Windows formatted drive

I have an external hard drive which is Windows formatted. I have pictures, a lot of pictures, on this external drive. I would like to copy these pictures from my external drive to my Mac. Unfortunately, when I connect my Windows formatted drive to the Mac, it will ask me do I want to format my external drive.
How do I get the Mac to recognize the external hard drive without formatting the drive?

After connecting the external drive, open a Finder window and see if your external drive appears in the Finder sidebar. If so, select it and copy the files you want to your internal drive.
OS X does not ask you to format the external drive if it is formatted for Windows. If OS X asks you for this, ignore it. Also, OS X can read Windows formats

Similar Messages

Set up a Windows formatted Drive as an Airport Extreme USB drive

I have a USB hard drive that was formatted as a Windows NTFS drive. The drive does not have data that I want to keep. I assume I have to format it as a MAC drive to use it as a Airport Extreme USB drive. What is the best way to set it up? Should I format it with the drive attached to my Macbook Pro or can it be formatted attached to the Airport? Are there any things I should be aware of in attaching this drive to the Airport?
Although I don't think it matters, this drive is a Vantec Nexstar MX400 enclosure with two 3TB hard drives configured as a 3 TB RAID 1. If anyone has additional information I should know about working with an MX400 RAID 1 drive in formatting it for a Mac it would be appreciated.

You need to format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), FAT16, or FAT32 while it's plugged into a computer. exFAT, NTFS, and non-journaled HFS+ won't work.
You may also need to use an USB hub with its own power supply.
(111341)

Disk Utilty - Reformating Windows-formated drive to MAC OS Extended Format

Can a drive previously formatted as Windows FAT32 or NFTS subsequently be reformatted to the MAC OS Extended format, via OS X Panther Disk Utility's Erase and/or Partition options?
If so, is it straightforward to do, or are there any potential pitfalls?

Hello! Yes, it should work fine to use disk utility to format the drive to HFS+. Tom

How do I transfer data/videos from a Mac-OS formatted portable hard drive to a Windows-formatted portable hard drive?

I was trying to drag-and-drop the contents (most of them are downloaded torrent movies) of my Mac-OS formatted portable hard drive to my Windows-formatted portable hard drive. It didn't work. How do I go about this?

Hi FornPLAY,
Your Mac will not be able to write to an NTSF formatted drive, as Mac OS X only supports reading from NTSF natively. You have a few options to be able to use that Windows formatted drive. You could try reformatting the drive using Disk Utilty to a format like MS-DOS (FAT). That would allow for both Mac and Windows cross-compatibility.
~~
Austin

Mounting a windows formated external drive

I'm running Lion on a Macbook Pro. It doesn't recognize one of my external drives that was used on my windows based laptop when connected via the USB cable. Is there a way to mount this external drive on a mac?
Thanks,
ssc

@Shootist007, thanks for your reply, yes, it's a USB dirve (seagate) and I do have it connected to the wall outlet via AC adapter. It was originally formated to work with my windows machine but I thought the Mac could read windows formatted drives....?
fotoz

Retrieval of info off Windows Formatted External HD

Hi guys not sure if I am posting this in the right spot. Hope so.
I've got an external HD that I used to back up my windows PC. It's got a lot of pictures that I still want.
I no longer use any windows PC's (except at work.)
I haven't tried yet, but what would happen if I plugged it into the USB of my mac?
Would it just want to reformat to Mac and in doing so, erase all the data presently on it?
Could it read it somehow? Thanks.
P.S. Running windows on my mac isn't the option I am going for.
Thanks for any help. --

NTFS (a.k.a. Windows) formatted drives can be read from any operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux, or at least Ubuntu), but can only be written to by Windows. If you want to be able to r/w to an external drive, copy all the data down to a local drive and then format to FAT32. I think FAT32 has a file size limit of something like 2GB/file, but as long as you're not downloading large ISOs or pirating Windows or something, you shouldn't have a problem.

Can i use windows migration assistant to transfer files from my windows formatted external hard drive to my mac?

I have a windows formatted external hard drive and a macbook pro. I was wondering if i could use the windows migration assistant to transfer files from my external hard drive to the mac

No.
Just connect the drive to your Mac. The Mac can read most Windows formats (it cannot WRITE Windows New Technology File System (NTFS) formatted drives.

