Switching external hard drive between pc and mac

I'm planning on buying about a 160-200g external hard drive. I have a pc with windows xp that I use, and I also have an iBook G4. It's becoming an annoyance moving files that I want on both computers, not to mention I am running out of hard drive space on my iBook. So I figured the best solution was an external drive...however I've been reading some posts and it seems as though you can only format them for a mac or a pc, not both. Can I use an external drive on both my computers with out having to partition the drive? Any other info on this would be appreciated. Also, if I can use it on both, can I hook them up simultaneously? Thanks!

yeah the auotplay search on the windows machine on a
large external can take ages but it only did this the
first time with me, but it still does take a lot
longer for it to recognise the drive.
just hit "cancel" button when autoplay starts up - once autoplay starts mean windows has recognized it anyways - it just is doing that to see if it should start up like windows media player or whatever :-P

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Sharing external hard drive between PowerMac and Mac Pro

I have a western digital external hard drive connected to a PowerMac and one connected to a Mac Pro. The PowerMac can see the Mac Pro external, but not vise versa. Can someone tell me what could possibly be wrong? Both computers have the sharing setup and we have partitioned the hard drives.
Thanks

I'm assuming that you have Leopard on both Macs? When you say that you "see" the Mac Pro's external drive, are you seeing it in the sidebar? And if so is that showing up as the Mac Pro, or as the drive? It seems to me that if you're seeing the one, then what you've done is to "connect as" with the user login, but haven't yet done that with the MacPro to the PowerMac. Have you from the PowerMac clicked Add at the bottom of the User's list to add the right username, or clicked New Person to enter a name and password?

How can I partition my external hard drive into NTFC and Mac OS Extended Journaled?

I brought a 1tb external hard drive from Western Digital. It currently have one partition which is Mac OS X (Journaled). I want to have two partition, one Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and one NTFC for Windows. When I try to choose 2 partition and choose a partition type, I only get the following choices:
1. Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)
2. Mac OS X Extended (Case-Sensitive, Journaled)
3. MS-DOS (FAT)
4. ExFAT
5. Free Space
I don't want to use MS-DOS (FAT) because I am limited to only 32gb of space and I need plenty of space for Windows files.

Assuming that entire drive is GUID and you keep the existing journaled partition.
Make a second partition that is exFAT (more storage ability than FAT) using DU.
Then mount the drive on a Windows 7 and reformat that exFAT as NTFS. But remember that Mac can read and write exFAT natively, but cannot write NTFS without special software. Perhaps exFAT is what you want.
But more the the point: is the journaled partition used as a backup device? If it is, I would leave that drive alone as a backup drive and use a second device for "data only" sharing between types.

External hard drive for PC and Mac, how to format?

Hi
I have 3 laptops at home which I use for different roles:
1. A recent Macbook Pro with Leopard;
2. PC with Windows XP SP2;
3. PC with Windows Vista.
I have just ordered a powerful external drive (actually four drives of 1TB each in one enclosure, configured into the fastest RAID 0 for my work and storage needs.
I will need to edit High Definition movies directly from that hard drive, so I need to have very fast access to all files (up to 100MB/s - have eSATA connections sorted).
Now my question is how should I format the hard drive so it is read and write accessible by all three computers?
FAT32 is not an option because it has performance issues (and I need my HDD to be really fast) and wouldn't support files larger than 4GB (many of my videos are larger)...
I probably also cannot create 2 separate partitions as I need to use the same files with both Mac and Windows systems (not at the same time but e.g. download a 10GB file with my Vista computer while I am away, later edit it with MBP, then maybe record it onto a blu-ray in my Windows XP machine.)
I am sure there are many people out there with both Macs and PCs that need fast external hard drive where FAT32 is not good, so how do you format it?
Many thanks!

Hi,
if what you are looking for is a 4-disk-raid NAS with e-sata connection, you are looking at US$1000 (without drives) for something like the Allnet ALL6700 or the QNAP TS509pro which can use a 5th disk for raid-5 redundancy. (With a 4-disk-raid-0, the chance of losing ALL data is 4 times higher than when storing on a single disk)
With many NAS-devices, you don't have to worry about the format/file system - as capaho wrote, the box does it for You (don't take my word for it for a specific model). My DLink Nas ist Ext3-formatted and runs fine with OS X and/or XP - but can only be connected via LAN.
If you have connected it to a switch/router and you are accessing it via LAN, don't expect a transfer rate of more than 20MByte/s (Gigabit-Lan) unless using professional equipment.

External hard drive for pc and mac

How can I format my external hard drive to use it with both my pc and mac without deleting everything that's already on it?

No. The process of reformatting the drive wipes out all data on the disk drive.
Allan

"How to partition for an external hard drive for windows and Mac backups"

I have two PCs, Dells, and 1 Macbook Pro. They are set up on a wireless network. I would like to set up an external hard drive to backup all three automatically. Does anyone know how I can do this? Do I have to partition the external hard drive?

