Hardware :: External HDD - Extend It - Format A USB HDD In FAT32 Using My Mac?
Oct 15, 2009
Probably about 10 years ago I was a big techie with DOS and all that, and now I seem to have forgotten how to do anything!
Two questions.
i) My iMac, which I bought last year has run out of HDD space. What can I do to extend it? I really can't work out what I have filled it up with as I have only
8.5gb in my applications folder
4.7gb in the systems folder
9.1 GB in the libary
40.18GB in the users bit (of which 32gb is music on iTunes)
Other than the standard applications I have a DOS emulator, Office and Spore.
But apparently I have used 200gb?!?!? I can't find where this disk space is being used up. Any ideas on what I can check to clear this out? I put a partition in to possibly install windows, how do I check that's been removed correctly?
Also if I plug in a USB drive to extend the memory how can I get the mac running as if this was actually the normal drive for this computer?
And question ii)
I have a PS3 which I want to back up my info on, but its on a FAT32 format. Can I format a USB HDD in FAT32 using my Mac?
I am using this guide to get a new HD into my PS3: [URL:...] It says that the HD I back my PS3 up to needs to be formatted to FAT32. I have an external HD that I use with my mac, its partitioned into 4 parts. I have one partition which I don't use which I want to back my PS3 onto. In Disk Utility I select that partition and I only get 4 option under the Erase tab, 4 different Mac OS Extended options.
I was using my external hard drive with my mac and its formatted in the MAC HF(something like that) file system. I would like to format that external hard drive such that the file system is either NTFS or FAT32 so that I can use it on my windows partition running on boot camp. I am asking this question since I am planning to get a new HD for my mac and use the old one with windows.
I'm going to buy my first Macbook this weekend and I'm trying to get myself ready so that I don't have to waste precious playing time on stuff like this I have an external hard drive filled with music, videos and files. I would like to keep using my drive on my mac to access my files and save backups etc. The hard drive is in NTFS format and from what I understand the mac will be able to read but not write to it - which isn't what I want. Ideally I don't want to lose the content on the drive, but if I have to I could slowly copy it all onto dvds. If possible I also want the drive to be compatible with Windows so I can plug it into parents/friends/uni's computers and still be able to view/add content on rare occasions. What format should the drive be and how do I do that? (I think I can manage to do it once someone points me in the right direction)
I'm using an external drive through FireWire 400 on my MacBook Pro with 10.5.5. It's a 320GB with 22GB in "free space" and the rest formatted with HFS+ (used as a Time Machine backup drive). I want to setup that 22GB as a FAT32 partition to be writable in both Windows and Mac. Normally, it sounds like I'm supposed to use Disk Utility on Mac and just choose MS-DOS(FAT). Unfortunately, that choice is not presented. I can choose four different Mac-based file systems, but not FAT. Why doesn't that show up as a choice? I've tried leaving it as free space and using a PC to format it. I've tried formatting it as a Mac-based drive and using the PC to format. I've even tried installing MacDrive on the PC and using that to format it as FAT32.
i'd like to format my lacie external hard drive with two partitions:
1. HFS+ partition as a bootable clone of my internal drive
2. FAT32 partition readable by any windows (and mac) machine
i'm creating my partitions with disk utility, but i hit a snag when choosing a partition scheme...apparently i cannot choose a different scheme for each partition.
so when i format the drive with GUID, the FAT32 partition is not even recognized by windows XP. but when i format the drive with master boot record (MBR), the HFS+ partition is not bootable...
I have an external multimedia disk currently formated in NTFS microsoft format. I'd like to be able to copy content to it from my Mac and a PC so I thought to format it in FAT 32. can anyone tell me if there is a size limit to FAT32. what are the major limitations of FAT 32 vs NTFS
I have an external hard drive that I was previously using on PC, having attempted to use it on a Mac, it will not write to it. I've found that I have to format to FAT32, which I think i can just about manage (yes, im a girl) but my concern is, if i format through the MAC, will i then lose what's on the hard disk as the tab says 'erase'? I have a lot of images on the hard disk so am a little petrified! Any advice for this really basic question would be appreciated!
i'm looking into buying a 500GB WD My Passport Studio Edition for my 17" MacBook Pro...
