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Convert external drive to NTFS to work with Macbook

Dfndr90

Dfndr90

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 27, 2006
225
0
I have a Lacie 160gb external drive from my old Windows system. I have been trying to back up files from my Macbook, and getting an error that says "can not allocate file space". The drive is Fat32. How do I change it to NTFS.


Thanks,

Matt...
 
hook it up to a computer running Windows and format it with NTFS...



however when you hook it up back to your Macbook, you wont be able to write data onto the drive.
 
wako said:
hook it up to a computer running Windows and format it with NTFS...



however when you hook it up back to your Macbook, you wont be able to write data onto the drive.
Click to expand...

But I want to use it with my Macbook!!! Are you saying that I should leave it FAT 32 to use with the Macbook. This is the exact error message I am getting.

"Unable to create the DVD image, Can't allocate the required disk space."


I am trying to move some movies off my Macbook hard drive to and external drive. I also want to move Itunes to the external drive.
 
How much free space is on the hard drive, sounds like you might have filled it up.
 
FAT32 does not have a 4GB limit. I have a 160 GB formatted in FAT32 which has worked fine on macs before. If you want to write data from the macbook, it needs to be FAT32, as you cannot natively write to NTFS in Mac OS X.
 
So if you don;t have a Windows system anymore, then reformation the external to Mac Externded (HFS+) - voila, no problems.

It'll erase all the data on the drive, of course.

Aaron - 4 Gb FILE size limit, not VOLUME size.
You are limited in the size of individual files, normally a 4 Gb file size limit wouldnt be a problem, except when using backup utilities that save to a single file, or trying to create a disk image of DVD size.
 
CanadaRAM said:
So if you don;t have a Windows system anymore, then reformation the external to Mac Externded (HFS+) - voila, no problems.

It'll erase all the data on the drive, of course.

Aaron - 4 Gb FILE size limit, not VOLUME size.
You are limited in the size of individual files, normally a 4 Gb file size limit wouldnt be a problem, except when using backup utilities that save to a single file, or trying to create a disk image of DVD size.
Click to expand...


The 4gb limit is the problem. The files are 6 to 8gb. How can I convert the drive to HFS+?
 
Disk Utility. This will wipe the drive completely clean though so make sure you have made backups of whatever you have on the external drive before doing it.
 
Dfndr90 said:
The 4gb limit is the problem. The files are 6 to 8gb. How can I convert the drive to HFS+?
Click to expand...

Hook it up to the Mac

Applications: Utilities: Disk Utility

Choose the icon of the external drive (for the love of all that's holy, do NOT choose your Mac's hard drive at this point)

Choose either ERASE or PARTITION

Follow the prompts, choose Mac Extended for the formatting type.
 
FAT32 has a 4GB file limit?


i have a 4.32 image of a DVD sitting on my HDD...


I do know there is a limit on how large the partition can be on Windows when you create a FAT32 partition...
 
wako said:
FAT32 has a 4GB file limit?


i have a 4.32 image of a DVD sitting on my HDD...


I do know there is a limit on how large the partition can be on Windows when you create a FAT32 partition...
Click to expand...

Yes, to force people to adopt NTFS.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Hook it up to the Mac

Applications: Utilities: Disk Utility

Choose the icon of the external drive (for the love of all that's holy, do NOT choose your Mac's hard drive at this point)

Choose either ERASE or PARTITION

Follow the prompts, choose Mac Extended for the formatting type.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much. I followed your directions and am not happily transferring large files over to my external hard drive. I am gearing up for the new Airport Extreme with wireless disk use.

I plan on networking this drive and my new printer to the airport extreme. So I am trying to clean things up. Already pre-ordered the airport extreme for Apple.com


Matt...
 
Hate to say it, but if you don't like how slow your transfers are currently, your not going to like the transfer speeds over the network.
 
Can you just split an external HDD into two partitions (one NTFS/one HFS+)?

I have a 160GB external drive and would love to keep all of my media on it (so that my Macbook can read the files)...but then also have the capability to write on the HFS+ partition.

Is that possible?
 
wako said:
I do know there is a limit on how large the partition can be on Windows when you create a FAT32 partition...
Click to expand...

The 32GB partition limit set by Windows XP is an artificial limit designed to make you switch to NTFS. FAT32 itself has no small volume limit and is capable of 8 terabyte volumes.

The proper statement should be:
there's a limit to how large a FAT32 partition Windows XP will create.

B
 
genu said:
That's not true.

Its a technological limitation in fact.
Click to expand...

Then why do I have an external hard disk formatted FAT32 that is 160GB in volume? Did Disk Utility break physics???

EDIT: I don't know much about exFAT (I shall google it now) but I suspect it is a file system that can store files greater than 4GB, and can be written to by both OS X and W7.

EDIT 2: Confirmed by Wikipedia :p. ExFat can be created using Disk Utility on Mac (assuming you're on the latest Mac OS) and used by anything.
 
Last edited:
Erasmus said:
Then why do I have an external hard disk formatted FAT32 that is 160GB in volume? Did Disk Utility break physics???
Click to expand...
4-year old thread resurrection. FAT32 is limited to 4GB per file, not per volume.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
  • Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
NTFS (Windows NT File System)
  • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
  • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
    [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X: Install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free)
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx 33USD).
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended)
  • Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
  • Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner backups of Mac internal hard drive.
  • To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
  • To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
  • Maximum file size: 8EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 8EiB
exFAT (FAT64)
  • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
  • Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
  • exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
  • Maximum file size: 16 EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
 
Erasmus said:
My quote was in response to the statement that XP cannot create FAT32 volumes larger than 32GB due to "technological limitations". Which is obviously untrue.
Click to expand...
4 year old thread.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q314463&
You cannot format a volume larger than 32 gigabytes (GB) in size using the FAT32 file system during the Windows XP installation process. Windows XP can mount and support FAT32 volumes larger than 32 GB (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create a FAT32 volume larger than 32 GB by using the Format tool during Setup.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Erasmus said:
Oh. Right.

Now I'm confused. What's going on???
Click to expand...

Microsoft artificially limited the OSes ability to create FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GB so it could still work for thumb drives, but would nudge people to use NTFS for larger volumes like HDDs.

The hard drive vendors, however, didn't follow this and still shipped larger drives with FAT32 and made utilities to do what the OS would no longer do. I had a 1TB WD external that shipped as FAT32.

B
 
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