it could be that the USB port is not strong enough, and I would need a 2.0 Booster cable. Does anyone know if this would work?

What did you old Macbook die from? Likely the HD in it is still ok, yes?
You can remove the HD inside your old dead Mac and put it into a $20 HD enclosure or HD dock, and remove the photos that way, very easy.........IF your old Macbook died from something other than ALSO a bad HD.
You said----my OLD Macbook pro which recently lost video
What happened with your old "dead" macbook? Still have it?

Using non-mac external hard drive with time machine

Is it possible to use a non-mac external hard drive (ie, anything other than Time Capsule) connected to Airport Extreme with Time Machine?
If so, how do I make the external hard drive visible in the back up disk list?

see this [link|http://www.macworld.com/article/132613/2008/03/airporttime.html].

New Mac user-External Hard Drive question...

Just purchased my 1st Mac/the new Mac mini. Arrived today & am very impressed.
Set-up, right out of the box, was incredibly SIMPLE and I cant believe what a little dynamo this thing is! I've thought about 'switching' to a Mac from PC for quite a while, but was always a little nervous, so I've patiently watched & waited from the sidelines- until now - and it was well worth the wait.
My 'question' is, can anyone recommend a good external hard drive I can use interchangeably between my PC & my new Mini? Still using the PC until I get completely acclimated with Mac platform/etc - I'd like something with at least
1TB storage. Thanks!

derosky wrote:
I'm a new Mac user. My question is: Do I need a external hard drive to create a back up? Can I create abackup on a DVD or Hard Drive in MB. Please explain this to me. When I want to configure Time Machine it displays me no Drives to create a back up.
Time Machine requires an external hard drive
You can back up by other means to CDs or DVDs
If you are a .MAC customer you get a decent backup program that backs up to your iDisk and/or to CD-DVD
You would NOT want to back up to your internal drive since that would accomplish nothing - a dead or messed up HD is no good for either the beginning part of the other part where the backup is
LN

Mac Mini has crashed - Disk Warrior and External Hard Drive Question.

I have Mac Mini that has crashed. I purchased Disk Warrior and was able to boot from the CD. Disk Warrior allowed me to see my files again but there is no way I can move them back onto my hard drive. I cannot grab them. Before I go into specifics....If I purchase an external hard drive and try to hook it up to my Mac Mini, will I be able move these files to this new external hard drive? Is this a possibility?
Or will my new external hard drive need to go through a set up phase - which might be impossible since hard drive I'm trying to take the files from is technically dead?
Sorry - I'm a novice at these things.

Hello, no apologies needed for being a novice, great you asked!
YES, depends where you buy the Drive, it may need Formatting first to Mac OS Extended...
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html
These generally come Mac Ready, & get Firewire if you have a Firewire port, much faster...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
Then in DiskWarrior, hold Option or alt key when selecting Internal to repair, that will do the best job of Scavenging the directory & provide a whole new Drive icon to copy or clone your info over to the external drive.

New to Macbook Pro, External hard drive question.

I've just made the swirch to an Apple Macbook Pro from a PC. I've used the PC since the early 90's and all I know is Windows. However I'm finding myself more at home in Lion. My question is probably a simple one so I'll get to it. I have a 1TB Seagate Mac/PC external usb powered hard drive that I've used on my PC for all my iTunes media, 95% of which was purchased from Apple (who the **** knows if that matters but information could be crucial and besides I saw someone else say that in a post, only he found his music, whatever that means, anyway....). Now I have added all files to the library of my iTunes on the Mac while still running them from the external hard drive and everything transferd smothly (see not a complete idiot) but for some reason I can not write to the hard drive. If I try to update an app, delete a fie, rename or otherwis change the file in itunes I get an error claiming I don't have permission to do so. When I look at the drive itself, sure enough it says I may read only. Now the drive was formatted and used on a Windows PC prior to today. What do I need to do on the Mac end to make it read and writable (is that the right word?) so I can enjoy updating my apps or plain getting rid of some old things? Thanks in advance for any help.
New Mac User

Your external harddisk uses the NTFS file system which is common for Windows PCs.
Mac OSX can read from NTFS harddisks but cannot write to them.
For full access you need a third-party helper tool like the free NTFS-3G or Fuse4X or the commercial ones from Paragon or Tuxera NTFS for Mac.
In the long run and when you don't need a "Windows-PC-compatibility" of the external harddisk anymore you should consider reformating/repartioning the external harddisk using the Mac OSX native partition and file system formats. (GUID and MacOS Extended (Journaled)).
But such an action would delete everything that is on that external harddisk so it is not that easy.
Stefan

