06-17-2009, 12:15 PM

I would normally use a portable HD but don't they have to be formatted for a Mac? I have one lying around that's made by SimpleTech and it has everything I want to put on my Mac on it, but will it be recognized? And if I were to buy the FreeAgent Go Mac version, would my PC recognize it?

06-17-2009, 12:31 PM

OS X can likely read your portable hard drive, no problem. It may not be able to *write* to it however, since OS X cannot natively write to NTFS, the default filesystem type for Windows.

06-17-2009, 12:47 PM

when i did it, i i just saved everything to my ipod classic,
i made a file with all my files,music,movies, ect. and just saved it onto my ipod classic(its sort of my smaller HD) well, everything worked out fine but for some people dont like it this way, im the kind of person who arranges my files myself.
it took a few hours but i like everything where i want it.
it should work with the hd. but if not i think apple sells a cable to do this for you. you just plug it it and use the migrating assistant program i think.

06-17-2009, 01:01 PM

I used an external HD, copied a my iTune, Word and Excel documents with no issue at all.

06-17-2009, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by w.markegard

I would normally use a portable HD but don't they have to be formatted for a Mac? I have one lying around that's made by SimpleTech and it has everything I want to put on my Mac on it, but will it be recognized? And if I were to buy the FreeAgent Go Mac version, would my PC recognize it?

Just make sure the Simple Tech external hard drive is formatted to FAT-32. Your Mac can read and write to FAT-32 as well as your PC. If the Simple Tech is formatted as NTFS or the standard Mac format, HFS+, you'll need third party software to allow file exchange between both.

Regards.