You would need to partition the hard drive using the GUID partition scheme. Your non-Apple machines would need their partitions formatted MS-DOS (FAT) and the Mac partition would have to be formatted Mac OS Extended. Note, however, that using the MS-DOS format may cause some problems with filenames on an NTFS formatted Windows drive.
Now you could use Mac OS Extended formats on all three partitions, but then you would need third-party software on your Windows machines to enable them to read and write a Mac-formatted drive.

Formatting An External Hard Drive For Windows And Mac

So here is the problem I'm running into. I have a 160GB external HD Passport from Western Digital. When I format it for the Mac, it won't show up on my Windows XP computer at work. If I don format it in Disk Utility as FAT, it won't allow me to transfer large files in OSX.
Is there a way I can get the best of both worlds?

An interesting & refreshingly honest comment (from the author?) about SL-NTFS at http://mac.brothersoft.com/sl-ntfs.html:
"Any encountered problem come from the Apple driver and not from the Preference. If you often need to write on NTFS disk, I recommend you to look for a better solution."
The story behind the story: NTFS is a proprietary file system owned by Microsoft, which doesn't make all its characteristics known to outside developers. Thus, all methods of writing to it rely at least in part on reverse engineering unless they are provided as a part of Windows itself. I'm not entirely sure what the comments about Snow Leopard having this by default disabled capability actually mean, but both the above quote & the fact that it isn't enabled in Snow Leopard as shipped make me wonder how prudent it is to rely on it for routinely saving important data.

Viewing External Hard Drives on both PC Mac and in Parallels.

If someone could give me a clear answer on how to use an external hard drive b/w my Mac, Parallels and my work computer (PC) that would be most helpful.
I bought a external hard drive overseas and was having no problems with it on a PC but when i bought this Mac Book Pro i could only view and retrieve data and not write to it. I then partitioned it in the disk utility (master boot record) and am now unable to see the drive on a PC where all my files are, but it works perfect with the Mac.
I figured it was my dodgy hard drive from indonesia so i just bought a LaCie and i can't see it in the Parallels where i need to use a PC program even when i disconnect and connect when parallels are loaded. I haven't tried it on my work PC yet.
Is it possible to use a EHD between all 3 (Mac, Parallels and a PC)? if so how? and if not what are my options to maximizing the ability to access data on all three?
Thanks would appreciate any insight.
Mac Book Pro Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi and welcome to Discussions,
the reason why your MBP could not write to the HD was, because it was most likely formated using NTFS as file system, which OSX can read from, but not write to.
The best file system for all three is FAT32, which is read- and writeable for all three.
Two problems with FAT32:
1. single files can not be bigger in size as 4GB
2. Windows can not format partitions with FAT32, that are bigger than 32GB.
The first limitation can not be overcome with FAT32.
The second can be overcome, when using Disc Utility from OSX with MBR as partititon scheme and MS-DOS (OSX name for FAT) as file system.
Or you can use command-line program to do this with your PC: http://www.heise.de/software/download/h2format/40825
(Sorry, link is in german).
That way all three should be able to see and use the external HD.
Although it is a fact that Parallels can be picky sometimes with USB-connected drives, but with the newer versions of it, this problem has become less evident.
And since up to now Parallels does not support FireWire, you must USB with it.
Regards
Stefan

Hey, can i clone my Macbook Pro internal hard drive and then paste it all onto a formated external hard drive, then make the Mac use the external as the primary hard drive?

hey, can i clone my Macbook Pro internal hard drive and then paste it all onto a formated external hard drive, then make the Mac use the external as the primary hard drive? please help for i only have around 618mb left out of 189GB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If what doesn't work?
If cloning your internal drive to the external drive is not successful, I expect CCC will tell you so. Assuming that doesn't happen, you will have a bootable replica of the internal drive on the external drive once CCC has finished.
You can then do any of several things:
1. Replace your internal drive with a much larger one (320GB or 500GB, or even larger), and clone the external drive's contents onto the new drive so you'll have all your data in one place. Note that if you do this, you'll also need to buy an external drive that's large enough to back the new internal drive up on.
2. Boot from the external drive as a temporary measure while you clear at least 30-40GB of data off the internal drive, allowing you to keep using it and saving small amounts of data to it. The external drive will then contain the only copies of the files you've deleted from the internal drive, so you'll need a seond external drive large enough to back both the other drives up on.
If you can't comfortably clear a minimum of 30GB off the internal drive, you really need a larger internal drive right now, and you shouldn't bother fooling around with the inadequate one you have — you'll just quickly overfill it again.
3. Replace the optical drive in your MBP with a large conventional hard drive, giving you two hard drives inside the machine. You will then need one or more external drives large enough to back up both of the internal drives.
If you sense a theme here — back up, back up, back up — you are correct. It's flat-out foolhardy to own or use a computer without maintaining complete, up-to-date backups of everything at all times.

Sharing an external hard drive between two macs

Could someone please give me step-by-step instructions on how I can share an external hard drive between my powerpc(running 10.4.11) and my macbook air(running 10.5.6)? I would like to do this with out any external software.

