Will files saved on an external HD, formatted for Mac, be readable on a Windows machine?

Only if the Windows computer has software such as MacDrive installed or the drive is hooked up to a Mac or AirPort Extreme and shared over a network.
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My iPod is formatted for Mac and can not get Windows iTunes to recognize it. How do I format it for Windows?

I need serious help! I can not seem to restore my iPod to Windows as it is in MAC format. The windows computer "dings" when plugged in, but is not recognized in iTunes or computer. I have no problem when it is plugged into my MAC!!! PLEASE HELP, this is frustrating!

Hey KitKattz44,
Thanks for the question. The following resource may help to resolve your issue:
iPod: How to determine your iPod's disk format
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1335
You cannot use an iPod whose disk is configured for Macintosh on a Windows-compatible computer. However, you can restore the iPod disk to use it with a Windows-compatible computer. To do this, see "Restoring iPod to factory settings." While a Windows formatted iPod may work on a Mac, Apple supports this configuration only with iPod shuffle.
Thanks,
Matt M.

Have airport extreme, square model, have a external harddrive to use as back up(formated for mac)hooked it up to the usb port in back. can't find it on my computer. what am i doing wrong

have the airport extreme, square model. have a external harddrive formated for mac hooked up to the usb port in back.
i can't find the harddrive on the computer for back up in timemachine. what am i doing wrong?

First, if you are not aware, you need to know that Apple does not officially support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme.
That may be part of the problem here, so if you want to continue to try this, you need to understand that there are no guarantees of success.
Some users do seem to be able to make this work, but most have some problems and some....like me....have nothing but problems when they try this.
If you want to continue to try this, the first thing to verify is that the drive is formatted specifically in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Have you verified that the drive is formatted correctly by connecting it directly to your Mac and using Disk Utility to check?
Some drives that are advertised as being "compatible for Mac" are not formatted correctly in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Time Machine has no chance of success unless the drive is first formatted correctly.
I would also ask that you consider leaving the drive connected to your Mac for Time Machine backups. That will be supported, and is a far more reliable way to keep backups if your data is important to you.
Next, we need to know what operating system you are running on your Mac. If you do not know, click the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen and then click About This Mac. Post back with the OS X Version number that you see there.

I did a backup from all my files saved in old external hd to time capsule. After that double checked and recover one file from TC to mac air and it worked just perfect. Today went through TC to recover another file and none of them were there?

I did a backup from all my files saved in old external hd to time capsule. After that double checked and recover one file from TC to mac air and it worked just perfect. Today went through TC to recover another file and none of them were there?Anybody has a clue what happened?

renatocremonese wrote:
I want to use it for backing up my Mac.
It's good for that . . .
But also I don't keep all my stuff in my Mac.
But not for that.
This older and not day-by-day usage files I want to store in the time machine.
You can do that (see below), but how are you going to back them up? If your only copies are on the TC, when (not if) it fails, you risk losing your only copy of the data.
Is it possible to split TC in two partitions.
No, but there are some workarounds, including making a fixed-size disk image on it to "reserve" some space. See #Q3 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.
But you still won't have backups of the stuff you put there.
You don't say what kind of Mac you have. If it's a desktop model, just keep the external HD connected to it, and let Time Machine back it up along with your internal HD.
However, it sounds like you may have a laptop, where that's not going to be convenient. In that case, your best bet might be to copy the external HD to a disk image on the TC as above, then keep the HD in a safe place.
To finish, when i enter the TC and go through the Time line how can I get a file from there and move it back to Mac hd.
Via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
You might also want to review the Time Machine Tutorial, and perhaps browse the rest of the FAQ.

Cannot backup Windows 7 (dual-boot) image to external HD (formated as Mac OS Extended)

I cannot backup my Windows 7 (dual-boot) image to my external HD (formated as Mac OS Extended). I installed MacDrive 8.0 hoping to solve the problem but Windows 7 gives me an error when I try to create a backup: "...drive is not formatted as NTFS, cannot use as backup...".
I also tried making an Image of the Windows 7 partition through Disk Utility but was not allowed to do so.
I am not sure where else to go from here. I need to keep my external hard drive formatted as Mac OS Extended but I also need to backup my Windows 7 partition. I only have the single external at the moment. Is there a way to backup my Windows 7 partition?
Thanks

Winclone will backup your Windows partition to a Mac formatted drive.
Just search for Winclone on this forum and on Goggle.

