Does anyone have a recommendation on a brand of external hard drive that I could purchase that will run on 10.7.5 and windows?
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external hard drive compatible with OS 10.7.5
- Thread starter Bryn Tracy
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Any hard drive works on all computers. Pick the one with the case that tickles your fancy.
Agreed. The brand will not matter - what will is the file system. If you want to use the same partition on both Windows and Mac, you will need to format the drive in either ExFAT or FAT32, because OS X cannot write to Window's NTFS (at least not without enabling an experimental write feature that has so-so results) and Windows cannot read/write to OS X's HFS+.
FAT32 is an older format, with the downside being that it cannot handle files larger than (IIRC) 4GB.
ExFAT can handle larger files, but it does not appear to have anywhere near the robustness of HFS+ or NTFS (I find it is corrupted much more easily.)
FAT32 is an older format, with the downside being that it cannot handle files larger than (IIRC) 4GB.
ExFAT can handle larger files, but it does not appear to have anywhere near the robustness of HFS+ or NTFS (I find it is corrupted much more easily.)
This is not true! I think I made my post in the wrong place before, so I'll just paste it here as well.
#1
Hello, you fine people of MacRumors.
I am way behind the times, running OS Lion 10.7.5 on a 17" Macbook Pro.
I need to upgrade my OS and my external hard drive is out of space. No problem, right? Just buy a new hard drive.
Unfortunately, all the drives in my local store are compatible with Sierra, El Capitan, and above. I bought a drive, and did the erasing and partitioning as in times past, but my computer and Time Machine still won't recognize it.
My question is, what drive can I buy in 2017 that's not an expensive Time Capsule (more than $200USD used). Because I need to backup before I can install a new OS and do it relatively inexpensively.
Thanks!
#1
Hello, you fine people of MacRumors.
I am way behind the times, running OS Lion 10.7.5 on a 17" Macbook Pro.
I need to upgrade my OS and my external hard drive is out of space. No problem, right? Just buy a new hard drive.
Unfortunately, all the drives in my local store are compatible with Sierra, El Capitan, and above. I bought a drive, and did the erasing and partitioning as in times past, but my computer and Time Machine still won't recognize it.
My question is, what drive can I buy in 2017 that's not an expensive Time Capsule (more than $200USD used). Because I need to backup before I can install a new OS and do it relatively inexpensively.
Thanks!
Any hard drive will work. There is nothing special about a hard drive that limits its use to Mac, Windows, or any particular versions thereof.
Just make sure it has a compatible interface--probably USB2 in your case.
Did you get this sorted as I have the same question, as bought hard drive but didn't notice it's not compatible but need to back up before I would download El Capitan
El Capitan uses the same filesystem as much older versions of OS X. You may need to format the drive using Disk Utility to HFS+ (OS X Extended) if this is not sold as a native Mac drive.
Some boxes may have text on the box saying the drive is not compatible with older versions because software the Maker includes might only be supported with more recent versions. However, this software is not necessary for the drive to function (and in most cases it is unnecessary regardless.)