Clear hard drive after used in time machine

[wesleym]

I already started using my ext hard drive for backup in timemachine. I then forgot that I wanted to transfer my itunes files from an old windows pc to a new windows pc. I tried to simply plug the hard drive into the old computer and it didn't even recognize the drive. I am wondering how to clear the entire drive to start from scratch and subsequently lose my time machine backup that has only been about 1% complete. Thanks for the help!

 

[blodwyn]

I already started using my ext hard drive for backup in timemachine. I then forgot that I wanted to transfer my itunes files from an old windows pc to a new windows pc. I tried to simply plug the hard drive into the old computer and it didn't even recognize the drive. I am wondering how to clear the entire drive to start from scratch and subsequently lose my time machine backup that has only been about 1% complete. Thanks for the help!

Your PC probably did not recognize the drive because it's formatted to the Mac HFS+ format. You should be able to format it on your Windows PC with an NTFS format. This will erase the drive and let you load your iTunes files on to it so you can do the transfer. You can then plug it back into your Mac, format it to HFS+ and start using it for TM again