I am having the biggest trouble with a usb drive.
A while ago i needed to format a usb drive to have a bootable linux image on it because a server at work didnt have a optical drive. So i had a big fight with my usb drive to make it bootable and at the end it all worked fine.
Anyway now i need the usb drive and i cant write to it because its read only and diskutil doesnt let me do anything to it...
I have a Mac OS X install on a hard drive which I've removed from my system due to installing a new SSD with a brand new install of OS X. I'd like to use the old 500GB drive as a storage/backup drive, but the file system/all my data is still intact on the drive. This could be useful as I want to keep all my data and would save me having to copy across to another drive, format the entire disk and then copy it all back.
I'm just a bit worried about what to do with the system files that were on there... can I just move all the files I want to keep out of the usual Mac home folders and then just delete all the system folders as if they were never there? Or do I have to re-format/re-partition to get the most out of the 'new' media drive?
I know Macs don't play nice with NTSF drive and I don't need to do anything with it, other then to plug in a new 1.5TB drive I have and convert it into NTSF so I can plug it into my server.
Anyway I can format it because Disk Utility only gives you Fat32
I am trying to format a 4gb USb flash drive and I just can't seem to figure out how. I saw some people say you have to empty the trash while the drive is plugged in, but that doesn't seem to work either.
View 2 Replies View RelatedSo my exact problem is that I usually use my Flash between my Mac and other PCs. And I just installed OSX Snow Leopard from my 8GB Kingston Flash. Now I know to use Disk Utility to reformat to MS-DOS (FAT) to be able to to use it between the to OSs again.
So I do that but PCs won't read it and ask me to reformat it again. I'd happily do that cuz I know as long as it's in FAT or FAT32 the two OSs will be able to read and write from each other. But the PC only recognizes 200 mb and when I do reformat it on the PC there are now 2 different Partitions. One being the PC's 200 mb in FAT and the other Mac's almost 8GB MS-DOS.
I've tried a few different things too. I've tried Partitioning the whole thing over again int MS-DOS after having erased everything. Which I see only causes the Flash drive to shrink from 8.01 GB to 7.80GB and still isn't readable by a PC.
Then I tried Erasing it to free space but PCs still don't recognize it and still ask me to reformat the 200mb is sees on the Flash.
I have a 500GB hard drive in my laptop, I partitioned it and I put 80GB for Windwos and then the rest of it for MAC, I don't know how but I somehow got rid of the Windows. I ejected the BOOTCAMP on the Desktop of the Mac OS X and then I tried to delete the partition but it didn't work. Now I tried to go to BootCamp Assistant but It doesn't show that I have partitioned hard drive. It shows me that I have only 420GB and it shows only my Macintosh HD. The 80GB are lost somewhere. Tell me how can I format the whole hard drive and get the 500GB again? And i want to do it while the hard drive is in the laptop and is working? Is there any way of doing that(it is fine if i have to install the OS again) Or what do i have to get done so that I can fix it?
View 3 Replies View RelatedI'm switching back to PCs for now, what is the best way of getting all my data over? The external HD is Mac OS X "Journaled", what would I need to format it to for Vista to read it?
View 3 Replies View RelatedI've just made some space on a USB passport drive and made a FAT32 partition in windows with partition magic (I already have files on it that I needed to keep). Now should I let time machine reformat, it'll only wipe the partition right? Or should i format it with disk utility? I'm thinking I can let time machine do it's thing but just double checking as I've managed to wipe a whole hard drive of data before now trying to make new partitions.
View 6 Replies View RelatedI have a G4 Powermac dual 1.25 with a 160Gig drive which is partitioned into two. I'd like to reformat the drive as a single partition. I have booted from an OS X CD but can't find a way with Disk utilities to 'UN-partition' the drive(s).
View 3 Replies View RelatedI 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)?
just received my brand new iMac 27" i7 today (2.93Ghz /2TB HDD + 256GB SSD/12GB RAM (4GB stock, although I upgraded 8GB more)) and I couldn't be happier. It's absolutely wonderful although it really burnt my wallet! I have managed to successfully install Windows XP via Boot Camp and have both Mac OSX & Windows running natively. I am very suprised that XP can see all the hard drives available within the mac itself even though they are HFS although I assume I cannot write onto them.
I believe I am at the stage where I would like to partition the 2TB HDD as discussed previously in my previous questions on this board. I would like 1TB for mac data storage (Mac OS extended) but I would like the other 1TB for Windows data storage (NTFS), however, this does not seem possible in the disk utility There is, however, an option for 'free space' or ExFat (FAT 32). Would I be right in saying I could format the hard drive as 2 partitions, partition 1 being Mac OS Extended and the 2nd Partition as free space or ExFat via Disk Utility. Once that is complete, I boot up XP and right click on the 2nd Parition which is ExFAT or Free Space and reformat the partition as NTFS? Does that work and make sense or is that stupidity?
