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    Copying Mac files to PC external hard drive

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by codeoverride, Nov 28, 2007.

  1. codeoverride

    codeoverride Notebook Evangelist

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    I have an external hard drive where I backed up several PC files before I switched to the Mac platform. I have had no problems transferring files from that hard drive to the Mac but I can't seem to be able to copy files from the Mac into the hard drive. When I try to drag files into the external hard drive I get a message saying that the hard drive can't be modified.. :confused:
     
    codeoverride, Nov 28, 2007
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  2. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    If the external drive is formatted NTFS you won't be able to copy anything from the Mac to it. The drive either has to be formatted for Mac or FAT32.
     
    saturnotaku, Nov 28, 2007
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  3. codeoverride

    codeoverride Notebook Evangelist

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    Just checked and it is NTFS.. that sucks.
    Just out of curiosity, if I format it for Mac or FAT32 would I be able to copy files to it from both Windows and OS X?
     
    codeoverride, Nov 28, 2007
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  4. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    A Mac formatted drive won't show up at all in Windows. FAT32 is the way to go if you need transfer files between the two operating systems. Keep in mind, though, that due to the limitations of the FAT32 file system, you won't be able to copy any files greater than 4 GB in size.
     
    saturnotaku, Nov 28, 2007
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  5. system_159

    system_159 Notebook Deity

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    FAT32, yes.
    Anything else, no.

    If you really want HSF+ then you can get macdrive for pc, which allows Windows computers to read and write to that disk. I have my external set to hsf+ and I have macdrive on my usb drive, so that I can install macdrive on any computer that I need to hook my external hdd to.

    If you don't have any files greater than 4gb, wont notice a slight slow down(very slight), and don't need to find things with finder on the drive, then FAT32 is probably best for you.
     
    system_159, Nov 28, 2007
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  6. Sam

    Sam Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yeaps, its because Macs can read NTFS but can't write to. So you can take files out of a NTFS drive but you can't add things or edit things from it.

    If you want to use one drive for both Windows and Macs (without spending money), format the drive to be FAT32.
     
    Sam, Nov 28, 2007
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  7. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

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    You can write to ntfs drives, you need to get macfuse and something else.
    it took me a while to setup, but it does work.

    people have posted about it before, so just search the forum for macfuse.

    Also in windows you can access your hfs drives with hfsexplorer.
     
    sulkorp, Nov 29, 2007
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  8. count_schemula

    count_schemula Notebook Deity

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    VMware Fusion lets me read/write between Mac/Windows drives.

    I did not have much luck with macfuse.
     
    count_schemula, Nov 29, 2007
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  9. Sam

    Sam Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yeah, I have heard that MacFUSE isn't that great...
     
    Sam, Nov 29, 2007
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  10. sasanac

    sasanac Notebook Evangelist

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    sasanac, Nov 29, 2007
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  11. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

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    Yea i didnt have luck at first trying to get it to work, but i just kept trying and got it to work eventually.

    Its not horrible or anything, usually read/write speeds are around 15mbs, but it works, and lets you use ntfs if you need to use it.
     
    sulkorp, Nov 29, 2007
    #11