View Full Version : Sharing FAT Formatted external HD over Network
ddeadserious
Sep 26, 2008, 04:50 PM
Got an iMac G3 hooked up to my Seagate FreeAgent 500GB Firewire external HD.
The External has 2 partition - a 100GB Time Machine(obviously HFS formatted) backup partition, and the rest is MS-DOS formatted(named "FREE SPACE") and that's just where I store my music and movies.
I can access the Time Machine partition from my Macbook Pro over the netwrork, but it doesn't see the "FREE SPACE"(MS-DOS Formatted part.).
Any ideas? I'd like to be able to access the "FREE SPACE" over my network.
Thanks in advance for the help.
11800506
Sep 27, 2008, 11:27 PM
There reason why your Macbook Pro can't see it is because it is likely NTFS formatted which Macs can't read. If you want your Mac to be able to see it either reformat it using FAT32 (which has file size limits of ~4 GB but PCs and Macs can both "see") or reformat it using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (HFS+) which has no file size restrictions but PCs can't "see" without 3rd party software (such as MacDrive). Also note that reformatting the partition will erase everything.
Time Machine requires the drive it uses to be reformatted using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (HFS+), thus why your Macbook Pro can see it.
ddeadserious
Sep 28, 2008, 03:08 AM
There reason why your Macbook Pro can't see it is because it is likely NTFS formatted which Macs can't read. If you want your Mac to be able to see it either reformat it using FAT32 (which has file size limits of ~4 GB but PCs and Macs can both "see") or reformat it using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (HFS+) which has no file size restrictions but PCs can't "see" without 3rd party software (such as MacDrive). Also note that reformatting the partition will erase everything.
Time Machine requires the drive it uses to be reformatted using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (HFS+), thus why your Macbook Pro can see it.
It is not NTFS formatted, it may be FAT(which I'm assuming is what it makes it when you select "MS-DOS File System" in Disk Utility). I did that so when I need to work on Windows junk, I can access all my tools that I keep on this hard drive.
Macs can read NTFS and FAT(they can't natively write to NTFS though) as the iMac it's hooked up to is reading(and writing to) it just fine, as well as when it's plugged in directly to my MBP, it reads/writes it all just fine.
The problem is that the NTFS partition isn't being shared over the network.
Thanks anyways though.
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