File transfer from MacBook Pro into external hard drive

if i erase it to format it to mac will i lose all the movies i have on my hard drive?

If you erase or reformat an external hard drive, you will lose all the files on that drive, yes. Copy them off to another location before you reformat if you want to keep them.

Matt

thank you

Hi,

matt i did exactly all what that but still have problems, it tells me that ..

Partition failed with the error:

Couldn’t unmount disk.

so do you have any idea what to do in that case?!

thanks

Abrar

Warrenkok, I appreciate your link, I just let my driver work perfectly, cheers~

The only formats fully compatible between Mac and PC are FAT32 (largely deprecated) and exFAT. If you need full read-write compatibility between Windows and Mac, and you can erase the drive (ie, it's a new drive or you have confirmed backups), reformat to exFAT using Disk Utility.

can u explain more on this? what do u meant by reformat to exFAT using Disk Utility

In my very first post in this thread I explained how to use Disk Utility. If you want to keep using a drive with both Mac and Windows PC, instead of formatting it "Mac Extended" as I said before, you should format it "exFAT". This will delete all files on the drive, so copy them somewhere else first.

Matt you seem to know a but about the WD Passport Hard drive, so i'm hoping you can solve my problem.

I have had my WD passport for a while now and have been able to use it on both PC and MAC, but have recently just upgraded my macbook to a macbook pro and when i plug the hard drive in and open it, it only comes up with half the folders and files on there. And then when i plug it back into my original mac book the files are all still on the hard drive, would you have any idea why it is doing this?

That's not an issue I've seen before. These files are in the same partition, or do you have multiple partitions of different formats?

I'd first make sure all the files are backed up somewhere else, and then maybe try running a repair through Disk Utility (repair disk, not repair permissions). You may need to wipe the drive, reformat, and copy your backup files back onto it.

Matt

Thank you SO for this WD info. I have been confused as to why I couldn't drag a photo dil to my WD EHD. I'll be moving the folder onto an SD.

Hi guys i just did that but all my files from my external disk where lost :S now all my files from external disk are los no files nothing how can i recover them???

I don't know how many times I need to say it.

WHEN YOU REFORMAT A DRIVE IT WILL DELETE ALL FILES ON THAT DRIVE.

Data recovery options have been mentioned earlier in this thread.

Matt

HELLO MATT.

PLEASE HELP ME.

I AM OVER EXCITED FOUND AND READ AND IMMEDIATELY APPLY WHAT YOU HAS ADVISED WITHOUT READING UP TILL END.

SO I STRAIGHT AWAY ERASE -SOMETHING AND CHANGE TO UTILITY WITHOUT BACK UP.

AND SUDDENLY ALL MY STUFF IN WD EXTERNAL HARD DISK GONE.

CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME ADVICED ME HOW TO GET BACK ALL THE DELETED STUFF.

IT WAS MY FAULT BECAUSE I NOT READ ALL.

IT WORKS NOW. I CAN COPY MY PICTURES FROM MC BOOK AIR TO WD EXTNAL HARDDRIVE.

BUT ALL MY STUFF IN WD HAS GONE.

WHAT SHOULD I DO.

MARDHIAH

SORRY ASKING YOU AGAIN 😟.

DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO ANYMORE.

Hi Matt,

I had the same issue as Jonathegirl, I needed to change the format to Mac, but I only wanted to change the format from Windows to Mac, not having the erase everything on there. How am I able to restore all the files on my format?

Sincerely,

Feeling very stupid.