07-20-2005, 06:58 AM

Hi Guys,

I am new to the world of Mac. Took my old hard drive out of my PC and have put it into my G4. I can read the disk, but would now like to format it so that I can write to it in mac format. However, I only have read access so I am unable to erase and format the disc. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

07-20-2005, 07:42 AM

You have only read acces to NTFS, yet you can simply format (which is called "erase" in MacOS terminology) the entire HD with DiskUtility.

Open DiskUtility, select the HD you want to format on the left side, and click on the "Erase" tab.
Now you select "MacOS Extended (journaled)" in the selection box, enter a name below (you can change the name later) and click the erase button...
That's it, your disk will be formatted in HFS+, which is the MacOS file format.

And of course that means all data that was on the disk before is gone.

07-20-2005, 05:40 PM

if its going to stay in your g4 then format it to mac. i made my old pc hard drive into a removable one and the only way i found to format it to NTSF was to use another PC.

01-18-2008, 09:01 PM

I got a PC Hard Drive and Put it in my Mac G3 and it says there's no Volume when I go to install OS 9.1

I can't even formatt the Hard Disk.

01-18-2008, 09:03 PM

way to dig up an old thread. glad you searched the forum before posting

01-18-2008, 09:12 PM

anyone know how to help me?

01-18-2008, 09:15 PM

I would love Apples more if I knew how to solve this issue, I am fustrated

01-19-2008, 07:37 AM

after I install Mac OS 9.1 then I go to Start up disk and click on HD that I made then restart.

The Problem is that It boots from the Disk and it's at the start up CD screen again like I left it before. sometimes it forget then i have to install OS 9.1 agian.


ANY ONE KNOWS HOW TO FIX THIS???

01-19-2008, 08:16 AM

Try unmounting it, then see if disk utility can erase it

After some futile searching, I was ready to boot up off of an OS X install disc (as one hint had suggested), but then figured I'd try one more thing -- I ejected the volume, and then, voila, I could format it as an unmounted volume. Easy!

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...50419060913995

05-06-2008, 02:34 PM

Hi!

I had this problem: a MacBook was formatted in NTFS and was unable to format in Mac OS system with Disk Utility from the Mac install CD

So I booted this MacBook into terminal mode (Boot and keeping T letter down) and with an other Mac, both linked with Firewire cable, I formatted the disk with the Disk utility on the second Mac.

At first it was not possible to format the disk as every options was in grey...but I unplugged the firewire cable and plugged it again and, miracle, it came possible to format it.

And I booted up the MacBook keeping the command key down and the CD in and installed the Mac Os X

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Sorry for my english, it's not my first language

Durgaloka