Mac and Windows Hard Drive

[Daniel396]

Hello, I have a 500gb Touro external hard drive and I originally used it for my mac, only used once. I first set it for the time machine for mac but then I disabled it. I tried formatting it with the mac but it won't let me change the format of the hard drive. The problem is, is that when I want to use it for my Windows machine it won't show up in my computer. It installs it fine with not problems and shows it as working properly, I just can't transfer files. Can anyone help, would be much appreciated. Any extra info, just ask. Thanks.

 

[Dave8671]

Hi Daniel396
The reason the drive is not showing up in windows is window can not read the mac partition. I assume that you tried looking for it under computer. You will need to format this drive to NTFS if you want to use it on windows. perform to the following...

Option one

1. Open control panel

2. administrative Tools

3. Disk manager

Now locate your HDD that you want to format. If windows know the partition type it will show this.

disk 0 c: primary NTFS
disk 1 D: NTFS

The mac formatted HFS will be unknown to windows will state unknown partition. Right click on the drive and select delete partition when that is finished right click and again and format it to NTFS.

OR

Option two

There is another partition type that might suit you but it has is faults it is called exFat which enables you to use the drive with either windows or macs, but this file system I would use only for external drives. though as you will read it not really used for HDD only flash drives. I want you to read this before deciding.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2801/exfat_versus_fat32_versus_ntfs/

http://lifehacker.com/5927185/use-the-exfat-file-system-and-never-format-your-external-drive-again

Or

If you want to pay for the access and not format the drive look into Macdrive9 standard 50.00 one computer

If you decide to use exfat Always eject your drive before unplugging it or you will lose data.


Dave

 

[Daniel396]

I am using windows 7 and for some reason I can't find disk manager in the administrative tools section. Just isn't there. I very much appreciate your help and replying to me.
Any alternatives for option 1 or should I go ahead and go for option 2?
Thanks very much.
Daniel

Hi Daniel396
The reason the drive is not showing up in windows is window can not read the mac partition. I assume that you tried looking for it under computer. You will need to format this drive to NTFS if you want to use it on windows. perform to the following...

Option one

1. Open control panel

2. administrative Tools

3. Disk manager

Now locate your HDD that you want to format. If windows know the partition type it will show this.

disk 0 c: primary NTFS
disk 1 D: NTFS

The mac formatted HFS will be unknown to windows will state unknown partition. Right click on the drive and select delete partition when that is finished right click and again and format it to NTFS.

OR

Option two

There is another partition type that might suit you but it has is faults it is called exFat which enables you to use the drive with either windows or macs, but this file system I would use only for external drives. though as you will read it not really used for HDD only flash drives. I want you to read this before deciding.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2801/exfat_versus_fat32_versus_ntfs/

http://lifehacker.com/5927185/use-the-exfat-file-system-and-never-format-your-external-drive-again

Or

If you want to pay for the access and not format the drive look into Macdrive9 standard 50.00 one computer

If you decide to use exfat Always eject your drive before unplugging it or you will lose data.


Dave

 

[Dave8671]

Lets do this this way

Press windows key plus R key at the same time this brings up the Run command box.

Than type in the run box

diskmgmt.msc

This will bring up the disk management screen it might be small at first just enlarge it

Look for you drive that you want to format it will be most likely unknown listed. options two mis your choice but read the links first.

 

[popatim]

Macs and windows share format compatibility with Fat32 and exFat. Either one will work with both systems.

And you should 100% of the time 'safely eject' before disconnecting an external drive, not just if using exFat.