External hard drive won't work with new MBP?

[azielhere]

Hey,

I bought a Macbook Pro yesterday and have connected my external harddrive to it with all my items from my previous PC. It allows me to copy files out of it, but doesn't allow me to put files onto it. Is there a way to overcome this problem without deleting everything on the drive?

Also, this external HDD is a 1T 'Elements' drive. It's not more than a few months old and requires it to be plugged into a power socket to work (if any of this info helps).

Thanks,

azielhere

 

[miles01110]

You'll probably need to install something like MacFUSE or NTFS-3G to write to the NTFS file system.

 

[GGJstudios]

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.
• exFAT partitions created with OS X 10.6.5 are inaccessible from Windows 7
• 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

 

[azielhere]

So after running the NTFS-3G program, should I change it to FAT32? Is there another option that can hold file sizes more than 4G, as I have files over that size?

 

[GGJstudios]

So after running the NTFS-3G program, should I change it to FAT32? Is there another option that can hold file sizes more than 4G, as I have files over that size?

No, if you install NTFS-3G, you can use NTFS, which is the current format. That's the purpose of installing it, so you can read/write to NTFS from Mac OS X. You don't need to reformat it.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

So after running the NTFS-3G program, should I change it to FAT32? Is there another option that can hold file sizes more than 4G, as I have files over that size?

No, as NTFS-3G is a driver, that allows you to WRTIE to any NTFS formatted volume from Mac OS X, therefore there is no need to convert it to FAT32 and its limitations, as noted above your post in the FAQ.

 

[azielhere]

Done Thanks for all your help.