Converting external hard drives

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Hello all!

I just bought a Retina MacBook and have a few questions about the best way to convert my two external hard drives to use on my Mac. My old computer had a 60gb hard drive so I used one external hard drive (Toshiba 750gb) as my primary storage space and used a second (Passport 1tb) exclusively as backup. I have the 256gb retina so I wont be able to fit everything I have stored (about 650gb's worth) on it at once. I do have access to other computers (PCs) that I would be able to dump everything onto temporarily if need be.

Side note: the Toshiba external drive is corrupt but I plan to have someone attempt to fix it to save the small amount of data that I did not have a chance to back up to the Passport. If they cant fix it I would assume that I could just reformat it for Mac and then transfer everything to it from the Passport, then reformat the Passport and transfer everything back to it... right?

Any help would be appreciated!
 
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What makes you think the Toshiba external drive is corrupt? By "corrupt", what exactly do you mean? If it is failing, then reformatting it for OS X won't help it.
 
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Thank you for the reply. It was improperly ejected and I used a program that told me that there are errors on the partition table. The computer reads that it is there but that is as far as it can go. I'm not positive that it can be fixed but I believe it can be by someone with the right know-how.
 
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Why fix a 60gb external drive? Partition issues? Gosh, these days one can get a 1tb external for under $80 and have a 1 year warranty to boot. For $80 or less the peace of mind would be well worth it.
 
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Thank you for the reply. It was improperly ejected and I used a program that told me that there are errors on the partition table. The computer reads that it is there but that is as far as it can go. I'm not positive that it can be fixed but I believe it can be by someone with the right know-how.

Ah. I'm guessing that the drive is formatted using FAT32 then. Improper ejection of FAT32-formatted drives most certainly can cause problems.

If the files can be recovered, then great. Once done, make sure you have everything backed up on another drive, then use Disk Utility to delete the partition and make a new single partition using Mac OS Extended (journaled), aka HFS+. Then copy everything off the other drive back to it, then repeat for the other drive.
 
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@lovcom: The hard drive I will be attempting to save is 750gb. My old computer had a 60gb hard drive, this one is beside the point. Like most hard drives, the files that I have on there are of a higher value to me than the drive itself.

@lifeisabeach: That sounds great and what I was expecting for the most part, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Thank you!
 

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