MacBook :: Formatting External Hard Drives / Format Main Or Sub-drive?
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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Sep 2, 2010
I just bought a new external hard drive and backed-up my computer onto it. Then today I realized that I didn't format the drive. All I did was follow instruction for hooking it up. Also, I'm a Mac user. Is it customary to do a full and proper format of newly purchased external hard drives? The most I did was verify the disk in disk utility when I first plugged in the HD to my computer. Is that enough?
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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 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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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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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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May 16, 2012
Ive recently purchased a new external hard drive. I plan to use it on both Apple and Windows OS.
I was told that if I do, then i could corrupt the files/data that I will be accessing on both computers.
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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Nov 5, 2009
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.
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Jun 6, 2010
Lately I've been using my external hard drive as the main drive of my imac I5 and every day it freezes when I open 3 or 4 apps or more or while doing several stuff at the same time. This, obviously, doesnt happen when using the internal hard drive of the imac, so I suppose is due to using firewire 800 or usb 2.0. Is it normal for every external hard drive to freeze when using it as the main drive or maybe is it that my external hard drive is bad?
I'm planning on buying a more quieter external hard drive to use as the main drive of my imac, but I wont do so if it also keeps freezing every day. Any suggestions? Is it normal even when using firewire 800? When using the external hard drive I umount the internal drive of the imac. Maybe this is the reason? Its a Lacie Big Disk 500GB. Would an external SSD make a difference or would it still freeze?
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Jan 9, 2011
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?
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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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May 2, 2012
Verbatim Store 'n' Go USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive 500Gb
this is a external hard drive i am looking to buy,but it has Nero back it up and burn software already on it,so in order for me to use it on my macbook,would i need to format it?
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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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Aug 14, 2010
So I just installed a larger hard drive in my macbook pro. As OSX was installing I decided to read reviews online (bought it in the store when I got the MBP). They're all really bad about using the drive in a MBP - [URL]. I'm installing the application software now and the hd is spining a lot and vibrating the case and making a lot more noise. I've read a few Seagate reviews and they're not much better for that size.
I want to install a huge hard drive because this is going to be my main computer for at least 8 months while I'm working away from home. Normally I have a desktop w/ a huge hard drive so I don't care what's on my laptop. Anyway, based on these reviews and how the drive has been feeling in the case, I think I might re-evaluate putting a larger drive in, and instead go with an external. I can fit all my photos and music on a 250, but I couldn't fit everything I store on my desktop on a 250.
So my first question is, is there a good, reliable 500gb or larger 5400rpm replacement hard drive for the mbp, that a lot of people like? And then the main question: I have a lot of large video files on my Windows box that are over 4gb, which is the FAT32 limit. When I transferred them from my old computer I had to rar them to smaller files and then un-rar them. This is quite annoying. If I'm gonna have an external drive, I'd like one that can be used on both windows and mac and support 4gb+ files..................
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Apr 1, 2012
Which is the best way to format external hard drive to be compatible with both Lion and windows, and at the same time support high data transfer?
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.1)
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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 8, 2009
I just brought a Western Digital 1TB USB drive for my Mac Pro. Now when I try and format it in Mac OSX journaled it keeps coming up in an error saying it can't be done, It will format as FAT32 but I need it to be Mac OSX formatted. Does anyone know what might be wrong?
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May 5, 2009
I just bought a new WD Elements (1tb) and I am getting an error when I try and format. I wish I could tell you what that error says but I was trying to figure something else out so I chose the disk6s1 and formatted it to os extended but it seems like it is frozen. I am afraid if I force quit it will screw up the drive. This is the 2nd one I have tried, I returned the 1st one thinking the drive was faulty. Now I think I screwed up the drive when I formatted it in disk utility. I have installed 2 western digital internal Hard Drives into my Pro and have used 2 other external HDs both western digitals. If there was any problems with any of my HDs, I would open up Disk Utility and Erase them to be Mac OS Extended (My WD TV won't read Journaled drives).