Since I upgraded to 10.9.5, my macbook no longer recognizes my external hard drive. How do I fix this? External hard drive is a 1TB Toshiba formatted for mac. Worked fine until latest upgrade.

Since I upgraded to 10.9.5, my macbook no longer recognizes my external hard drive. How do I fix this? External hard drive is a 1TB Toshiba formatted for mac. Worked fine until latest upgrade.

Solved the problem by dumping my external HD onto another computer. Re-formatting and re-installing the data. Not what I wanted to do but it solved the problem.

External drive is suddenly read-only, yet is formatted for Mac

I've had a 1TB external hard drive for the last year and never had a problem with it until now. Suddenly, it is showing as read-only, however, it's formatted for Mac. How am I able to fix this? Do I have to re-format it?

Usually that means the drive is malfunctioning. Back up all data on it, if you haven't already done so, then erase and restore. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it.

Using IMOVIE '08 to import from DV camera to 'BUSLINK' external hard drive( formatted for MAC ) but no success and kept getting this message: The import was canceled. You may not have permission to write to /Volumes/BUSLINK/iMovie Events.localized. Thanx

Using IMOVIE '08 to import from DV camera to 'BUSLINK' external hard drive( formatted for MAC ) but no success and kept getting this message: The import was canceled. You may not have permission to write to /Volumes/BUSLINK/iMovie Events.localized. Thanx in advance!

I finally got a representative that was able to help me, she had me go to Get Info, by right clicking iMovie from the finder, and I had to click on Sharing & Permissions>Everyone>Read & Write

Music Server Can't See External Drive Formatted for WIN with Disk Utility.

Is there any reason an external drive formatted for WIN (MS-DOS(FAT)/FAT32 or NTFS w/ NTFS-3G/MacFUSE) with Disk Utility would not work for intended purpose? I have a music server (Bryston BDP-1) that uses an attached USB drive for storage/playback of music and can only read FAT32 or NTFS formatted drives. I've tried both and neither is readable by the BDP-1, yet I have no problem reading/writing to the supplied 2GB Thumb Drive (FAT32), as well as another 2GB Thumb Drive (FAT32). Get Info shows; "FAT32" for all drives formatted as such.
Note: From what I'm told the BDP-1 uses a scaled down version of Linux for it's OS. Isn't that UNIX? Shouldn't it be compatible (Read/Write) with other platforms (i.e, Mac)? Bryston says the reason they use it because it's Open-Source. Does Linux only work FAT32 or NTFS?
I do have Fusion/XP, also access to WIN PC's, but I just hate to use it when I shouldn't have to. It makes no sense why the drive can't be read by the BDP-1 when formatted for WIN under OS X.
And there was one other issue, after the third try to format fro WIN the external drive suddenly began making faint clicking sounds instead of a spinning drive sound only when plugged into BDP-1 USB port. But it works fine when connected to iMac FW.
HW Specs:
Drive: G-Drive Mobile USB/FW 750GB

Exchanged drive. Works now.

External Hard Drive Formatted For Mac

Hello,
Can some one please point to a link to an external hard drive that comes formatted for Mac out of the box? My 90 year old mother-in-law needs a time machine backup and would freak out if I tried to guide her through Disk Utility to reformat the external drive she just bought from Radio Shack. So an out-of-the-box plug-n-play drive would work best for her.
Does anyone know of any? I know LaCie is/was Mac focused, but I need to have a drive that is ABSOLUTELY Mac plug-n-play when it gets delivered to her house.
Thanks!

Do you Skype with her? Seems like you could just do a Skype call and share her screen so you can literally tell her to click this, click that. I've done exactly this with my mother across the Atlantic to solve a different problem. If she's capable of plugging the new drive into the Mac (which it sounds like you intend her to do anyway), I'd have to believe she'll be able to follow your instructions if you can tell her which options to click. Formatting a drive is relatively few clicks. And, I think this wouldn't be any harder than figuring out how to setup Time Machine...
https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10022/how-do-i-share-my-screen-in-skype-for-m ac-os-x

External HD compatible for Mac and PC

Hi, anyone knows how to make an external HD compatible for Mac and PC?
I tried formatting in ExFAT and MS DOS but on Mac does not let to copy big files (aprox 4GB) onto the HD. And if I format on Mac Extended, Windows doesnt recognize.

