Using external drives that were used with a windows laptop/pc

im interested in getting a mac book pro.
and im just a little scared of not being able to use my external drives with it.
all my drives were being accessed with a windows based laptop or pc.
will i have to do anything to make the drives work with apple's OS?
also is there a way to find out by looking at the mac book pro box in best buy to see if the mack book is the latest model? i would much prefer to buy the mac book from a store rather then online, and leave buying online as a last resort.

There's another issue to take care of besides the FAT32/HFS+ volume format. Do you want to be able to boot off your external drive once you put a bootable clone (i.e., SuperDuper or CCC) on it?
If you do, you have to change the partitioning scheme first. Windows/DOS drives come partitioned using the Master Boot Record (MBR) scheme, but Intel Macs need the drive to be partitioned using the GUID scheme to boot from it. Changing the partition scheme requires a complete erasure of all information on the drive.
To do this, open Disk Utility, select the external device (not the volume, which is indented below the device identifier), click on the Partition tab, click on each partition on the drive (under Volume Scheme:) and remove it by clicking on the - button and confirming the erasure, after which the Options... button will enable. Click on it and select the GUID scheme, click Ok. Then create as many new partitions as needed, which you can use them to create and use bootable clones as desired.
You can have multiple bootable clones on a (large enough) drive, and select which one to boot from by holding down the Option key before the startup sound. If you have an older PowerPC Mac, you need to use the Macintosh Partition Scheme instead of GUID.

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How do I import music from a flash drive that was formatted with a windows PC to my MacBook?

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What I found works for me is to make sure iTunes keeps the music files organzied in the iTunes Media folder according to album, artists, etc. and that it copies the music files there when adding them to the library. That way, if something happens to the library, the raw files can always be re-imported again.

How to transfer iTunes Music stored in an External Drive that I use for my Windows PC and use it in iTunes on Mac?

Hi just bought my first Mac (a 2013 13' MacBook Air). Before I owned this computer I used (and still use) a Windows Desktop. My Windows Desktop (which runs Windows 8.1) has a 1TB Hard Drive that was getting pretty full so I moved all of my iTunes Music, Movies, and TV Shows onto a 2TB external hard drive. This meant that iTunes would open/work even if the external hdd was not plugged in, but only when the external HDD is plugged in do I see all of my downloaded/ripped music/movies/tv shows. Now that I own a Mac I would like to do the same thing - have all of my media on an external drive that is plugged in via USB. So my question is (A) how do I make my itunes media stored on this external HDD accesible to the iTunes on my MacBook, (B) do I need to partition the external HDD to do this, and (C) because I fully intend to keep using the drive with my Windows PC (it stores a complete backup as well as a ton of Steam videogames), will I need to totally erase the drive in order to create such a partition?

Before we can help you, you must tell us how you are backing up your data.
Allan

Can i partition an external drive that im using for time machine? its not an actual apple TM....

I'd like to partition my drive to make a separate place just for itunes music , is this possible? if so, how ?
thanks!

tamckellar wrote:
im just trying to make a separate area on the ex drive that i use for tm, to store just my itunes library .
Not a good idea...If that drive fails (and they All do at some point in time) you will lose both your TM and iTunes Backups.
Invest in another EHD for iTunes.
Moving iTunes > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Also...
Have a look at these 2 Videos...
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-library.html
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-media-to-an-external-drive.html

Previously windows used external drive to be used in mac (and windows)

i´ve just bought a macbook and planned to use a couple of external drives i previously used on my pc with time machine and whatnot. only it seems they are write-protected in mac os, so they can´t be used as back-up drives. do i have to format them again using mac, or do it in windows, or is there a way around this? and can it be done so both mac and windows recognizes it as writable?
thanks

Dave Sawyer wrote:
They're probably formatted NTFS, which Mac OS X can read but not write. There are third-party NTFS drivers, one open-source and one commercial, but you can just reformat the drive as FAT32 (MS-DOS format in Disk Utility) and it will work just fine with both your Mac and Windows systems.
If the OPs intent is to use it with Time Machine, the external drive needs to be formatted HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) via Disk Utility. I believe there is a Windows app that permits viewing of HFS+ drives. Since you have a 'couple' of external HDDs, it's probably best to use a dedicated HDD just for TM backups.

Cannot access old iPhoto library in external drive that i used white macbook

I just bought new MBP and I tried holding down the command key and selected my old white macbook iPhoto library but it does not show any photos- help? (i already repaired permissions based on some instructions i found here - alt+command and double click iphoto) but still does not show the photos.
Please help, I have almost 200gb of photos here

move the library to the new machine - Connect the two Macs together (network, firewire target mode, etc) or use an external hard drive formed Mac OS extended (journaled) and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity from the old Mac to the pictures folder of the new Mac - launch iPhoto on the new mac and it will open the library and convert it as needed and you will be ready move forward.
LN

How do I transfer playlists that were synched with my old laptop's iTunes to this new one?

