OS X :: Mac Won't Recognize External HD - FAT32
Dec 6, 2009
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.
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Dec 25, 2008
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.
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Jul 2, 2010
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)
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Oct 27, 2007
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.
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Aug 6, 2010
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.
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Oct 5, 2008
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?
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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?
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Feb 27, 2009
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)
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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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Oct 24, 2008
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.
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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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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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Dec 29, 2008
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.
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Sep 28, 2009
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.
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Feb 15, 2011
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
Information:
MACBOOK
Mac OS X (10.5.4)
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Apr 14, 2012
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
Info:iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Jun 9, 2012
How to convert NTFS external hard drive to FAT32 without loosing data?
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Seagate Agent GoFlex 1.5TB
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Jan 29, 2010
I have a 1/3 full external drive that is currently formatted for MAC OS External.
I want to partition the drive in half and use the 2nd partition for Windows FAT32.
However, when I try to do this with Disk Utility it does not give me the FAT32 option.
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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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Dec 16, 2009
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.
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Sep 3, 2009
I got my new imac running leopard few months ago. I was using my WD 500GB external HDD as my backup disk for time machine etc and was working great till a few days ago. Now,when I connect(with firewire 800)- it does seem to start up but does not appear on the desk top.This happens with the USB connection as well.I first noticed the problem when time machine icon(clock) just kept rotating as if backing up,but it just kept going. this happened several times,so I restarted the imac,plugged/unplugged the WD without any joy. Now it does not even recognise it or appear on the desktop. I have checked all connections etc and all seem ok. I connected the WD to my ibook running 'panther-10.3' and it recognises it(via usb),so I presume the WD is working. The imac recognises another external HDD and appears on the desktop. Not sure what to do next,not really keen on trying a complete new reinstall just yet,and that may not even solve my problem. Otherwise the imac seems to be working all right without the WD connected to it.
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May 28, 2010
I have viewed a number of topics on external HD's that can't be recognized, but can't seem to find an answer to my problem. I own a WD 500GIG External passport drive, that has worked with my MAC since I purchased it. All of a sudden yesterday when I plugged it into my macbook (in the same slot I always plug it in) I got the USB port is drawing too much power. I immediately checked forums around the net and people were saying the mother board needs replaced. Well I have a mac mini at work an a second macbook pro at home. I plugged the same HD into all three computers and got the drawing too much power.
One of my macbook pro's has firewire 800 so I tried to connect the drive using that, but now it just doesn't recognize. The lights flash on the drive as if it's mounted properly, but I can't get my computer to recognize the drive. I've been through disk utility and the drive does not show up there. I have ordered a firewire 800 to 6pin cable to attempt to connect it that way, but other than that I'm out of luck I think. I can't even get a computer to recognize the drive in order to reformat it. Has anyone ever had this problem before? If so what steps did you use to resolve it, that is if you were able to.
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Mar 6, 2012
2012 MBP, with Lion, and SSD.Connect external HDD and it does not show up anywhere.Reset PRAM, SMC, etc, new firmware upgrade, nothing.But then the other day, suddenly the external drive was recognized.I thought it had to do with the firmware upgrade, but the next day: Unrecognizable again.The issue was a 2008 Apple TV that was switched on/stand-by.Unplugging Apple TV, and the drive gets recognized.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Sep 19, 2009
New macbook pro. 10.5.8.
WD external drive. Working fine yesterday. Took the Mac on the road. Unplugged everything. Did eject the WD drive before unplugging.
Set it back up and now the WD external is not recognized. Checked all the usb ports. All working with other peripherals. Checked the drive with another computer. Its fine.
Restarts, plugging and unplugging. Turning drive off and on...
Nothing seems to work.
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Aug 18, 2008
I've searched the threads but can't find an answer to my problem. I have two problems really but am hoping if I can fix the first, I can work out the second with existing information on the forum. I have a WD 500gb external drive which I use with my Powerbook G4 through firewire. It works fine but now I can't seem to use any other external drive. I tried connecting another WD 320 gb external drive which I am plugging in through USB, but get nothing. I also tried running my other mac (Ibook G4) in target mode to access information on its hard drive but have the same issue - the Powerbook just won't recognize/mount (i.e. I can't see it in finder or desktop or disk utilities).
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Mar 26, 2012
I recently bought my first Mac and I bought an LG CP40 blu ray player to watch and burn DVDs. I know the player works because the first thing I did was use it to install Office for Mac. I put the disk in and the install happened automatically and worked fine. My problem is I can't get the Mac to recognize that there is even an optical drive connected to it so I can't open the contents of disks or watch DVDs.
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Aug 24, 2009
I have a late 06 early 07 intel imac. My problem is I recently purchased a 1 tb Seagate external hd and the imac recognizes some folders and their contents, like pictures and a couple others but will not recognize the contents of my movies or music folders. Now I copied all of my files from a wd elements 500gig and that worked perfectly with my imac. just can't get to my music or movies. Now, I can plug the seagate back into a windows pc and it works perfectly, so i know my files are there, but love to use my mac exclusively. Also running 10.4.11
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Mar 24, 2008
Quick question. I have an imac running leapord. I also bought an external seagate harddrive to use with time machine. It was working fine for about a month then my mac stopped recognizing the external drive. Any thoughts on what has happened or did I just end up with a faulty external drive?
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Jul 23, 2008
I just got a new external hard drive and have moved all my music over to it but can't get my itunes to recognize it, I have gone to the preferences and when I try and change the location where the music is itunes does not find my external hard drive. I have tried to repopulating the list and it does not find the Hard drive.
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Apr 16, 2008
My Macbook (1.83 Ghz Intel COre Duo, Mac OSX 10.4.10) won't recognize or find my external LAcie Porshe dvd burner... Although I have used it many times since buying it 18 months ago. Suddenly, Toast doesn't seem to see it, neither does iDVD 6.0.3... The burn button doesn't activate and stays closed. The weird thing is that when I check the system profiler, it sees it. What gives?
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