Mitshko wrote:
Thank you OGELTHORPE and JoeyR,
Yes, I tried formatting in Ex FAT, MS DOS, and Mac Extended and did all kind of tests trying to copy from one computer to another. I have being reading in some forums also that some people have the same problem.
Formatting in FAT 32, I had to use fat32formatting.exe from this link http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm because the HD is of 500GB.
But now I have the problem that big files cannot be copied on Mac (aprox over 4GB).
ExFAT cannot be done on PC, I guess is because of the size of the HD. I only tried formatting Exfat on Mac but PC does not recognize.
Fornat it exFAT ON a Windows PC. If you are running Windows XP you need a update from Microsoft so XP can read/write and format drives exFAT. You also nee to be running either XP SP2 or SP3 to install the update from Microsoft.
Let me add that formatting it exFAT on a Mac can cause problems. Windows may not see the drive as formatted. That is why I say to format it on a Windows PC. Then both Windows and Mac will see the drive.

URGENT HELP: Need to reformat an external hard drive for Mac/Win!

We got a Desk Hammer external hard drive and my hubby chose to format it as Mac Only when it first initialized. We needed it to be formatted for Mac/Win usage. Now we cannot figure otu how to reinitialize and reformat it. It's been years since I messed with his Mac. Help--right now we just have a big old doorstop instead of a hard drive! BTW Desk Hammer is no help with support (I guess that's why they were on sale); their website isn't even complete!

Use the Disk Utility application found in /Applications/Utilities to format the Drive as MS-DOS File System. This will be readable by both Mac and Windows platforms.
Hope this helps! bill
1 GHz Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

How do i reformat an external hard drive for mac

i just bought a new external hard drive to back up my mac but it is not formatted for mac yet

You can do that in Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities).
With your new drive attached, choose it on the left. Choose the Partition tab. Decide if you want one or more partitions. Give each partition a name and choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format. Then click on Options and choose GUID partition scheme. Click on Apply. Your new hard drive will be erased and formatted properly - when done, it is ready for whatever you want to put on it (you do not need any software that may be on the drive currently).

Reformating my external hard drive for Mac

Hello - I have a Maxtor OneTouch II Media external hard drive that arrived formatted for a PC *(MS-DOS File System (FAT32*). I want to convert the hard drive to be formatted for *Mac OS Extended (Journaled)*. I have already copied everything off the drive and have erased via "Erase" in Disc Utility. Now that it is blank, how do I format it for Mac use? Or do I just do another "Erase" and select "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" this time?
Pls. advise...thanx!

Hi,
In Disk Utility use the "Partition"-Tab in the right pane instead of the "Erase"-Tab.
Use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as file system and then click on the 'Options'-Button and set the partition scheme to GPT (GUID Partition Table).
Most likely right now the Partition Scheme of the external HD is set to MBR (Master Boot Record).
Regards
Stefan

My Ipod is formatted for Mac, but I need to download audiobook from Windows

My Ipod is formatted for my Mac, and my entire library is in it. However, I need to download a audiobook from my library , and when I connect my Ipod to my Windows PC, it is telling me that I need to restore it , which means that I will
loose what I already have on it.
Help
Mac OS X (10.4.9)

If your iPod is formatted for Mac it won't run natively on a PC because the Windows OS does not support the HFS Plus file system and therefore will not see the drive. There are third party programs that will allow you to use a Mac formatted iPod on Windows. XPlay and MacDrive for instance get good reviews. XPlay is an iPod specific program, MacDrive is more general and lets you access various types of Mac formatted drives on Windows such as CDs, DVDs, hard drives etc:
XPlay 2
MacDrive
You can read another user's experience of using XPlay at this link: iPod on Mac and Windows

Will files saved on an external HD, formatted for Mac, be readable on a Windows machine?

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