I have a new laptop and loaded iTunes, did a transfer purchases and my playlists didn't copy over. How can I take them from my phone and load them onto iTunes?

The only way to transfer playlists and to make your iTunes library on your new computer identical to your iTunes library on your old computer in every way is by transferring your iTunes library from your old computer to your new computer per the instructions included with this link.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

HT201250 Is there a size limit for an external drive to be used with time machine?

I have an iMac with a 2TB drive. I have a 2TB WD drive used for Time Machine that is full. I would like to go to the bigest WD (type) external drive that will work with Time Machine. Is there a TB limit for TM in OS X Lion?

Welcome . I have also used a 2TB WD My Book ext HDD for Time Machine backups for the past year and have had no problems. They seem to get a very bad wrap. Perhaps we are a few of the lucky ones. The two brands recommended by macjack are very, very good brands.

If I back up iMovie projects to an external drive does it take the media with it? I want to free up space and remove pictures that were in iPhoto...that were used as media by iMovie when project was under way. In short I want archive iMovie stuff

If I back up iMovie projects to an external drive does imovie take the media with it? I want to free up space and remove pictures that were in iPhoto...that were used as media by iMovie when project was under way. In short I want archive iMovie stuff. If I pull pics out of iPhoto, and later want to drag an archived projet bac into iMovie and the pics are no longer in iPhoto, will I be able to keep working in the project in iMovie?

Very likely not, as the iPhoto's can be used for something else.
More like it took a copy, or it's referencing that spot on the drive in the editable files and most likely made a copy to create a new permanent export file.
Sample one picture and a iMovie file and see what happens.

I have a power pc (g5) computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

I have a Power PC G5 computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 Mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

Hi, likely the easiest is to just poll the drive & get something like this...
Get MacScan...
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/macscan.html
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/
But if you have a good external drive already, just clone it.
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

Go into Time Machine (the program not the bundle on the extrnal disk) and using Time Machine's browser go to the Folder where the library lives. You could look in the library bundle in Time Machine but that won't really tell you much,
If you want to make sure it truely has backed up your library you will need to restore it and open the restored library with Aperture.
If all this still has you confused you need to read up on Time Machine in order to get a feel for how it works, for what it is doing and for how to restore files from it.

HT1751 Hi. I want to transfer my iTunes library from my pc to either my new MacBook Air or ideally to an external hard drive that I use as a backup for my Air. I would want to be able to sync the iPod with the library on the hard drive. I

Hi there
I would like to transfer my iTunes library from my PC to my MacBook Air or if possible to an external hard drive that I use to back up my Air.
I understand that you can't use the same hard drive for PC and Mac.
Would really like to do away with the PC and sync the iPod to the Air.
Am about to purchase a new iPod nano as my Classic is broken.
Would appreciate any feedback please!!

You can't write to it because it's formatted as NTFS which OS X will read but not write to. If you want to continue using the drive with both a PC and OS X you will need to download and install NTFS-3G so you can then write to it from your Mac. You can get NTFS-3G at:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24481/ntfs-3g
If you want to use the drive exclusively with your Mac then move the data off it and reformat it in Disk Utility (Applications - Utilities - Disk Utilities) as Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)

I am new to a MAC. I have an external hard drive that I used with my Windows XP computer. Can I reformat it

I am new to MAC. I have an external hard drive that I used with my former computer running Windows XP. Can I reformat it to use with my new MAC? If so, how do I do it?

Yes you can. See the following:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your 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.
3. 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.
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 Security 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.

How can I access files from a flash drive that were previously saved using a Windows computer? When I attempt to open the file on MacBook Pro, it is asking to "convert file to"; I also have Microsoft Word installed on the Mac as well.

How can I access files from a flash drive that were previously saved using a Windows computer? When I attempt to open the file on MacBook Pro, it is asking to "convert file to"; none of the options I choose work. I also have Microsoft Office (with Word) installed on the Mac as well.

Format the external drive as FAT32 or ExFAT. Both computers will then be able to read and write to it.

HT201250 I had files stored on a hard drive that were not on my Mac. I used the hard drive for my first Time Machine back up, but it was not enough hard drive space to finish. Now those stored files are gone. Is there any way I can recover them?

I had files stored on a hard drive that were not on my Mac. I used the hard drive for my first Time Machine back up, but it was not enough hard drive space to finish. Now those stored files are gone. Is there any way I can recover them? No, they were not part of previous Time Machine backups, and I have checked both the hard drive the documents were lost on and the new one that I now use for backups. Any suggestions would be helpful, as the lost files are old pictures that are gone forever. :[ Thanks!

1. Yes, if both drives are formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
2. Reformat the drives if needed, open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, and remove the drive with the pictures from the list of items set to be excluded.
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Using external drives that were used with a windows laptop/pc

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