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can't copy files to the external hard drive
- Thread starter testtry
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it might be a good idea, if you dont have anything on it open disk utility and select the hard drive in question and then select the erase tab and then select MS-Dos file system and then click format
ive dont it with dozens of mine
ive dont it with dozens of mine
yes if yo format it into ms dos file system it will work on both windows and mac
if you have stuff on it i suggest you find a willing pc, copy all the stuff off it and then format it and then put the other stuff back on it
if you have stuff on it i suggest you find a willing pc, copy all the stuff off it and then format it and then put the other stuff back on it
I could be wrong, but if the disk is in NTFS then only Windows will be able to read it. If you format it in FAT32, then your PC & Mac should be able to read it.
Hmm, you may not have permission to write to it then. Try to highlight the drive, then "Get Info" and see what your Ownership & Permissions is set at.testtry said:
nosen said:
My brother in law has the same problem. It's a formatting problem.
My suggestion. If you have enough HD space on your mac, transfer all the files from your external onto your HD - reformat the external and then you will be able to put the files back.
It's not your fault. PC's and Mac's can both read NTFS and FAT32. Mac's can only write to a FAT32 partition, not NTFS. PC's can read/write to both FAT32 and NTFS. The reason that most hard drive's are default formatted NTFS is because it's a more efficient partition format, especially for Windows.
Another reason is because you can only create a max 4 GB partition with FAT32 with Windows.
Another reason is because you can only create a max 4 GB partition with FAT32 with Windows.
I learned this the hard way. Western Digital external drive was formatted FAT32. I didn't notice and after loading all of my junk onto it, I was told that I cannot transfer files larger than 2gb or there abouts to my external because it's FAT32. So today I am formatting it MSDOS.CyberB0b said:
Best way to transfer files is in terminal using cp.
You may also need to use sudo, just incase your account does not have permissions.
sudo cp -Rp pathfrom pathto
pathfrom being what you want to copy, for example, your Pictures directory, ~/Pictures
Pathto being where you want to copy to, type the path to your external drive and where you want to the file to go, for example /Volumes/external_hard_drive/Pictures.
You may need to have the paths inside " " as you may have split names for folder or files like hello kitty.jpg.
-R switch will copy files recursively, -p will copy all metadata such as permissions, date created, modified etc.
Using terminal is far quicker than finder, terminal just copies, it doesn't sit there 'preparing' and calculating which finder does.
And as for partition size, OS X can only see a fat32 partition as a maximum of 32GiBs. Windows XP SP1 or higher can see more, up to 2TiB.
You may also need to use sudo, just incase your account does not have permissions.
sudo cp -Rp pathfrom pathto
pathfrom being what you want to copy, for example, your Pictures directory, ~/Pictures
Pathto being where you want to copy to, type the path to your external drive and where you want to the file to go, for example /Volumes/external_hard_drive/Pictures.
You may need to have the paths inside " " as you may have split names for folder or files like hello kitty.jpg.
-R switch will copy files recursively, -p will copy all metadata such as permissions, date created, modified etc.
Using terminal is far quicker than finder, terminal just copies, it doesn't sit there 'preparing' and calculating which finder does.
And as for partition size, OS X can only see a fat32 partition as a maximum of 32GiBs. Windows XP SP1 or higher can see more, up to 2TiB.
external drive format
Have this exact problem, I found that OS X can read NTFS but not write to NTFS, windows read and writes it fine, but can't see apple file system, so I've had the best luck having the drive plugged into my windows machine and just transfering my apple data through the network, its not the best solution but it works... my original maxtor drive was formated fat32 (160 gig) no idea how they got one partition in fat32 that large, but I lent it out and the person formated it AFS and I can never get it back, I even called maxtor... ohh well...
DD
check out the rest of my apple experiences on my blog
Have this exact problem, I found that OS X can read NTFS but not write to NTFS, windows read and writes it fine, but can't see apple file system, so I've had the best luck having the drive plugged into my windows machine and just transfering my apple data through the network, its not the best solution but it works... my original maxtor drive was formated fat32 (160 gig) no idea how they got one partition in fat32 that large, but I lent it out and the person formated it AFS and I can never get it back, I even called maxtor... ohh well...
DD
check out the rest of my apple experiences on my blog