Formatting question

Discussion in 'Mac Accessories' started by d.am, May 30, 2009.

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  1. d.am, May 30, 2009

    d.am macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2007
    #1
    Just bought a wd elements 1tb ext hhd.

    i believe it is ms dos fat32 formatted do i need to change it to mac format.

    I ask this question because looking i had previously purchased a la cie 320gb and i never formatted it. I just checked it and that is also fat32 but i have not had a problem on it. I have used it on mac and pc.

    On this drive i want to move all my logic 8 files as well as other mac programs

    Thanks in advance
     
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  2. fireshot91, May 30, 2009

    fireshot91 macrumors 601

    fireshot91

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2008
    Location:
    Northern VA
    #2
    You don't need to change the format- OS-X sees Fat32.
    Your only problem would be moving files that are greater than 4GB. Fat32 can't handle that.

    I would format as the OS-X format (Can be done with Disk Utility), unless you need to see the drive on a Windows machine, then make it as NTFS and get a NTFS reader/writer program.
     
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  3. d.am, May 30, 2009

    d.am thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2007
    #3
    thanks


    a couple more questions

    is there a down side to using fat32?

    should i leave the 320gb drive at fat 32 and make the new one mac journal?

    will this cause any issues?ie with the drives reading each other?

    if i want to transfer my logic files and the whole logic program as well as other mac programs to the new hdd can i boot up from there or do i have to keep it on my computer ?
     
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  4. MachRider, May 31, 2009

    MachRider macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    May 31, 2009
    #4
    Not to open a new thread.... since I have basically the same question:

    I'm about to buy an external drive and I'll use it with Linux desktop and a MacBook.
    What filesystem would be the best for my situation? Fat32 is undesirable because of the file size limit, obviously.
    Can OS X access and write to ext2 or ext3 partitions?
     
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  5. waw74, May 31, 2009

    waw74 macrumors 68030

    Joined:
    May 27, 2008
    #5
    linux will handle HFS+. but don't think it will handle the journaled version, it didn't the last time i looked into it.

    I have an external with all my music on it, it's HFS+, can plug it into my ubuntu server box when i'm home, or if i want to travel with my music, i just pull the drive and plug it into my laptop.

    I don't remember if i had to add this, or if it was native, but you should be able to get the answer pretty quick on the web.

    also if the drive mounts as read only, look into "fsck.hfsplus", that fixes it right up.
    but that requires a little command line knowledge, although there might be a way to do it from the GUI.
     
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