mixing the message

[fionn111]

hi there, hope this doesn't seem like a totally ignorant question, apologies in advance if it is. I recently bought myself into the world of mac and mac air, to enable me (i thought) to enhance my photography hobby. today i hooked up my external hard drive only to find that i can only read the files, and can't save anything to the drive. so... do i need to save all the files on there to another drive and reformat this drive to suit mac, or is there a way to combine new files from iPhotos with the old files (from windows PC) tricky question? well it was for me! it took me three days to enable my epson printer to accept commands from the mac - got it in the end though!

 

[pigoo3]

I'm going to assume that this external drive came from use with a previous Windows computer…and that its format is NTFS. NTFS drives can be read by Mac's…but not written to.

If you want to be able to write files to an external drive…to be the most "Mac-like"…the drive should be formatted Mac-OS "Extended-Journaled" If an external drive needs to be read and written to by both Mac's and Windows computers…then format it "FAT32".

- Nick

 

[fionn111]

thanks Nick, the drive I'm using was indeed used with previous windows, and it wasn't a cheap drive, so I'm kind a keen to be able to keep using it. if i format it like you suggest, i.e. FAT32, then do I lose all the files in the drive? again, it might seem a stupid question, but as I said earlier,i'm a new mac user!!

 

[fionn111]

and..... :HOW to format it to FAT32?

 

[pigoo3]

if i format it like you suggest, i.e. FAT32, then do I lose all the files in the drive?

Most definitely. You need to back up files from any hard drive before reformatting it.

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

and..... :HOW to format it to FAT32?

- Open Disk Utility
- Click on the HD to be formatted (left column if the window)
- Click on the erase tab (top area of window)
- From the drop down in the window for formatting choices…choose "MS-DOS (FAT)"
- The click the Erase button.

* Nick

 

[cradom]

That's AFTER you backup your files

 

[lclev]

I prefer to use extFAT when I format large drives. FAT32 has a file size limit of 4 GB. If all you are doing is photography FAT32 will work fine. But if there will be any files larger than the 4 GB size I would recommend extFAT.

Lisa

 

[fionn111]

thanks very much everyone, i think the easiest way forward for me it to purchase another hard drive and be more selective in how many pics i keep!! backing up the other one would mean multiple disks and carry on, just easier to start fresh, to match my new shiny mac...... shiny thing make it all better