MacBook Pro :: Formatting External Hard Drive For Apple And Windows
May 16, 2012
Ive recently purchased a new external hard drive. I plan to use it on both Apple and Windows OS.Â
I was told that if I do, then i could corrupt the files/data that I will be accessing on both computers.Â
Is there a "universal" format for an external drive which would prevent/avoid this kind of thing happening ? How should i format it or which format should i use so that i can use the drive both OS ?
Info:
MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7)
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Jan 24, 2010
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.
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Apr 8, 2010
got a real basic question to ask and you're gonna think im an idiot for asking...I just bought a 320gb western digital elements hard drive and want to reformat it so that its compatible for both mac and pc's. i intend to format it as NTFS-3G as it would allow me to use it on the 2 platforms without having the 4GB file size restriction that fat32 has, anyway.....
when I go to reformat my external hard drive in disk utility, I see my external hard drive to the left, and there's a "sub" hard drive as a child of the external hd listed uppermost. just wandering which one of the two do i select before going to Erase>Windows NT filesystem (NTFS-3G)>erase? Do I select the uppermost drive and erase that or the lower one? or both
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Jul 27, 2010
I just got my new Seagate 640gb external hard drive and am in the process of formatting it on my MBP. However, I am not sure which format to do? My main use for the hard drive is for transferring media files back and forth between my MBP and PC using just one partition on the drive. I already know I'm not supposed to pick 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' because I believe that is to use it as a boot drive. So should I pick 'Mac OS Extended' or maybe 'Free Space'?
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Dec 26, 2009
if i can partition my Windows NFTS External Hard Drive. I do not want to format it because i have some important files and programs on my External Hard drive, But I also want to use it for Time Machine Backup. I was wondering if it was possible to Not format my Hard drive, Partition it, And then format the 2nd partition to Mac, and use it for time machine. I am using Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8
The Capacity of the EHD is 55.9GB
Available: 37.1GB
Used: 18.8GB
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Mar 18, 2012
I have an external hard drive which I first used with my pc. It is formatted for NTFS. Now with my new MBP, I want to back up data, and I am having no luck. The external hard drive is a Verbatim brand, 500GB. On their website FAT32 download dosnt work! I have tried disk utility with no luck. What am I missing?
Info:
MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Sep 14, 2010
I have a new iMac 27, which I'm running primarily as a Windows machine. Using Bootcamp, I sectioned off 150GB of the 256GB SSD for Windows and installed W7 on it (the rest I leave for OS X, in case Windows fails, or upgrades become available). I've installed programs on the Windows drive, transferred my emails, etc. Now I still have to do something with the 1T hard drive, which I've decided not to partition, and to use exclusively in Windows mode. Two questions:
1. Please talk me through the process of formatting the 1T drive, as if I were a child!
2. I will use this drive mostly for large data files, but perhaps also for less important programs. Installations seem to happen more or less automatically when you insert a disc - how would I direct a program in the normal course of an automatic installation towards this second larger hard drive, AND is there any way (simply) to have programs running on the SSD with associated data files sitting on the other drive (e.g. with iTunes)?
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Jul 12, 2010
i just formatted a hard drive using apple's software but i changed my mind.. now, i tried putting it inside an enclosure and connected it to my windows laptop, but it's not detected,. the enclosure is detected, but the hard drive isn't.. i would like to use this for both my mac and windows.. can any1 tell me how i format my hard drive so that it can be recognized by both mac and windows?
i have a external enclosure, and the hard drive is 300gb.
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Dec 27, 2010
I bought a WD My Book Essential to do Time Machine backups. It is formatted for a PC but I was told I need to format for my IMac before I can use it. How do I do that? Is it a complicated process? I have only been using a Mac for about a year now and am still learning about them.
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Jun 26, 2009
Can I use time machine to back up my data without formatting the external hard drive .. If not please let me know if there is a way to back up to hard drive without using time machine.. Thank you
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Nov 27, 2009
I have an external hard drive that I use to watch movies on a Nintendo Wii and some of the movie files are over 7GB, which means when I format the drive to FAT32 I cannot copy the larger files. What are my options for getting around this problem? I have VMware fusion but I cannot easily see my external drive in XP. Is it possible to format the drive in XP and then transfer everything via VMware on XP?
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Jan 19, 2008
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!
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Jul 25, 2009
I'm selling my old white Macbook so I can purchase the new Unibody one. I wasn't sure how exactly to "wipe" my old hard drive on Mac. Do I have to install the OS all over again? Did my Macbook come with the disc so I could do this? If not, is there a way to wipe everything without formatting the hard drive?
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Mar 12, 2012
My MacBook Pro won't recognize my portable hard drive, so I can't format it.
