File transfer from MacBook Pro into external hard drive

You can't change the format of a drive without erasing it. If you need to read Mac files on a Windows PC, or Windows files on a Mac, there are suggestions earlier in this thread for software which will give you that capability (MacDrive and Paragon NTFS, respectively).

Matt

Read through the thread, there are several suggestions for data recovery.

Matt

Hello I followed your directions for my toshiba external disc (I had 600 GB Of data in there)

"It's probably just not Mac-formatted. Some hard drives come pre-formatted as a Windows format ("NTFS"), some come as Mac (HFS+), and some are unformatted.

Connect the drive, open Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder, or search for it in Spotlight). In the DU window, click on your drive on the left side, go to the Erase tab, change Format to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", give it a different name if you'd like, and click Erase. It should then become writeable.

Note that Windows PCs cannot write natively to an HFS drive, so if you need to exchange files between Mac and PC, we need to talk about different options.

Matt"

So I formatted my disc with a QUICK FORMAT!

But I didn't really get the fact that all my files will be lost! So after formating my external hard disc, I also wrote a folder (13GB) at my Toshiba!

Now I want to recover my data! Any Idea How??

I'm a newbie and not very experienced on macbook yet. I read through the thread but i cant really understand which way is the best/safest to recover files (after formating your hard drive). If its not much trouble please suggest a simple and safe solution.

Data recovery is rarely simple or safe. You always need to have a backup of your important files. Read through the thread for data recovery options.

You also need to read the warning that Disk Utility shows you when you click Erase. It specifically says "Erasing a partition deletes all the data on that partition".

Matt

Hi Matt !!

I read all you threads and are very helpful.

I want to ask you if we can use same external HD for both MacBook and PC?

If yes, can you please write back how can we?

Thank you in advance !!

Hello Clinton,

You seem to know a lot regarding these topics. I have a hard drive that I formatted to be Mac compatible. I also have all my old photographs on an external desktop drive that has all my photos copied from my PC. I tried adding my new photos to the external desktop drive and was not able to write. Neither was I able to copy from my external drive (PC format) to my Mac hard drive.

I use my Mac laptop and my PC Deskstop equally and I need to work a system where I can copy data from both Mac and PC into the same hard drive, and also extract data from this hard drive to my Mac or PC. What is the best option to do this without splitting my hard drive. It is a 4TD WD Cloud Hard Drive?

Thank you,

Faheem

I would get Paragon NTFS, which will allow you to read and write to that PC drive. You can download a trial first to make sure it works for you.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Matt

Matt help!!

I just bought a macbook retina 13 inch and Im new to the apple world since I was using windows before.I think I messed up for starters.

I had a WD external hard disk 1tb and it was formatted into ntfs by default.Through my macbook I formatted it into mac journaled.All good till here.The thing is,now I need to reformat it into ntfs so I can get the files I saved into my windows laptop back and save em to my mac.Such a mess right?How do I do it?

Excuse my english,Im just a greek guy trying here!

Thanx in advance Matt and everybody!

Paschos - Reformat the drive to "exFAT" using Disk Utility on the Mac. This will keep it compatible between the Windows and the Mac.

Again, reformatting will wipe all files on the drive permanently, so make sure you have them somewhere else.

Matt

Thanx Matt,

Works just fine.I had read some articles writing about corrupted files and 4gb limitations when you format to exfat or I was just simply mistaken once Im new.Followed your advise,everything went well.Thanx again!

MAtt

i have a seagate 3tb Expansion. When I go to disk utility the erase option ( nor any other) appears. What am I doing wrong?

i Have a MacBook Pro - 4 or 5 yrs old.

thanks

monty vaughn

Hi MAC,

When i did exactly what you said to format my WD extrernal passport Ultra 1tb hard drive to exFAT and hit the button erase,

i got the following error

" Volume erase failed

volume erase failed with the error:

MediaKit reports not enough space on device for requested operation "

What does this mean?

My current available space on my macbook is only 18GB. Is it talking about the not enough space on my macbook to do this operation?

Kindly guide.

Thanks

Abhhay

Hey clinton, this is one of the hard gem-answers that actually saved a lot of my time and energy! Bravo!! i almost lost hope to have a single hard disk between mac and pc!

hello guys

you can use spotlight then

write there " disk utility "

after then choose your hard disk and gave it a name

then delete it

when you delete it

system will ask you which format do you wanna use

and choose your format like " xfat "

and that"s all you can drag and put in your hard disk what you want

have a good day guys