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Jun 2, 2014
I deleted my startup and recovery drives. I still have every thing on external hard drive but cannot get my drives back on internal drive. Is there anyway to get those drives back and get all my info from my external drive back on my computer?
Info:
MacBook Pro
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Apr 20, 2009
I am going to be buying an external hard drive soon (Seagate FreeAgent Go 250GB 2.5" External Hard Drive - Black) and I want to double format Or double partition it. I am pretty good with macs, I just don't know much about time machine and external hard drives. What I want to do is either:
A) Make a partition in which I can make backups, and make a separate partition in which I can store files
B) Make a single partition in which I can save back ups (from time machine) and my files (Music, Movies, Applications)
Also, would I be able to run Windows (XP) from my external hard drive somehow? Also, could I run mac applications off my external hard drive, is there a certain procedure?
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Jan 18, 2010
I'm looking to format my external, which i did but one question under Info it says
Format : Mac OS Extended
Capacity : 999.86 GB
Available : 999.28 GB
Used : 579.4 MB on disk (579,424,256 bytes)
What is the used space about? When it should be 100% empty?
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May 8, 2010
I bought a new 1TB external hard drive. What formats should I choose in Disk Utility to make this disc compatible with both Mac and Windows? I rarely have files over 2GB and my Mac is running on Snow Leopard.
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Jun 28, 2014
How do I format an external hard drive?
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Jul 15, 2008
I've been having problems with 3 Maxtor 500GB 400/800/USB FW drives. They will randomly unmount themselves -- forcing me to turn them off, wait a minute, then turn them back on. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to when they unmount themselves. All three drives had been formatted using Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and I'm on the most recent version of Leopard.
Thinking I had 3 lemons, I called Seagate (who purchased Maxtor) for tech assistance. The tech guy told me that external drives should not be formatted using Journaled, only Mac OS Extended.
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Apr 3, 2009
Alright, so My ipod is formatted for windows when formatted in this you can only copy chunks of 4 gig things using it as an external. but if you change the formatt of it to take all sizes, then it's not compatible with mac and pc. =/ i had it originally formatted for pc because i just recently got a mac book pro and it's my primary computer. well on to the hard drive trouble that is related i'm borrowing my friends external to get a 8 gig file from my pc to my mac. it's formatted in fat32(windows and mac read) but that format only allows for a 4 gig max to be put on it at one time. so i guess i'm outta luck there, i've looked at JR split but who knows it that will work. My main q is, i'm going to be getting my own personal external soon and i want to know whats the best way to format it that it will mount on my pc and my mac and allow me to copy more that 4 gigs of stuff on it at a time.
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Apr 3, 2009
I have bought an external hard drive (Fujitsu) recently and turned into an Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. I was wondering can it be formatted on the same lines as an iPod. I mean like the iPod that can be detected as an external hard drive by both Windows & Mac. Can't I do the same for my external hard drive?
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Aug 23, 2014
I used my external hard rive for installing linux(ubuntu) in my other machine. Now when I use the hard rive in mac os or windows, it does not respond very well. When I use windows for transferring files, it shows 1Mbps transfer rate. But it used to have 25 Mbps transfer rate in windows. Now when i use this drive in my mac, it does not show anything. I then used disk utility to reformat it to Mac os x extended journaled, it just gets stuck in Mounting..... like forever. Is there any way to reformat it Fully (i mean "fully" to remove the core files and rebuilding the system files for my external hard drive)) by using 'terminal' or disk utility? Is the hard rive hardware damaged(but the file transfers in windows though slowly? My external hard rive details are:
1.WD external
2.USB 2.0
3.size: 1TB
Info:
MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
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Nov 2, 2010
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...
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Feb 18, 2009
i have just bought and external hard drive and want to put stuff on it. i know i hav to format it somehow using disk utility on my imac. what do i format it to so i can use it on both mac and pc? it is set to read only in "get info" and ms-dos fat in disk utility.
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