(also on a side note, completely off topic, does anyone know how to get the magic mouse working in XP? I've got the keyboard (wired) working fine, however, the mouse doesn't seem to commicate. I've followed the tutorial/guides of adding the bluetooth mouse but when I tick the box "keyboard, mouse and misc functions (HID)" it states "access denied". I've tried several times and the device that i've just added disappears?
I just received my new MacBook Air 11" and love it! Though I no longer want the USB Software Reinstall Drive to contain the 10.6 and iLife '11 and I am looking for a way to format the USB thumb drive into a usable flash drive. I tried using the disk utility, but it only sees the drive like a CD containing the information and not like a flash drive, eliminating the simple option to just use the disk utility to erase. Hoping that someone can help me use this neat looking USB drive for something more than a piece of plastic I never pull back out of my box.
View 7 Replies View RelatedI just purchased a new 750GB Seagate FreeAgent drive. I hooked it up via FireWire 400, opened Disk Utility and tried to format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). It gave me an error message saying it was the wrong format (or something like that - I can't remember exactly). I tried every Mac OS option and it gave me the same error message.
View 6 Replies View RelatedI have an external external 500gb Seagate hard drive, that works fine as a USB external but I wanted to put it inside my MacPro, is this possible without any need to format, just plug and play?
View 1 Replies View RelatedI installed a new hard drive into my wife's older iBook G4 since the HD that came with the machine was only 30GB and was max'ed out shortly after we added some applications and photos. (Never should have bought such a small hard drive in the 1st place!) The new hard drive is an 80GB hard drive I bought online. I turned on the machine and got the question mark (?) blinking with something else on the 1st screen that came up. I proceeded to insert the original iBook OSX install cds. First I cleared the hard drive under disk utility and then the computer recognized the new drive. Then installation began. Got through the first disk no problem. Then it restarted and asked for disk two, which I inserted.
Then, if it decided to start installing from disk 2 (it kept going back and forth before it actually started disk two installation), it would get about 75% through the disk two installation and I keep getting a message saying 'There were errors installing the software'. I have tried to eject and re-insert the cd and I get the same message. I started from scratch by re-booting, wiping the hard drive clean again and started with disk one, only to get to disk two and encounter the same problem. I don't want to take this computer in and pay a service company to get me straight. This is an experiment to see if I could upgrade the hard drive and memory to make a slower/older machine perform better. We really only use it for organizing photos, surfing the net, office applications, etc.
I have a USB key and would like to format it under NTFS, under Disk Utility, there isn't that option. I don't really have time to google this, does someone know what to do? Is there a console command to do?
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have a Ibook g4 that got trashed the scree stoped working it would flicker on and off so i tryed to fix it and made it worse because I have not skill so I then pulled the HD and put it in a pc laptop I have I am now trying to get files off it through linux i tryed ubuntu because that is the only thing i have used but it is way to slow on my laptop because the cd drive is older then time so I tryed dsl and puppy linux but don't know how to mount the drive it shows up in the bios but not when i try to use the simple mount tool in puppy or dsl I know this is a mac fourm but I am hoping someone has done this before
View 3 Replies View RelatedI was doing a 7-Pass Erase of a hard drive that I had switched out of my MBP. During the process, the USB cable connecting my hard drive to my MBP got disconnected. Now, whenever I connect this external drive to my MBP, it doesn't show up in the desktop or under disk utiltiy. How can I can continue the process of erasing and formatting the drive? What do I have to do in order for OS X to recognize it?
View 2 Replies View RelatedI'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?
View 11 Replies View Relatedi have a hard drive that began as a formatted win NTFS drive, which i formatted with hfs a couple of times to do some hackintosh experimenting. apparently i missed one of the document folders that were important to me when i did the backup to a bigger drive of the windows files. i am looking into data recovery software but i don't know much about it. the format has changed, and it has been formatted a couple of times. is it still possbile to use data recovery software and are there any recommendations? if anyone feels i have a better chance getting this answered in a different part of the forum, let me know.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI've got an 8GB Sony Micro Vault Pen Drive that's stopped working. When I opened up Disk Utility it appears but doesn't give me the option to erase.
Can I try doing it with anything else before I bin it and buy a new one.
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
I recently upgraded to snow leopard because i needed to install logic pro and I decided to format the hard drive, I did my back up but there was to much music on it so I did a couple of dvd's just for the music I compressed them (.zip) with stuffit one of them did work but the other one where it has all of Itunes library doesn't unzip. I wonder if I can recover it from time machine?
View 1 Replies View RelatedI have a hard drive that had 2 ntfs partitions. I deleted one of the ntfs partitions in windows so now half the drive is free space but disk utility wont touch it without formatting the other partition. is there a 3rd party osx app i can use to turn this into a usable hfs+ drive?
View 6 Replies View Relatedi 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.
I am looking for a way to wipe my hard drive clean so I can sell my G4 powerbook. However, I have read some forums with instructions that involve my start-up disk to reinstall os after it wipes... but i don't have my start up disk.
View 4 Replies View RelatedMy MacBook Pro won't recognize my portable hard drive, so I can't format it.
View 6 Replies View RelatedI'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)
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)
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)