I've been reading online that people are having issues with the FAT32 Formatted Passports not being recognized with the FireWire but work fine via USB 2.0...
is there truth to this problem with the FireWire and is anyone else having such issues? I've been all over and see the problem, but no solution or results.
i've installed a new Hard disk on My G5 that was before installed in a pc (NTFS), now i'm trying to format it in FAT32 in the Mac!! no way!! i don't know how!
I noticed in disc utility that under the erase tab it has the option to format a drive to fat32. If I create a windows partition using bootcamp and then go into disk utility and erase to fat32 will this allow a boot into the xp drive? My xp disc keeps restarting before it gives me the opportunity to format the drive to either a ntfs or a fat so I need a way around this?
I've got an external drive (320GB) that I'm trying to format as FAT32 using Disk Utility, then create a large (as in, most of the drive) HFS partition.
The problem is that no matter what I do, it will only format the drive as Mac Journaled. It lets me select other options (Mac, FAT32) and goes through the process with no errors or warnings, but when I click on the drive it remains Journaled with a partition of whatever I just selected.
I am sure beyond the shadow of a doubt that I am selecting the drive itself, not the partition, when formatting. This is extremely frustrating. Google searches aren't turning up any clues and I don't know what to do.
I have other external drives formatted as FAT32 with a large Mac partition so I know it's possible.
I need to do this so I can mount the drive on a Windows machine.
i have a 500GB HDD which has two 250GB partitions, one which is working for time machine, and another one for storage, that one for storage is NTFS, so i can just read but not write files, which is very annoying.
Can i just reformat that partition without loosing my time machine files? I already copied the Storage files to my internal HDD, also which is the best format? I want to be able to read/write stuff both on PC and Mac
Is there a way to copy my Time Machine files to my computer, reformat that partition too to FAT32 and pass them back?
I formated a new 1.5TB WD hard drive, using the eSATA cable - in the FAT32 format so I can use it on my PC as well. (It was formatted on the MAC)
I was working on the Hard Drive via eSATA and the express card. Then the Hard Drive was accidentally unplugged. Subsequently, my MacBook Pro didn't like that and gave the warning message to properly eject ... too late! I restarted the MAC and it still won't recognize it - I've tried eSATA, USB, firewire- and nothing. The hard drive was all 3 connections. So, I tested the HD on a friend's MacBook Pro and the hard drive is recognized without any hesitation and it works fine. So, there is nothing wrong with the Hard Drive - its my MacBook that won't recognize it.
The HD won't even show up in disk utility of my MAC. I've restarted many many times and I've tried every port available.
I'm running Snow Leopard on my new Macbook Pro. I've got a 1.5TB External hard drive that I'm trying to figure out how to format in HFS+ with Apple Partition Map. I can figure out how to format in HFS using Disk Utility, however it still does it in GUID format and I do not know how to do it in Apple Partition Map.
Googleing this for hours has lead with all kinds of information on how to go to GUID FROM Apple Partition Map but not the other way around. I know GUID is the new hottness.. but this drive will be used exclusively to connect to my XBOX 360 and it supposedly only reads HFS+ when its formatted with Apple Partition Map. (I have tried it with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID, and the XBOX does NOT recognize it) I do not want to use Fat 32, (I know that that is the other major option) beacuse it limits file size.
I have a macbook pro with an external harddrive formatted to MS-DOS FAT32 and want it to accept files bigger then 4gb (ie. HD Movies). Is there a way to change the individual movie files to be accepted by the Harddrive or do I have to reformat the harddrive completely?
If I do have to reformat my harddrive what format should i do so?
