problems with time machine and external hard drive

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problems with time machine and external hard drive

Hi all

In 2009 with my imac I bought a WD external hard drive which the computer says is 148GB formatted. I recall that the hard drive contained folders with files for the running of the hard drive when I bought it - and after it had been plugged in to a mac and used as a time machine, it no longer worked on windows computers.

Now I have used 195 GB on my computer's internal hard drive and wish to stop using the external hard drive as a time machine and instead use it for swapping files between computers and the like.

How can I wipe the time machine back ups and start using it as per usual again? do i need to obtain the WD files from somewhere?

thanks in advance

Nick

Posted on Jun 17, 2012 6:19 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Jun 17, 2012 11:46 AM in response to saramal

Hi Nick,

Avoid the WD files completely, not needed & often a problem.

You need to erase the Drive, & to use it on both Format it MS-DOS/FAT32, on the Mac or PC, but will have a 4 GB filesize limit, as well as other limitations.

One option not mentioned yet is MacDrive for your PCs... allows them to Read/Write & Format HFS+, so no need to reformat it...

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

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