External HDD

[simonfoy]

I have just bought an Iomega 1.5TB Hard Drive

I have plugged it into the MAc and I can only get Read Only. I want to use this hard drive with BOTH my MAC and PC.

What do I need to do so I can put all the films stored on my MAC and make it readable on my PC too.

Thanks Simon

 

[Zigdog]

You need to make a temporary copy of everything currently on the hard drive,
Open up disk utility (from: applications folder, utilities, disk utility),
Select the Hard disk from the column on the left,
Click the erase tab,
Select "MS-DOS (FAT)" file system from the volume format box,
Click erase (you will now lose all data on the disk, hence backup)
The disk should now be useable on both Mac and Window
(that is if I have understood you query correctly).

Let us know how it goes,
Zigdog

 

[louishen]

Just a note to say that if any of your files are over 4 gig then FAT32 will not be able to handle them

JUst in case any are that large, then you can enable writing to NTFS drives, since that;s what the drive is formatted as, using Macfuse

macfuse - The Easiest and Fastest Way to Create File Systems for Mac OS X - Google Project Hosting

 

[Zigdog]

Yes, of course.
Good point louishen!

 

[louishen]

If non of the files are over 4 gig, then do as Zigdog says

 

[simonfoy]

OK I did that and have backed up my Mac onto it. Here is now hoping it works on my PC too. Thank you all very much for the help, much obliged to you all x

 

[Hibernia]

If i may i'd like to tac on a separate HDD question.

On my new and first Imac i've yet to buy an external HDD for backups. I had my eyes on 2tb one but it's usb powered not mains powered.

For Timeslip purposes does that matter? Would i be best with one type or the other?

I'd hoped for the usb one as that would negate one more lead from my nice new tidy desk top

 

[chscag]

As long as your machine provides sufficient power from its USB ports to operate the 2 TB drive, there should be no difference in using it for Time Machine backups.