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Apr 9, 2012
I'm selling my Macbook Pro and the buyer said when formatting my harddrive, I don't need to reinstall the OS (10.6.8) because he is going to install 10.7 on it. This is good news for me because I don't have the OS installation disk anymore. I read somewhere that it could be possible to format my hard drive using another Mac (my roommate has a Macbook so that works) but I can't seem to find exact instructions.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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May 7, 2012
I asked about running Snow Leopard on my mac after a hard drive fail. I'm having issues with formatting a new hard drive in my mac. I have a 2007 black macbook and I'm trying to run a 160gb SATA seagate hard drive. After replacing this hard drive, I booted my mac up from cd, ran through setup fine until I got to the 'select a drive to install to' - the point where my hard drive should be visible. Nothing there at all. Nothing to click on in the box. My question is, is there a process I need to undertake to format the hard drive or is this an indicator of a much bigger problem?
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11)
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Jun 9, 2012
My hard drive died last week on my MacBook and I failed to back up anything forever the last couple of months. Anyway, I took it to the genius bar and they confirmed its death, and showed me how to replace it. I decided to go ahead and do so on my own, and also upgraded the memory while I was in there. I also decided to upgrade to lion since my DVD drive was giving me trouble and it'd be easier to use the USB - and yes the computer meets the requirements for Lion.The problem is that when I try to boot up to format the HD, I only get a black screen. No disk utility when holding option, nothing. What am I doing wrong?
Info:
MacBook (13-inch Mid 2007)
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May 20, 2012
I am currently making the switch from Windows, I can't wait for my MacBook to arrive. My lovely Dell currently has a 320 GB HD that would prove a very nice external backup storage unit. I plan to remove it and find a case to mount and use it as such!
Only problem is, I'm fairly certain that I'll run into some compatibility issues and have never used an external HD. I'm unsure of how the process works. This is the HD in my personal laptop (only PC I own), so it's not like I have it hooked up to play around with as an external at the moment.Â
The Hard Drive is a Toshiba MK3255GSX (SATA): [URL]  Can I connect with FireWire (or Is that dependent on my hard drive, or do I get a cable converter)?When/how do I partition it?Since this is my personal home use PC, it's loaded with a bunch of programs/Win32/cache/temp files/garbage. Can I just access/delete these from the Mac?Â
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Dec 26, 2007
I think I'm going to format my hard drive to delete everything from it and start fresh with leopard. I already have leopard installed, but I think I should just format my hard drive (after backing up what I truly need like my music and other files) and then just install leopard.
Question, I have read that I go to disk utility to do this (format and install leopard), is this correct? If so, what else do I need to know before I do this?
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Jun 14, 2012
How I synchronize again devices after formating harddrive?
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Jun 5, 2012
what are the disadvantages of formatting an external drive as FAT32?
Info:
MacBook Pro
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Feb 2, 2012
I just bought my first mac (yay!) and am trying to transfer my files off of my old pc. The problem is that I stored all my personal files on an external hard drive, which is of course formatted for windows. My mac will open it, but it is "read only." I tried plugging it back into my pc and using the Migration Assistant to transfer my files over, but it was not detected (rest of the pc was).
However, the second time I tried plugging it in to my pc, it told me it would need to be formatted first. Obviously my mac has changed something on it, and now all my personal files are on a hard drive that is unusable by either my old pc or my new mac!
Info:MacBookPro
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Jun 4, 2014
How to copy files to external hard disk and use it for both mac and windows. there is the fat32 formatting bt i dont wanna use formatting because i already have a lot of content on the exteral hard disk.
Info:
MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)
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Aug 23, 2014
My G drive External Hard disk is not recognised by windows laptops yet it works on my MacBook Air
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Sep 21, 2010
I had a Windows based PC a couple of years ago that had crashed. So recently i tried to put the files from my old hard drive from my Windows computer to my Mac. In order to keep track of what i have copied and what I haven't i thought it would be good to delete the stuff of my windows hard drive once it was copied. However, it doesn't let me delete anything of the Windows drive since it is set to read only. Is there a way around this? i've tried everything i can think of, but haven't found a soluti
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Dec 4, 2014
Is it possible by any means to transfer mac files onto a windows “NTFS" formatted external hard drive...?? Â
Info:
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)
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Mar 29, 2012
I put my music library on an external hard drive.When I open Apple TV and try to listen to music it does not find any until I open Itunes on my computer and click on a song.After I do that it seems to find the right path.
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Jul 10, 2009
Is there any way without creating a usb bootable install cd that I can install windows XP onto my USB Hard Drive and boot from it in mac? If I can download a already bootable version of XP, please show me a link (please tell me if thats not allowed). Also, my H.D. doesn't show up when I boot up and hold option.
Thanks In Advance
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Aug 12, 2009
Im running on a UMP 13" base model + 4GB Ram, I want to know whats the best way to install widows on an external hard drive on my macbook ? do i need anti virus as well ?
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Sep 30, 2009
I'm having some huge problems. I have an .iso of Windows 7 Ultimate but my whole problem is that my macbooks dvd-rom drive crapped out on me a year ago so no burning no reading and Disc Utility wont let me restore the iso onto an external hard drive.
Does anyone have any idea what I could do to fix this? Is there a way I can put the image onto the hard drive at all?
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