FAT32 conversion urgent help

[kakamac]

Good Evening All,

I am a newbie to Mac and to the forum. I purchased a new Imac and was informed by the guy at the apple shop that I could convert all my old harddrives to FAT32 for use on Imac and pc's. I informed him that they contained files already from pc and he explained that the conversion would not have any affect on the files.

I have converted one hard drive to FAT32 using my Imac and when opening the hard drive it seems that I have lost all my files as I can not see them. Was I told the wrong information and what can I do to get the files back? Can anyone assist me with some help please. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Regards,
Kak

 

[Dr McKay]

Converting a harddrive to a new format, formats the harddrive, which means it erases ALL data on the drive.

I'm sorry but you have lost the data on that drive if you reformatted to FAT32.

 

[kakamac]

Benjy,

Thank you for your reply. I am going to see the store manager tommorow as I have now wiped out many photos and files that I publish regularly in magazines thanks to the guy in the apple shop. BTW he also said the fat32 means it can be used on pc and mac can you confirm that to be correct? Also is it best to convert to fat32 on mac or pc? Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,
Kak

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Benjy,

Thank you for your reply. I am going to see the store manager tommorow as I have now wiped out many photos and files that I publish regularly in magazines thanks to the guy in the apple shop. BTW he also said the fat32 means it can be used on pc and mac can you confirm that to be correct? Also is it best to convert to fat32 on mac or pc? Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,
Kak

Yes, FAT32 is compatible with Windows and Mac OS X and other OSs.

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

You could also try Data Rescue or File Salvage to recover data, as it is not really deleted, just not accessible.

 

[kakamac]

Thanks Sim,

How do I go about recovering the lost files? Sorry being new to Mac I have no idea. What I do have an idea about though is that Mac so far is way better then pc.

Regards,
Kak

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thanks Sim,

How do I go about recovering the lost files? Sorry being new to Mac I have no idea. What I do have an idea about though is that Mac so far is way better then pc.

Regards,
Kak

You need to install Data Rescue or File Salvage and scan the HDD for files and folders, then you can recover those, but to do that, you need to buy the applications I mentioned.

 

[wpotere]

and you may not get it all back... Sadly you were given bad information. What you should have done was copied that information off on to another drive before you formatted the drive.

Listening to your comments, I would also recommend that you get some other sort of backup in place. If one of your drives were to fail, you could possibly lose all of the information on that drive as you have no other copy.

 

[Dr McKay]

I have my external formatted in exFAT, the advantage being that Vista on the latest service pack, and Windows 7 recognize it, also Snow Leopard.

This works better for me, but maybe not you, depends on what you want. A major disadvantage of FAT32 is its small file-size limits.

 

[kakamac]

Thank you all for your replies. It is an issue I am taking up with Apple at present. I have three external hard drives however was unable to get access to them at the time to back my work up. I will be having some large files on their so should I be using an Exfat format? I use the files on my hard drives on an xp windows computer and on the imac at home. What would be my best system to use an Exfat, fat32 or something else? Thanks again everyone for your assistance.

Regards,
Kak

 

[BAC5.2]

With your other drives, you should copy the data you want to keep off of them and onto your iMac before formatting them.

OSX can natively read NTFS, it just cannot write to it.

 

[BAC5.2]

I'll add a quick addendum to my last post:

I just finished installing Tuxera NTFS for Mac on my wifes iMac. She uses a WinXP PC at work, and frequently needs to bring work home. It was always a pain to play the file swap limbo, so I tried out Tuxera. Works flawlessly and definitely worth the money.