External Hard Drive, Gotta Love Them, Then Again, Maybe Not...

Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
202
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Your Mac's Specs
iMac Intel Core Duo 17" A Little Piece Of Heaven
Well, I am having some issues with my 100GB HD. I can move files form the Hard Drive to my iMac flawlessly. Easier than a Pc (Of Course). Except if I want to move something into the Hard Drive, it doesn't work. It shows that it did with the green ball with a white plus in the middle of it, but when I go back over to check to see if it worked or not, then the file isn't found. This is the exact same thing my my 512MB thumb drive. I don't know if this is because they are both formatted with my PC or what. :confused:

Any thoughts or comments will be great, Thanks for the input!! :cool:
 
Joined
Aug 27, 2005
Messages
2,406
Reaction score
210
Points
63
Location
Fayetteville, AR
Your Mac's Specs
15" Powerbook G4 • 24" iMac • iPhone 3Gs
Macs (under Tiger) can read from NTFS formatted drives, but can't write to them. Windows uses NTFS and Fat32. Macs can read and write to Fat32 (up to 4GB), so format the HD to Fat32 and you'll have a very usable external drive.

...or you could format it to HFS+ (what Macs are supposed to use) and get a program for Windows that allows it to read/write HFS+. This depends on which machine you use more I guess.

EDIT: I guess I'll include some simple instructions on how to format it, if you eventually do format the drive. As you probably know, formatting ERASES the drive. So back up everything before you do this.

1. Double-Click on system hard drive.
2. Open Applications folder --> then Utilities folder.
3. Double-Click on Disk Utility.
4. Choose the drive from the left side of the screen that you want to format.
5. Click on the Erase Tab.
6. Choose the file system (Fat32 if you want to easily share between Windows and Mac) and click Erase.
 
OP
dimagex20
Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
202
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Your Mac's Specs
iMac Intel Core Duo 17" A Little Piece Of Heaven
Thank you very much, greatly aprriciated!!
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top