Converting PC formatted external HD to Mac

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Hello,

A friend is switching from PC to Mac. He has a MyBook external drive, with mostly media files. What is the best way for him to convert that MyBook to a Mac formatted external HD?

Thanks
 
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If the drive is in FAT32, "I think" it can be read by both Windows and the Mac.
 
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kfordham is correct, if it is formatted as FAT32, then you don't have to change the file system as both OS X and Windows can read and write to the external drive.

However, if the drive is formatted as NTFS, then you'll have to convert it to either FAT32 or HFS+ if you want to both read and write to it (OS X can only read from NTFS, not write). What you do is connect the drive to the Mac and open Disk Utility. You'll get formatting options from there.
 
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Per the above posters, no matter what Windows format it is using, FAT32 or NTFS, it will be readable by the new Mac. So, your friend can just plug the drive in, and it should show up on the desktop. Then, to convert it to the native Mac format (recommended unless he/she wants to use it to share files back and forth with Windows) just open Disk Utility and use it to reformat. Disk Utility is found in the Utilities folder on the Mac.
 
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What a weird coincidence. i reformatted my WD My Book Premium to HFS last night :)

the mac will read both FAT32 and NTFS as mentioed above but will only write to FAT32. the My Book come preformatted to FAT32.

I formatted mine to HFS Journalled and it works great. seems quicker (over firewire).

However, im gonna have to put it back to FAT32 and connect it to my PC as im also using a Netgear SC101 which is shared by the PC but the WD Backup software on the mac cant see the shares. Wish i'd checked before formatting DOH!
 
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I published my latest book on a PC, recently switched to a Mac, the files for my book are transfered sucessfully but I cannot work on them, how do I make those files open so I can work on the reedit of my book?
 
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there's no need to reformat a NTSF file format external hard drive to MacJournaled or FAT32...

You can download NTSFS3G or NTSF for MAC so you can use your external hard drive without the need of reformating
 

Slydude

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@grouston

First, not being picky but your question might get more responses if it were in a thread all its own.

Now to the meant of the matter. In order to answer your question we will ned to know a bit more information. What kinds of files are these? Also, what happens when you try to open the files on your Mac?
 
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chas_m

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I published my latest book on a PC, recently switched to a Mac, the files for my book are transfered sucessfully but I cannot work on them, how do I make those files open so I can work on the reedit of my book?

You have to tell us what format those files are in (or what program you used to create them) first. We're not mind readers.
 

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