Reformat external hard drive for Windows machine using disk utility

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Level 2

284 points

Reformat external hard drive for Windows machine using disk utility

I have a Maxtor 160GB dual-interface external HD. I used it for my Mac OS X. I erased and reformated the hard drive on my Mac to MS-DOS using Disk Utility for use on my fathers Windows XP. I hooked the hard drive up to the Windows machine and the hard drive was visible in both Windows Explorer and on the task bar. I right clicked on the hard drive and selected Format. The formatting takes a while but at the end an error appears indicating the hard drive was not formattable. How can I get a MS-DOS formatted hard drive (from a Mac) to be used on a Windows XP machine with a NTFS format?

1.2 GHz 12 PowerBook G4, 1.25GB RAM, 60GB HD, Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Feb 13, 2006 10:50 PM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,884 points

Feb 14, 2006 5:29 AM in response to Mark Brooks1

Unless there is some utility out there, the Mac can only read NTFS. Regardless or where it started life, Windows XP should have been able to format it. MacDrive will allow you to use an HFS/HFS+ formatted disk with Windows.

1.8 SP G5/iMac G4 FP/PB G3 Pismo Mac OS X (10.4.4) XLR8 G4 Upgrade for Pismo

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Answer 2

Mark Brooks1 Author

Level 2

284 points

Feb 15, 2006 11:26 AM in response to Barney-15E

Turns out it is possible:

Maxtor Support..

I would use your Disk Management utility within Windows to repartition and reformat the drive. To access Disk Management, right click on My Computer, go to Manage, and then choose Disk Management. Within Disk Management the drive should show in your list of disks (Disk 0,1,2 etc etc). I would delete any partitions that are on the drive. To delete a partition, just right-click on the partition and choose delete. Make sure you’re deleting the correct drive. Once the entire drive says unallocated then the drive should be ready to partition and format. Just right click within the Unallocated Space on the drive and choose the New Partition or New Volume option to set up the drive.

I followed the instructions and everything worked.

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