I want my external harddrive to be able to work on Windows and MacOS as well as accept files of any size (ie. over 4gb at least)
I'm using Macbook Pro(2010, 10.6.6) and a PC with Windows 7. I need to transfer image files from both laptops to an external drive. I formatted the external drive in exFAT and wanted to know if there are any problems that might occur in the future. I already know there is an issue with such programs as Carbon Copy Cloner. I primarily need the drive for backup of the images and not system backups. Do you have any file corruption or other problems formatting in exFAT?
Simply looking for an application, preferably free, that will allow me to write to my NTFS external HD. I had this external as FAT32 before which was not problematic until I started downloading 720 and 1080 .mkv movies that were larger than 4gb. So I reformatted to NTFS which will accept files larger than 4gb but realized that OSX don't be got the ability to write to NTFS.
I am trying to reformat a 500 GB USB HDD to one FAT32 partition so that I can use it on a Mac and a PC. I have seen many references to using the disk utitilty and creating a partition in MS-DOS format, but my computer does not have that option. The only four options I have are Mac OS Extended, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Unix and Free Partition. Am I missing something here?
I have virtual dj on my system and I am trying to set up a karaoke system. The one problem I am having is when I hook up the vga to the mini dvi converter and the other end to my TV monitor. What is showing on my TV monitor is an echo of what is showing on my computer screen and not what is showing in the video window (which are the words to the song that is playing). I was told that I need to have the desktop extended and that would separate what is showing on the computer screen and the small window with the words.
I just bout this Western Digital External Hard drive, Passport SE. Anyways, I formatted it to MS-DOS (FAT) so I can use on mac and/or windows. One of the other main reasons I bought it was so I could use it to watch videos on my Xbox 360.
Now I've seen tutorials online with windows how to re-format it to FAT32 so it works properly on xbox 360 but cannot figure it out on mac? On some of the tutorials they use certain programs to do it, is there something like that for mac I can download? Is fat32 and fat the same? I know there has to be a way for me to be able to format it to FAT32 using mac.
While using my MacBook to access an external drive which is formatted Fat32, I attempted to slightly alter the name of a file with a particularly long file name. Once I changed the name, the file extension was cropped, and the file became inaccessible. Now I can see that the file is there (with no extension at the end of the name), but if I click on it or highlight it, it just disappears, and when visible, in place of the file icon there is just a dashed line box. The file is also visible with Terminal, but if I try to take any action Terminal reports that there is "no such file or directory."
I tried DiskUtility, DiskWarrior and File Buddy but apparently they don't work too well with the Fat32 format. I also tried repairing permissions, restarting the computer, disconnecting and reconnecting the hard drive, and also rebuilding the desktop (?) using alt-command on startup...all to no avail. It's clear what happened: I screwed up - I should have reformatted the drive before I put any files on it, right? But now, I just want my file back. I know it's there. I can see it, and I'm afraid to alter the drive in any way until I can access this file.
I know that FAT32 has a 4gb limitation and I need to transfer a folder with 2 disk images that are 7gb each and have tried splitting them but it never seems to work and when it does I can't join them again. I cannot format the drive either as I have over 500gb of data on it.
I have two external hard disks, one formatted as FAT32 and another formatted as NTFS .Both cannot be seen in Finder when plug in. Only another one formatted MAC OS extended can. how to dispay my drive in the Finder (I don't want to reformat it as I have lot of contents and need to be read in my window computer.)Im running Mac OS 10.7.3 on my iMAC
I am in need of a data recovery app that can recover data off a Fat32 drive and save the recovered data to a NTFS drive (I use NTFS-3G). I have PhotoRec but can't seem to navigate to my NTFS external to save the data (the only drive big enough to save the data too is my girlfriend's 500GB external and it is NTFS).
Any tips to getting photorec to navigate to the drive (I am pulling from one external to another). Photorec sees the one I want to save too I just can't get it to select it. Also if there are any other programs yall recommend, I will give them a shot.
I plan to use it mainly on my Mac but I'd also like to be able to use it on my XP netbook and Win7 machine.
Is it better to format it as HFS in OS X and use Mac Drive on my windows machines, or is it better to format it as FAT32 so I can use it interchangebly on both machines?
