how to connect an external hard drive to my Mac

[ckristoff]

Hello friends, can you please advise me, as to how I connect an external hard drive to my Mac.

The info it contains, is mainly photos taken from my old PC.

I haven't done this before.

Thank you, Frank.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Assuming the drive was formatted as FAT, exFAT, then you just need to plug it into the Mac for it to be recognized. If the drive was formatted as NTFS, then you will need to use something like Paragon NTFS to read the data off the drive.

 

[ferrarr]

Assuming the drive was formatted as FAT, exFAT, then you just need to plug it into the Mac for it to be recognized. If the drive was formatted as NTFS, then you will need to use something like Paragon NTFS to read the data off the drive.

Not true, modern macOS can READ from NTFS, but not WRITE to it.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Not true, modern macOS can READ from NTFS, but not WRITE to it.

Oh, well that's good to know.

 

[IWT]

Hello friends, can you please advise me, as to how I connect an external hard drive to my Mac.

The info it contains, is mainly photos taken from my old PC.

I haven't done this before.

Thank you, Frank.

Hi Frank. Thank you for your post.

The advice given already stands, but just wanted to add a point or two.

Firstly, connect the External Hard Drive (EHD) directly to your Mac, not via a Hub.

If you have elected to see Drives on your Desktop (Finder > Preferences > Sidebar > General), then it should show there.

Otherwise, you can open Finder and see if it is listed on the left under Locations.

If neither options shows the Drive, open Disk Utility (found in Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility). If the Drive has mounted, it will show up there. If it doesn't then the Drive could have failed given it came from your "old PC".

Perhaps you could post back with your observations after connection, please.

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

If you have elected to see Drives on your Desktop (Finder > Preferences > Sidebar > General), then it should show there.

That should be: Finder > Preferences > General. General has the Show these items on the Desktop options. Sidebar only affects the Finder Sidebar items.

 

[IWT]

I think that's what I implied, Bob

At any rate, this is a screenshot just to make it clearer than I stated:



Ian

 

[ckristoff]

Thank you Ashwin, for your reply. I'm not sure I understand your reply.

I will hook up my drive to the Mac and see what happens.


Frank.

 

[ckristoff]

Hello Ian, nice to hear from you. I haven't been here for a while, I'm still dealing with health issues.

I'll have a go at this project, over the weekend.


Thank you, Frank.

 

[IWT]

I haven't been here for a while, I'm still dealing with health issues..

I'm very sorry to hear that. I can only wish you the best of health, and happiness too. Take care, as best you can.

Ian

 

[ckristoff]

Hello friends, thank you for all of your replies.

I haven't connected my hard drive yet. I shall do so as soon as I can.