Ext HD not showing but connected?

MACyMouse

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Using XP through bootcamp..... Ext. HD shows up and functions fine through Mac.... just a storage device, however when I switch to PC and connect via USB... it shows it's connected... I can see it under devices.... but it won't mount ... or show up...... Doesn't assign a letter....

Any suggestions?
 
cwa107

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MACyMouse said:
Using XP through bootcamp..... Ext. HD shows up and functions fine through Mac.... just a storage device, however when I switch to PC and connect via USB... it shows it's connected... I can see it under devices.... but it won't mount ... or show up...... Doesn't assign a letter....

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Is the drive formatted as "MS-DOS"? If not, XP can't read a Mac partition.
 
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MACyMouse

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Does it matter if its a usb hd? I don't recall formatting it for a mac when I got it... I just plugged it in and it showed up on my desktop...

But if that's how it became "formatted" as a mac.. I'm plum out of luck using it on the PC.... huh?
 
dtravis7

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On the OSX side, right click on the Drives icon and click on Get Info. What does it say for Format?
 
andrebnu

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I've had similar problems when I bought a hard drive pre-formatted for mac os, and tried first to do a backup of some files on a windows computerr.

Windows indetified the usb connection, but the HD wouldn't appear in "my computer".

In the Device Manager, the driver was there, so apparently it was ok.

For that time, though, I was only able to use it on windows, after formatting it for NTFS.
 
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MACyMouse

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It's showing Mac Formatted extended.... so can I reformat without losing files? Or do I need to back it all up?
 
andrebnu

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Ok, I believe there's no way to reformat a drive without losing your files. No chance.

If you don't have the option to back up all your data before reformatting, you must rely on a third part application, such as MacDrive

Take a look: http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/
 
dtravis7

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Agreed with andrebnu. MacDrive works great.

If you do decide though to reformat, back up and format with FAT32. Windows and OSX can read and write to FAT32. NTFS that Windows uses can be read by OSX but not written to.
 
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MACyMouse

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Thanks.... will have a look and check it out!! :D
 
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Ummm.... ok... I downloaded MacDrive but........ it's an .exe program??? I don't understand......


??

Ok.. I guess that's not what I expected it to be... sorry...

I want to back up my storage.. it's pretty full but I have some hefty files on there... was possibly looking for something to back up that drive to?

Like.... can I burn a disk image of it? Save that to CD? Then reformat the drive? But will I also be able to get these files later?

Sorry for all the questions.. not used to all this backup stuff... I just burn to CD's but I have so many now....
 
dtravis7

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You run MacDrive under Windows and it will let you access the Mac formatted external. Hence the .exe.
 
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MACyMouse

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yeah... figured as much about that....... Well regardless... I backed up and saved all my storage files...... then reformatted the External as an MS-DOS file system..... I didn't have a choice to do Fat32...

Any........ that seemed to work...... :D
 
dtravis7

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MACyMouse said:
yeah... figured as much about that....... Well regardless... I backed up and saved all my storage files...... then reformatted the External as an MS-DOS file system..... I didn't have a choice to do Fat32...

Any........ that seemed to work...... :D
Click to expand...

That is FAT32. Glad you got it working.
 
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MACyMouse

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OHHH see?? I didn't know that!! Learn something new everyday!!! Thanks!!
 
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hi guys
i have been reading ur postings. and i have the similar problem like MACyMOUSE. The difference is i use HP Pavillion notebook. But have an external hard drive, which i want to share both with my iMac and HP notebook. My disk shows mac formated. Can anyone pl! help me how to to reformate the disk to MS-DOS.
i went with this problem to service center from where i bought it thinking that this the notebook problem. but they even dont know and telling me to check the whole system. and which ofcourse costs me 150 bucks
can anyone Pl! tell me how to reformat the disk.
i would really appreciate ur help or suggestions.
urgyen7
 

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