windows-formatted hardrive in macos?

[superfula]

So I'm a pc guy switching to mac here soon. I have a lot of questions....they usually come in spurts. This one should be easy for you guys...

I have an fat32 formatted 40gig drive with all my install files, some mp3s, and some "free" apps for pc and mac. If I put this in a mac, can i use the drive like normal? If not, is there a program that i could use to see the drives files? Would it work if I used NTFS instead of fat32?

If not, I will end up sticking the drive in a roomates computer, grab the files over our network, then stick the drive in the mac and format.

Oh...if i use the network option, will that mess up the file names? Especially the mp3s. those are a pain in the but to rename. Let it be known that I know pc apps don't run on mac computers. These are just FILES...not programs


EDIT: another question. Is there a website that has some faq about switching from pc to mac?

 

[MacAztec]

Nope

You need to format the drive for the mac. I would put the drive in your friends computer, pull them over to another hard drive, and then re-format the drive in your friends computer to Mac OS X. Otherwise, you will have problems.

 

[superfula]

Ok...thats what I thought. BTW, how would i format the drive in my roomates pc for the mac? Wouldn't i have to format the drive in the mac for it to work with the mac?

 

[Rower_CPU]

Yes, format it in the Mac. Just attach the other HD, if the OS doesn't recognize it and prompt you to format it, run "Disk Utility" under OS X or "Drive Setup" under OS 9.
Welcome to the world of Mac simplicity. No command line and fdisk crap.
You get GUI apps that make partitions and formatting as easy as can be.

 

[MacAztec]

You have to do

You first put the drive in your friends computer. Then copy the files you want to the existing hard drive on your mac. Next, after you have copied all you want, take the drive out of your friends computer. Then, put it in your mac, and put in your OS X or OS 9 CD, whichever one you want to use. Tell it to install ( X or 9 ) onto THAT drive, and check off the box that asks if you want to re-formatt the drive. When you reformat the drive, everything will be erased, and the drive will be ready for the mac.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Re: You have to do

Originally posted by Mac_User
You first put the drive in your friends computer. Then copy the files you want to the existing hard drive on your mac. Next, after you have copied all you want, take the drive out of your friends computer. Then, put it in your mac, and put in your OS X or OS 9 CD, whichever one you want to use. Tell it to install ( X or 9 ) onto THAT drive, and check off the box that asks if you want to re-formatt the drive. When you reformat the drive, everything will be erased, and the drive will be ready for the mac.

If he doesn't want to install the OS on that drive, the way I suggested would be more straightforward. But good advice otherwise!

 

[PB180]

How about...

Can a PC formatted drive be put into a firewire/scsi enclosure and just run as an external?

That would be ideal because then BOTH the original mac drive and the PC drive could be used. 40 GB would not be fun to transfer over a network! As for the original question, the filenames won't change a bit.

By the way, what kind of mac is this drive for?

 

[Rower_CPU]

Re: How about...

Originally posted by PB180
Can a PC formatted drive be put into a firewire/scsi enclosure and just run as an external?

That would be ideal because then BOTH the original mac drive and the PC drive could be used. 40 GB would not be fun to transfer over a network! As for the original question, the filenames won't change a bit.

By the way, what kind of mac is this drive for?

Firewire enclosures are a good option, too. Portability is a pretty great feature for large storage these days. Don't go with SCSI.

The drive would still need to be reformatted to HFS/HFS+ to be used on the Mac.

Good point PB180, and welcome to the forums!

 

[kishba]

as long as the drive is fat32 you can use it with os 10

just hook it up to the secondary ide (if its a powermac) and it will mount in os x

i did it when i got my mac

 

[superfula]

ok i'm getting two differing facts. One person says i can use it straight up in a Mac, and the others say no, i can't. I'm inclined to believe the statements of the masses though.

 

[SubFredZero]

Question about Firewire enclousure

I'm going to buy a 80Gb hd : second hand. It's from Maxtor, and it used to work in a pc. Can i simpely put the hd in the enclousure and format it for mac ?

 

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by kishba
as long as the drive is fat32 you can use it with os 10

just hook it up to the secondary ide (if its a powermac) and it will mount in os x

i did it when i got my mac

Do OS X and OS 9 both recognize fat32 drives? I know they work with PC formatted floppies and zips, but I thought HDs were a different matter.

 

[mischief]

there's an easy test:

Boot into OS X, run the Mac OS Updater from the System prefs screen. Shut down and open the case to insert the HD in the "slave" position. Note: cable select doesn't work on the Mac.


Put the HD in your G4 tower (I'm assuming that's what you're talking about). Boot. If the HD won't read under X, take it out and do the net transfer.

 

[IndyGopher]

The question, "Will a FAT32-formatted HDD work in a Mac" is not as cut and dried as some have made it sound. There are other variables. If the disk was formatted in a Windows 98 (or 95B) machine, and never accessed in an NT, 2000, or XP machine, it will work. The "drive signature" that NT, 2000, and XP write to FAT32 drives totally baffles the Mac.

Also, your file names (if greater than 32 character) will be mangled if you copy them over a network... at least some of the time. In OS 9, they get mangled consistently. In X, it seems to work sometimes, and not at others. I think it depends if you move them by folder or by file.

 

[kishba]

umm.... my harddrive had been used in a win2k box on fat32

everything worked a-ok

(after copying the data off i simply reformatted it as the apple thing)