accessing external devices

Joined
Jun 1, 2007
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Points
1
So I just got my first mac and its great, but I have one beef - os x wont let me copy files back and forth from my external hdd. I have a fujitsu 80 gb hdd and I want to back up some files from the my macbook pro. When I try to copy files over to the external it says the external folder cannot be modified. I looked at the external hdd under 'get info' and it said something about it being a windows format. Do I need to reformat my external hard so it can work with os x and if so how do i do that?

ps. i can pull files off the external but i cannot copy files onto it.

any help would save me from losing my hair, thanks.
 
Joined
May 6, 2007
Messages
178
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Book Pro 17" 2GB Ram, Intel Core Duo
yup, must use mac software, but some externals are not mac compatible and as such will not work. Look at the instructional manual that came with the external or go online to find out.
 
Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
10,345
Reaction score
597
Points
113
Location
Margaritaville
Your Mac's Specs
3.4 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro (2015), iPad Pro (2014), iPhone Xs Max. Apple TV 4K
Let me guess, the drive is NTFS formatted, right?

Macs can read from but not write to NTFS drives (don't blame Apple). You need to reformat the drive as FAT-32 on your Mac and then you can use it on both Windows and the Mac.
 
Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
10,345
Reaction score
597
Points
113
Location
Margaritaville
Your Mac's Specs
3.4 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro (2015), iPad Pro (2014), iPhone Xs Max. Apple TV 4K
1-Backup whatever is on the drive.

2-Open Disc Utility (It's inside the Utilities folder which is inside your Applications folder).

3-Select the disc, select MacOS Extended (Journaled) from the drop down menu and click erase.

There will be two icons for the drive, one upper and one lower, in a hierarchal list. If you want to reformat as OSX, it doesn't matter which one you choose. If you want to reformat as FAT-32 for Windows compatibility, you must select the upper one and select MS-DOS from the drop down menu.
 
OP
S
Joined
Jun 1, 2007
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Points
1
thanks worked like a charm, i formatted the hdd to fat32 now its both mac and win compatible.
 
Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
10,345
Reaction score
597
Points
113
Location
Margaritaville
Your Mac's Specs
3.4 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro (2015), iPad Pro (2014), iPhone Xs Max. Apple TV 4K
Cool, glad it worked out for you.
 

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