How do I format a USB HDD?

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5tevie


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Hi Guys,
I apologise if I got the terminology wrong but I'm new at this stuff.
I bought myself an external hard drive (USB 2.0) and when I connected it for the first time a new icon appeared on my desktop showing the hard drive with an odd 3 pointed USB type of image. This was after being shown the Time Machine option and rejecting it for the time being.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that the "Get Info" label shows it to be NTFS.
Thinking that my Mac would automatically change that to whatever file system that Macs use I tried to drag a file folder over to the external HDD but it wouldn't work. That being so, my guess is that I need to do some work on the external drive before it will work with my Mac.

Any ideas?
Cheers,
Steve
 
CrimsonRequiem

CrimsonRequiem


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5tevie said:
Hi Guys,
I apologise if I got the terminology wrong but I'm new at this stuff.
I bought myself an external hard drive (USB 2.0) and when I connected it for the first time a new icon appeared on my desktop showing the hard drive with an odd 3 pointed USB type of image. This was after being shown the Time Machine option and rejecting it for the time being.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that the "Get Info" label shows it to be NTFS.
Thinking that my Mac would automatically change that to whatever file system that Macs use I tried to drag a file folder over to the external HDD but it wouldn't work. That being so, my guess is that I need to do some work on the external drive before it will work with my Mac.

Any ideas?
Cheers,
Steve
Click to expand...

Just for you since I was bored yet again.
 
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5

5tevie


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Wow!! ... Thank you very much for taking time out from your busy schedule to lend a helping hand to a complete novice. Your help would have been perfect if only you had read the bit in my request for help where it says that I am new at this Mac stuff.
If you had, you may have realised that showing a screen shot and working from there (very nicely done, BTW) is absolutely no use at all unless you explain to this numpty how to actually GET to that screen.
But I shall now go and watch some more videos and see if anyone else has included that info.

Cheers,
Steve
 
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5tevie


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Problem solved.
A very nice chap has made a video about formatting an external hard drive for use with a Mac. On it, the first thing he says is to open your Apps folder using Finder, click on Utilities and then Disk Utility on the next screen. That opens up the screen that you started with.

Cheers,
Steve
 
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5tevie


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Gotta love folk who can dish out the sarcasm but can't handle being given it.
 

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