External Hard Drive On Cross Platforms!

ZZY · ZZY #1 (**permalink**)

09-08-2011, 04:26 PM

Hey guys, new to the mac forums

Have a quick question, shouldn't be too hard. I have a western digital 1.5T external hard drive already formatted for a Windows OS. The HD says that it can only be formatted for one OS. Is there a way i can partition it so that i can assign mac a section without formatting my windows section?

Thanks,
ZZY

chscag · chscag #2 (**permalink**)

09-08-2011, 08:58 PM

Yes, use the Windows "Disk Manager" program first to partition the drive. Once you have it partitioned the way you want it, use Disk Utility to format the new partition you created to FAT-32. Just keep in mind that FAT-32 can't accommodate file sizes greater than 4 GB.

mrplow · mrplow #3 (**permalink**)

09-09-2011, 09:51 AM

Or get Paragon NTFS for Mac so you can re-write to any Windows formatted disk

chscag #2 (permalink)
Member Since: Jan 23, 2008 Location: Fort Worth, Texas Posts: 32,017 Mac Specs: 21.5" iMac 2.5 GHz i5, iPad 3rd Gen., 3 iPods	09-08-2011, 08:58 PM Yes, use the Windows "Disk Manager" program first to partition the drive. Once you have it partitioned the way you want it, use Disk Utility to format the new partition you created to FAT-32. Just keep in mind that FAT-32 can't accommodate file sizes greater than 4 GB. Community Guidelines
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ZZY #1 (permalink)
Member Since: Sep 08, 2011 Posts: 5	09-08-2011, 04:26 PM Hey guys, new to the mac forums Have a quick question, shouldn't be too hard. I have a western digital 1.5T external hard drive already formatted for a Windows OS. The HD says that it can only be formatted for one OS. Is there a way i can partition it so that i can assign mac a section without formatting my windows section? Thanks, ZZY
	QUOTE Thanks

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