Q: Any EASY, simple to use external hard drives that are PC and Mac interchangeable?
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Oct 28, 2012 6:53 PMby Tiskers,Bob,
Thank you so much for the reply.
I don't know how to reformat my EHD but I am sure I can figure it out.
Once I do that, then, it is easily usable by both the Dell and the Mac concurrently, for Both adding info and extracting info? Nothing more to do?! It sounds too good to be true!??
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Oct 28, 2012 7:02 PMby MartinR,usable by both the Dell and the Mac concurrently,
No. Never connect an external hard drive to two computers at the same time. You could fry the interface in the hard drive and/or both computers. Connect an external hard drive to only ONE computer at a time.
If you have a network hard drive, that's different matter. But if you have a USB, FireWire or eSATA external drive, connect it to ONE and ONLY ONE computer at a time.
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Oct 28, 2012 7:08 PMby MartinR,Almost any USB or FireWire external hard drive will work. If you want it to be interchangeable between a pc and Mac, format the drive as FAT . You can do this in Disk Utility on your Mac. Note that under FAT, there is a 4GB filesize limitation.
Alternatively, if you are using OS X 10.6.5 or higher you could use your pc to format the drive as exFAT, which doesn't have the 4GB filesize limitation.
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Oct 28, 2012 7:14 PMby BobTheFisherman,If you mean connect the drive to two computers at the same time, no y can not use the drive concurrently. You can network the drive and use it from both your network computers.
Easiest for you I think would be to physically connect the drive to the computer you are using through the USB port. Then when you change computers that you are working on, just plug the external drive into that computers USB port. Your files will be readable and writable by both computers, though not concurrently (at the same exact time).
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Oct 28, 2012 8:08 PMby ds store,Tiskers wrote:
I don't know how to reformat my EHD but I am sure I can figure it out.
On Windows 7 you click on the folder looking thing in the dock, right click on the external drive (not present obviously) and choose Format > exFAT
Creates a GUID partition map automatically.
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Oct 29, 2012 10:25 AMby Tiskers,Bob,
I'm sorry, my message was unclear! No, I'm not looking to hook up two computers at one time to one EHD.
I'm just looking to be able to use one EHD, and go back and forth between it and the Mac or Dell, getting stuff off one, and putting stuff onto the other.
I have all my old Dell files and photos already on the EHD. I was afraid that once I formatted the EHD that those files from my Dell that were already there would somehow no longer be accessible to transfer to the Mac? But it sounds like this isn't so?
So, to clarify: I would like to continue to have access to the files on the EHD (from the Dell). Once I format the EHD, will those files still be accessible to me, to either leave "as is", or transfer to the Mac, now or later?
THANK YOU!
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Oct 29, 2012 10:33 AMby Tiskers,PS The EHD *as is* (right now) does not work with the Mac. I tried it. I haven't tried formatting it yet, though, as suggested above.
Once I format it, will it then be able to be used interchangeably (transferring files to and fro) between the Dell and the Mac, without losing any of the files that are already on the EHD?
Thank you all!
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Oct 29, 2012 10:36 AMby Courcoul,If you only want to store files on the external drive, it is doable and you're golden. The drive needs to have an MBR partition scheme (so Windoze sees it) and an ExFAT format so both can store files of any size. If you use FAT, you will be limited in the amount of subdirectories than can be created AND you will only be able to store files of less than 4GB in size (bummer, no Blu-Ray "backups").
If you wanted to be able to boot the Mac off the external drive, compatibility goes out the window since it would have to have a GUID partition scheme and an Apple Extended format, both of which are incomprehensible to good ole Windoze (including the candy-store flavor just out).
Edit: if you already have stuff on the drive and need to change the partitioning scheme or volume format, you need to move the stuff out beforehand. Repartitioning/reformatting will wipe the drive CLEAN.
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Oct 29, 2012 10:40 AMby Tiskers,Bob, we were typing at the same time!
Ohmygosh, that's what I was afraid of... losing the files already on the EHD. Oh geez. I don't want that.
OK... Plan B. Does this sound reasonable? Get a big flash drive, like 32GB, and take the files off the Dell that I want (in "batches" if I need to). Put them on the Mac, then move the ones I don't want to keep on the Mac to a new EHD? (I have a new EHD - still in the box - was gonna return it, but now I think I better keep it?) But it's allegedly for Mac use only.
OY! I am so confused!!!
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Oct 29, 2012 10:45 AMby BobTheFisherman,HelpfulTake a breath and relax.
Please explain in simple terms what you want to do and what equipment you have. I lost track a bit. Do you have two external drives, one new and one already containing files? Do you want to use your external drive(s) to store files from your Mac and from your Dell interchangeably?
To use an external drive for saving and reading files from both your Dell and Mac computers the external drive needs to be formatted so that both computers can read and write to it. The way to accomplish this is to format the external drive to exfat. But before formatting the drive make sure there is nothing on the drive that you want. Formatting the drive will delete everything on it. Then once the external drive is formatted you can connect it to either computer interchangeably and read/write the same files from/to the external drive regardless which computer you have it connected to.
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Oct 29, 2012 10:50 AMby Tiskers,Thanks Bob, OK -- I'm a'chillin'! ;o)
Yes, right now I have 2 EHDs, one "old" with lots of Dell files on it, and one "new" still in the box, supposedly for Mac.
I want to ultimately move *some* of the files that were on the Dell to the Mac. The rest of the files I would like to keep safe *in case* I need them one day on the Mac.
I would like to have ONE EHD that I can use with BOTH computers (at different times), moving files back and forth between the two computers.
Is there any EHD that is Mac AND PC compatible, right out of the box, no tricks or formatting required?
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Oct 29, 2012 10:53 AMby Courcoul,Tiskers wrote:
Is there any EHD that is Mac AND PC compatible, right out of the box, no tricks or formatting required?
Nope.
99% of EHD's are meant for Windows and will come in NTFS. Mac don't like NTFS and won't write to it by default.
The remaining 1% work fine on Macs, but Windoze don't like GUID/HFS+ and won't read it at all.
So a reformat is definitely in your near future.