Anthony1900 wrote:
Could someone please give me step-by-step instructions on how I can share an external hard drive between my powerpc(running 10.4.11) and my macbook air(running 10.5.6)? I would like to do this with out any external software.
Simply connect the drive to one of the two computers and there you are!
Use your network and turn on file sharing. It's that simple.

External hard drive not visible on Mac Mini

I just purchased a Mini with Lion. The Seagate Freeagent external hard drive is visible from finder on the Mini but it is "read only" and it is not visible on the wireless network to my macbook. How can I make the external hard drive read write and make it visible on the network?

OS X can read an NTFS formatted drive, but not write to it.
Sharing drives | Utilities - Page 1 | Macworld
If you want to use the drive for sharing files between Window's and Mac's, then MS-DOS / FAT-32 works fine, except that it has a 4GB single file size limit.
If you are going to use the drive exclusively with your Intel Mac's for sharing, backup and booting, then use GUID Partition Table / Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the Partition Scheme and Format.
Format a Drive to Boot Intel Macs | Tips | The Mac Observer

How can I use my external hard drive from PC to Mac without reformatting???

Ok, so I am computer illiterate. I have always used PC's and have just bought a MacBook. When I plug in my external hard drive into my new Mac, it says it needs to be reformatted to use with Mac, which would cause all data to be erased. Is there anyway to get around this?
Please help me!

OK... as Woggledog indicated, OS X cannot write to NTFS formatted drives. NTFS is a proprietary Microsoft format. Conversely, Windows can neither read nor write to an OS X formatted drive.
Both Windows and OS X can read and write to FAT32 (this is a fairly old format). The down side to FAT32 is that the largest file you can work with is 4GB. That is probably fine for most people... but if you're working with large files (videos, virtual drive images, large backup files, etc...) FAT32 is not suitable. There are applications that you can purchase for both Macs and Windows machines that will allow them to read and write to the other format.
An immediate option provided you have the space on either your PC or Mac is to create a folder on either machine and move everything from your external drive into that folder. Then you can format the drive to FAT32 and then copy everything back over to the external drive (and delete it from your Mac or PC's internal drive). It might take some time depending on how much data you have... but you'll only have to do it once... and this is assuming you have enough space on one of you machines to copy the data from your external drive.

Time Machine External Hard Drive (primary storage and backup)

Hi all, Recently purchased a 500G Mac Mini as a dedicated HTPC and have a question regarding Time Machine (I didn't see a dedicated forum page for TM). I have 2 1.5TB external hard drives (Free Agent for Mac). One houses all my iTunes and Movie files (connected to the Minin via FireWire 800), the other is for back-up of the first drive (connected to the Mini via USB). Can Time Machine be used for automatic back-ups from drive 1 to drive 2? Also, Time Machine also back up the Mini's 500G internal HD (assuming there is space/I don't max out the primary 1.5TB drive) as well as the primary external HD (in other words, back up from 2 sources)? Are there any special settings I need to apply for this set-up?

Hello! From my playings around with Time Machine I do not think you can program it to backup 1 external drive to another. Its main purpose is to backup your internal hard drive to an external source. Be careful however because it makes hourly, daily, weekly and i think monthly backups of different sizes, so after a while, if you take something off your computer and forget it, you could loose it. That said, you can drag and drop from one drive to another and still use time machine. For example 'backup' external drive 1 to drive 2, then use drive 2 as a time machine. You just wont have as much room, and time machine will not mess with whatever folders you drag and drop because its not apart of the time machine 'folder'. Hope this helps a bit.

If I have to format an external hard drive to make it Mac compatible, will it delete all the content in the external hard drive?

If I have to format an external hard drive to make it Mac compatible, will it delete all the content in the external hard drive?

As others have said, the answer to your question is a big YES. Formatting a drive will delete everything!
To keep your data, yet reformat the drive for optimal Mac compatibility, you will need to:
1) copy your files to a different hard drive (I would recommend two different locations if you value your data)
2) repartition/format the external drive
3) then copy the files back to the external.
You haven't given details but if you need the external to ONLY be compatible with the Mac (and no longer care if if can be read by Windows), then you will want to partition the drive using the GUID partition scheme, and format as the (HFS+) "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" filesystem. You can do so using the built-in "Disk Utility" application on your Mac (in the Applications/Utilities directory). Here are instructions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph5845
If you need the drive to be compatible with both Mac and Windows computers then please post that so someone can recommend a solution for your specific needs.

External hard drive gone wrong and copied everything to Imac HDD filling it completely

I have had my iMac backed up to an external hard drive for years and randomly the External hard drive is now not readable and it has seemed to copy everything to my imac hard drive filling it completely.
any ideas how to firstly fix the external drive without losing everything on there and second why it would have copied everything to the Imac?
I cant even do a restore from a back up as its all backed up to external drive and its saying its not readable.

If they're still in two folders (iTunes app and Music) on your external, can you not just copy those two back to the internal drive and expect it to work properly again? It's my understanding that music you wish to be active in iTunes must be on your internal drive.

Switching external hard drive between pc and mac

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