External Hard Drive Questions

This is more of an opinion question.
I have a MBP with an 80GB hard drive which always seems to be full up. I also have a 250GB hard drive which is nearly full up. The 250GB is not used for backup, i have all my photos and big files on there and none of my files are actually backed up
I was thinking about getting another 500GBish hard drive and using it for more space and also time machine - can it be used for both? Can anyone recommend a good cheap hard drive?
How well does time machine work with laptops? would i have to plug it in every night? does it have a sort of separate trash kept on my computer which is only deleted when i plug in the Mac to the External hard drive. Or is anything i delete without the external hard drive attached deleted forever?
Or, is it worth the hastle and cost to upgrade my MBP internal hard drive?
Thanks very much
Message was edited by: pumpkin person

okay so what would a cheap hard drive from PC World be like - like this Western Digital Elements Desktop 500GB 3.5" - although i imagine that link will probably time out.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk:80/martprd/store/pcwpage.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@2000027328.1216206856@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccjadeejdfdkigc flgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=638717&categoryoid=-32889
I think i want to stick with Time Machine just because it looks so flash and easy to use really, plus i would have to pay for Super Duper
I dont really feel confident switching the hard drive myself, i tried doing the RAM once which is alot easier and i competly messed it up and had to take it to an apple store. How much would an apple store charge if i asked them to do it?
Would it be okay to have time machine running at the same time as also having separate media on the same hard drive? How much space would time machine take up?
Thanks very much for your replies

External Hard Drive Question...

I am looking to purchase an external hard drive to use with my Macbook and my PS3 in order to store my music and movies and share my media between the two. I am also purchasing a larger internal hard drive for my PS3 and it is the exact same 160GB SATA 5400rpm HDD that is in my Macbook so I am assuming since the internal hard drives for the two are compatible that an external hard drive that is compatible with my Macbook will also work with my PS3.
My question is what type of external hard drive will work with my Macbook? I was looking at a Hitachi 500GB SATA 7200rpm external hard drive but when reading a customer review it read something about not being compatible with a particular PC because it is 3.0GBs and the PC would only recognize an externall hard drive that is 1.5GBs.
I am unsure what the GBs feature is or what it means and which is compatible with the Macbook. Does anyone have any insight on this or even better does anyone have an external hard drive that is around 500GB that they know works with the Macbook?
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
1.83GHz Macbook C2D 1GB RAM 160GB HD Mac OS X (10.4.8) 5.5G 80GB White iPod/60 GB Playstation 3 w/ 32" LCD HDTV 720p-1080i

I am not sure I understand what you are asking. If you want to use a HD as an external drive, you have to buy an enclosure as the enclosure has the chipsets to convert the HD connections to USB or FireWire.
You need it.
I would suggest that you get an enclosure that uses both USB and FW as your PS3 has USB and your MB has both USB and FW. FW is faster so that would be nice to use on your MB.

New to MAC, External Hard Drive Problem Transfering files to MAC

Hello All.
First I'm new to the MAC world, just bought my powerbook pro yesterday. Love it. I tired looking for this topic and found similar post but no solutions that I understood.
10.4.9
I have a 260GB NTFS external hard drive with about 100 gigs of info on it. I used it with my PC, running XP Pro.
I want to be able to access that HD from my MAC but all I can do is read, I cannot write. I was hoping it would just hook up to my MAC and I'd be able to read and write.
I do not need to be able to use this HD with my PC anymore. I'm 100% MAC now. I was hoping someone could give me some advice on how to make that happen. Do I have to reformat my HD? What system is that FAT32, NTFS? Something else? And how do I go about doing it?
Thanks to all.
D-Power

