Mac noob, need some help?

radar19 · 16 Dec 2010 at 21:10

Hey guys, in a bit of a pickle.

Basiclly, I needed to get some files from the Mac's we have at uni but my external drive is in NTFS as I use a Windows based PC. Now I managed to format my drive using MacDrive 8 to the Mac based file format. This allowed the Mac's at uni to see and write to my external so I could transfer the files from the Mac's to my hard drive. However at uni, I used the Disk Utility program to partion my drive to have 50Gb in HSF format and 400Gb in FAT32 format. I copied my files over to the Mac partion and using MacDrive 8, I managed to copy the files to my Windows PC.

Now this is my problem, I cant get my drive to format in NTFS so it can be read by a Windows PC. I have access to both a Windows 7 PC and a Macbook Pro, running Snow Leopard.

Any advice would be glady appreciated.

startrek2 · 16 Dec 2010 at 21:23

Mac fuse 3G I think will help

naudiz · 16 Dec 2010 at 22:30

When you say you can't format it to NTFS, why not? This may be the problem I had when I did the same with a flash drive, you have to reformat it using a mac but there's a certain setting you have to tick somewhere

radar19 · 16 Dec 2010 at 22:48

naudiz said:
When you say you can't format it to NTFS, why not? This may be the problem I had when I did the same with a flash drive, you have to reformat it using a mac but there's a certain setting you have to tick somewhere

Theres no option on the Mac to format as an NTFS drive. Only MS-DOS FAT which is not being picked up by my Windows PC.

thecaptain · 16 Dec 2010 at 22:48

cant you just format the entire hard drive as fat32? its natively supported by both windows and osx. it may not be strictly the best file system, but it works here

edit: am i missing something? your issue seems more complex

radar19 · 16 Dec 2010 at 23:34

When the drive was formatted as FAT32, Windows didnt pick up the drive.

Si105 · 17 Dec 2010 at 00:37

Format it from a linux live cd. Invaluable discs.

Then use 'NTFS for Mac OS X' to read/write to the disc under OS X, or alternatively, do it from the live CD, up to you.

Jeff90 · 17 Dec 2010 at 08:34

If windows does not reccognise fat32 there is something wrong with windows.

pinkegobox · 17 Dec 2010 at 10:48

Did you look in Disk Management on Windows? It's possible that Windows simply wasn't assigning your drive a letter.

Personally I'd format the drive to Fat32 from that screen (i.e. through Windows) and then both Win and OS X should be able to read it.

Skyboat · 19 Dec 2010 at 13:01

Unless you transfer files > 4Gb on a regular basis just format the entire drive as FAT32. Simples