How do you reformat a la cie external hardrive to Mac mini. The hard drive is currently in windows format.

HHow do I re format a la Cie external hard drive for my Mac mini operating system. The La Cie currently is showing a windows format.

Choose Utilities from the Finder's Go menu, open the Disk Utility, select the drive, click on the Erase tab, and reformat it.
(120904)

Backup and Restore image fails 3TB Advanced Format Drive Windows 7-32 SP1

Windows native backp fails to create an System Image, or a Complete PC Backup.
This occurs in Windows 7, 64 bit Professional, Windows 7, 32bit Ultimate, Windows Vista Business, 32 bit. It occurs in 6 different computers I've tried. All the backup drives are 3TB. I have tried Seagte USB and Hitachi USB drives. 4 of them. The Windows
7 Ultimate, 32bit machine has SP1. All operating systems are using the current Service Packs, and all of the MS Updates including all of the recommended harware drivers. All of the systems are using the latest BIOS, firmware and OEM drivers as well.
It looks like the issue may be causes by a deficiency in Windows related to the Advanced Format drive spec. All of the computers that qualified had the AF hotfix applied; Advanced Format Drives 512e 4k, Vista
and 2008 - KB2470478, Windows 7, and 2008 R2 KB982018
Error messages follow:
The Backup Failed.
Error message: One of the backup files could not be created. (0x8078002A)
The request could not be perfomed because of an I/O error. (0x8007045D)
This deficiency seems to apply across the board to different hardware manufacturers of external hard drives.
From what I have heard, Western Digital may have a format utility that addresses this issue, but only for WD drives.
Help.

Hi David,
Did you have found any error message？
Check if all the files have been created on the hard drive.
Check the Volume shadow copy service in services window. To check follow these steps:
i.
Click Start and type services.msc in the search box
ii.
Search for the Volume shadow copy service
Make sure the start- up type is automatic. Steps to set the services to automatic
i.
Search for the service
ii.
Right click on the service
iii.
If the service is stopped then Start the service
iv.
Select Properties
v.
And in the Start-up type select Automatic
This is the most definitive answer I can find so am taking this as the answer.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/windowsbackup/thread/889b01be-d333-4fc7-b005-e12b7b236ad7
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsbackup/thread/444e8ea2-6417-45dc-83d4-f5ae45bbaa02
Thanks,
Jeff
如果您对我们的论坛在线支持服务有任何的意见或建议，请通过邮件告诉我们。
立刻免费下载
TechNet
论坛好帮手

Formatting External Windows Hard Drive

Whenever I connect an external hard drive that I normally use with my Windows PC, my MacBook makes the external hard drive "read-only." How can I change this to read and write?
Also, eventhough its in "read only," can I format the external drive?
THANKS!

Your external hard drive that Windows formatted most likely formatted the drive in the NTFS partition type. OS X can only read NTFS, not write to it.
OS X allows you to use the Disk Utility application to format hard drives, including external hard drives, but you cannot format it in NTFS.
OS X can format in FAT32, another format that Windows uses. If you want to ultimately have the external hard drive readable by both Windows and OS X, FAT32 will work.

HT4796 Can i use windows migration assistant to transfer files from a windows formatted hard drive to a mac?

I have a windows formatted hard drive and a macbook pro. I was wondering if i could use the windows migration assistant to transfer files from my hard drive to the mac

No.
Just connect the drive to your Mac. The Mac can read most Windows formats (it cannot WRITE Windows New Technology File System (NTFS) formatted drives.

Cannot reinstall windows 10 Technical preview after getting black screen at start. will not let format drive or install

cannot reinstall windows 10 Technical preview after getting black screen at start. will not let format drive or install

you may need to use a DVD from an earlier version of Windows or slave the disk to wipe it with disk manager
Place your rig specifics into your signature like I have, makes it 100x easier!
Hardcore Games Legendary is the Only Way to Play!
Vegan Advocate How can you be an environmentalist and still eat meat?

Not enough disk space on a Windows-formatted External Drive?

