Write on external Hard drive MyBook NFTS

Question

I've got a WD MyBook 300 GB which i used on my XP PC. It's formatted in NFTS becauseof the large videofiles. I stored lots of files from my PC. No i use my MacBook i like to use it also as a backup unit for my Mac. In the info panel I can copy files from the MyBook to my MacBook but I can't write on the MyBook. Does anyone know what is the solution for this problem??
eljeebee

Answer 1

Oops, went to edit and it went past my 15 mintues allowed...So read this one instead... Or not. I wish I could delete my own posts....
What files types do you have exactly that are over 4GB each? I have no idea what could be this big other than dealing with possible video files, so I will use this post to show different things that could be possible with them (how to get smaller files or different storage options available for a 4GB file (some options will only be good for up to 10GB maybe).
I deal with a lot of Tivo to PC transfers, or recordings from a TV Tuner to my MCE 2005 laptop, and as far as I can guess, the best or second to best (depending on actual specs for the "recorder") video quality with a 2 hour movie (or 2 hour long tv episodes) would be about 4 (or a bit more like 4.2-7) GBs, which is about the size of a standard non-dual layer DVD (of 4.7GB).
To create a smaller size file, you can lower the quality setting for individual programs or for your default recording quality (if recording stuff yourself) to something like "medium" when used for Tivo, and probably just one level down for TV-Tuner recordings (sometimes they offer more settings to you with a level in between the few that Tivo has). Most likely, while this will reduce the video quality, it should still be good enough to watch things.
Or, you could just burn these items to a DVD (if not wanted permanently, use a DVD - or + RW instead of a DVD-+R) if only slightly larger than 4GB (again up to 4.7 for a standard disk). I can usually get 1 hour to be right around 1000 MB (each movie or show will vary so it might be 940 or 1027). I can get 2 movies onto a DVD (assuming they are no more that 4 hours total combined) or 4 hour long tv episodes.
Or you could possibly try to use a file splitter program and split the files into different sections, and store them this way (use the same application or another to join them back together again later on) but I guess that would only work for just storing items...
Another choice would be portable media, either using Micro Drives (small compact hard drives that fit (usually) into a compact flash (type 2 or maybe both 1 and 2) card slot, and while these cost alot, they are portable, can be used with PDAs and any computer with a compact flash card reader and go from about 4 up to 8 GBs roughly.
You can also then go for another Flash based portable style, like a USB stick/SD/the memory stick (or memory stick pro) like the items that the PSP takes and alot of the new cell phones with card slots. All of these are now being made in much larger capacities these days, and again, while they will start off at a decent price, the higher the capacity it adds, the approx same amount of money it usually adds too - $30 for 1 GB, $60 for 2 GB etc(compared to when it might be just a bit more if you are dealing with stuff like internal or even external hard drives). I have no idea if there is a cut-off limit on the size of files that are put onto these different card formats, you would have to do more research to find out.
Then there are the external hard drives that are "mobile" so they are made smaller and are meant to be taken around with you and your laptop compared to a normal External hard drive. Some are even really small in size (like the size of a Zippo lighter) and the might have a usb plug to attach it with that might wind up around or inside the case.
There are tons of different items available, and if you definitely want to store files or keep on being able to download and then "read only" them, and go back to a Windows computer and change what is on the drive there, you have your choices of types, sizes, how mobile the are, and what's best for short term/long term storage needs.
If you still want the better quality (and still have your way to create/get these files the way you were getting them), or are dealing with large files that are not video items (things that you can help choose the ending overall size of the file) then just have an external hard drive that is used for the storage of these items, and then just attach it (the external) to your Mac whenever you wish to use these files. You won't be able to write to it, but you can still read from it with your Mac, which makes this a good place to store those files that you will only need to read from (and not edit anytime in the future), and possibly would like to keep as a longer term storage item.
And again, you could always go and add new stuff to it if you have a chance to use another Windows computer, but if you don't need Windows applications and just want these larger NTFS files saved and be able to read them (like they are a book but you have no pen to write notes on the pages) and want OSX to be your new OS that you use, then that External HDD option could be very useful.
Congrats if you actually read through all of that. I know your original question was just wanting to know if you could write to your current External Hard Drive which was already answered. Hence the reason to help with other ways to use those files, store those files, or simply access those files.
Unfortunately for you, while you can go and reformat hard drives, to the same type or to another (FAT-FAT or FAT-FAT32 etc), the NTFS file system format does not allow you to reformat to a different format type (you can redo a format to NTFS again, but it can never be switched to a FAT or FAT32 format type after it has already been an NTFS format). So your drive has to stay a Mac read only drive, or you can sell/trade it and just get a new one that is formatted as FAT32 (or is not formatted yet so you can do it as that) instead. You still can't have the large -over 4GB- files then, but that's the reason for the above temp or long term storage work arounds...
Hope this might possibly help you and/or someone else in these forums...