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
You are correct, Macs can only write to FAT32, or Mac formatted hard drives with the built-in software, unless the Mac is networked to the PC, as this article describes:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=19652
You can also add Macfuse to the Mac, to connect to an NTFS drive, and that's linked here:
http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/
To reformat the drive, you'll have to erase it with Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility. Thus before you can reformat it, you'll have to copy over any essential information. The Partition section under Disk Uitlity lets you create a GUID Mac formatted partition under its Options button, and that is ideal for both Intel iMacs and MacBook Pros. If the label under the screen says Powerbook, let us know, and we'll direct you to that forum instead, if we can't answer your question here. Apple Partition Map on the other hand is the ideal for Powerbooks, and PowerPC based Macs. Formatting GUID or Apple Partition map, will let you boot from that drive, to verify that a clone backup was done properly depending on which Mac you made the clone for. Formatting FAT32 or NTFS won't let you make a full backup of your internal hard drive, and only will let you use it for backing up user documents. I highly recommend Shirt-pocket Superduper for backing up, as my FAQ* explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
P.S. The MacBook Pro is the Intel version of the Pro notebooks. You posted to the Intel iMac forum. The Intel iMac looks like: . So unless you have that Mac, you are in the wrong forum. There is no such Mac as the Powerbook Pro. You'll see the label in front says MacBook Pro below the screen if that's what you got. Here's the forum for it for category reference:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=190
And pick a forum within it to post a new topic, if I can't answer your question here.
In addition, this nomenclature article will be helpful as well:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=503342&tstart=0
* Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Partitioning External Hard Drive- questions about software & filing system

I just got my macbook and I want to use my older external hard drive to transfer data between the macbook and my PC desktop. I have a Maxtor OneTouch II 300gb with only one partition. I have about 80gb of data already on the Maxtor. So my two questions are . .
1. What is the best software (prefer freeware) to partition my Maxtor and keep the data I already have on it? Or is there a better way?
2. What is the best setup for the filing system for the partitions? NTFS for one and FAT32 for the other or something else? I want to be able to both read & write to the Maxtor from both the PC and Mac. Appreciate any help anyone can throw my way.
Macbook- Black model Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I'm not quite sure of what you mean by:
I would like to avoid
moving all the stuff from the external drive to the
mac, and then having to move it all back onto the
external drive.
But most external drive was formated using fat 32 which theoretically limit to 2 TB and file size limit to 4 GB. Just put a useless file from your pc, and connect your external to your MacBook ,and see if you can copy and or delete that file from your Mac.
You can also check your HD format on PC side by: go to my computer, right click the external HD icon and select properties, and it will shows you the hd was formatted with,...
If you mean you want to format to mac format "on the fly", they might be some utilities for that on Mac side, but I'm not aware of, but why you want to re-format it if the external work for both sides without getting new format, since format that using MAc extended journaled wight result unreadable on your PC side.
Good Luck

Trying to make space on Mac, external hard drive

I just installed a Western Digital My Book Studio 1tb external hard drive to use with my Mac. I am using it with Time Machine, not the software it came with.
My question is: If I delete files from the Mac, will it delete them from the external hard drive, too? I don't want to lose the files, I just need to make space ON the Mac hard drive by moving the files elsewhere. Thank you!

First DO NOT use the WD software!!!! Also when you use an external HD for backup it should be dedicated to that use ONLY. NEVER EVER store additional data files on a backup drive. The reason being is HD's fail so if you use the same drive for backup and normal storage if/when that drive fails you will lose not only the oringinal but it's backup which makes backing up worthless!
A true backup system will have multiple backup strategies on independent media. Many folks (myself included) will use TM for backing up and then on another EHD create a bootable clone backup using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner (both about $30), a bootable clone is useful because in the event of internal HD failure you can boot the machine from the clone and resume work! You CANNOT do that from TM. In the case of backup redundancy is a VERY VERY good thing because backups can and do fail too!
As for your data you want to store on an external HD, get a third EHD (EHD's are cheap so don't be penny wise and pound foolish) and store large libraries such as movies, photographs & music on an EHD. Apple explains how to move those libraries to EHD's in:
iMovie: How to move the Library to an EHD
iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD
iTunes: How to move the library to an EHD

New Mac Pro Hard Drive Question

So I think I understand this whole external parts thing with the Mac Pro. But I do have one question I want to make sure I am not making a mistake on. I got an external hard drive for my Mac Pro using USB 3.0. My thinking was a mechanical hard drive can only transfer data at a certain speed and it appeared that no matter which I picked Thunderbolt ($200) or USB 3.0 ($100) the transfer rate of the data was the same. If buying a SSD I could understand buying thunderbolt but for your typical external 7200 RPM hard drive isn't 3.0 all you need? Am I missing something here, i.e. why would someone pay an extra $100 for a thunderbolt external hard drive that is mechanical and 7200 RPM?

Linc Davis is quite right.
But be careful not to generalize that too much. The new cylinder Mac Pro has enough USB bandwidth available to run one USB-3 both directions at once, full tilt. So when you get more than a handful of USB drives or intend to use it for production at high throughput, it may start to slow down.

PC to Mac external hard drive question

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