I keep getting 'not enough disk space' message in Tiger when trying to back up my data to an external HD, formatted for windows (I share it with Bootcamp-based windows partition).
Now, the disk is 100 GIG and I'm only trying to back up 10 GIG. The disk is almost empty, and the disk's trashcan is empty.
I had same issues with a flashdisk at my father's. It was 2 GIG, and I was copying 500 megs of pictures. OSX kept telling me the disk didn't have enough space! Embarrassed, I had to copy photos in batches of 20. Of course, my Mac was ridiculed thoroughly.
I appreciate any help!

Hello,
Your problems may very well be related to the NTFS file system used by Windows.
The Mac OS has very limited support for NTFS partitions. It cannot write them at all. And, it only supports reading to a limited extent.
If you want to be able to read and write Windows formated partitions, you should be using the FAT32 format for your Windows drives. The Mac OS can read and write FAT32 drives without any trouble.
But, there are some Mac OS files and archives that absolutely cannot be written to a FAT32 drive either. So, you cannot backup your entire Mac OS hard drive to a FAT32 drive.
The Mac OS "PKG" file type will usually refuse to be written to a FAT32 drive. And, there are a lot of PKG files in the Mac OS installation. And, many of the software update downloads are also in PKG format.
If you want to backup your entire Mac OS hard drive to another drive, then that drive will also need to be formatted as a Mac OS X Extended volume.
But, if you are just wanting to share files between a Mac OS X and Windows XP installation, then you can safely use FAT32 for that shared drive / partition.
I hope this helps.
As for the comments that you endured, you should have asked him if his PC would even try to read a Mac OS formatted drive / disk. See how much laughing he does then.
Now, there are special programs that will enable Windows to read Mac OS disks. But, Windows cannot do it on it's own.
But, that brings us to another option for you. If you wanted to have all your other partitions fully compatible with the Mac OS (as in formatted as Mac OS X partitions), then you could do that. Then, use a program such as MacDrive on your Windows XP installation to enable you to read and write the Mac OS formatted partitions.
You can read more about that here:
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/bootcamp.asp
I hope this helps.

Recovering Windows 7 with advanced format drive failes without SP1

I have a dv6-2150us and the hard drive failed. I acquired a new drive and ran recovery disks. Unfortunately many features do not work correctly on an advanced format drive in Windows 7 without SP1. The key feature is Windows update does not work which prevents me from upgrading to SP1. I tried many fixes to Windows update and downloaded SP1 from Microsoft's site, but they all fail to install because update fails to run.
Any advice? I tried to install a fresh ISO of Windows 7 SP1 which works fine, but I would rather not pay for an OS I already own. My Windows license key doesn't work with the Windows 7 SP1 install.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

dv6guy,
Did the HP Recovery Discs actually fail to install??? Does the recovered install fail to boot completely or correctly. Or does the recovered install not only have isues with Windows update and/or other software???
If the recovery completes and you can enter Windows please try to use ABR Beta With Windows 7 Support to backup the installed HP OEM SLP key and HP OEM SLP certificate. Once you have these, save the complete ABR folder to an external location, like a USB stick. Next, install Windows 7 SP1 from your fresh ISO. Do not enter a product key when requested and do not allow Windows to try to activate the computer. Now, restore the key and certificate to your fresh Windows 7 SP1 install. Verify that Windows is activated. Post back and let us know if this succeeded or failed
Please see this forum thread entitled How to Install Windows 7 Without the Disc for more on the subject.
Please send KUDOs
Frank
{------------ Please click the "White Kudos" Thumbs Up to say THANKS for helping.
Please click the "Accept As Solution" on my post, if my assistance has solved your issue. ------------V
This is a user supported forum. I am a volunteer and I don't work for HP.
HP 15t-j100 (on loan from HP)
HP 13 Split x2 (on loan from HP)
HP Slate8 Pro (on loan from HP)
HP a1632x - Windows 7, 4GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6130y - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6320y - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 240
HP p7-1026 - Windows 7, 6GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6787c - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 240

When I hook up my iPod, windows popup says I need to format drive E: should I format?

when I hook up my iPod, windows 8 popup says I need to format drive E: should I format?

when I hook up my iPod, windows 8 popup says I need to format drive E: should I format?

Windows formatted drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for