HardDrive Problem for Mac/Pc (Timemachine Related)

[cake69]

hey guys,
ok just to start things off, i have 2 comps.
one main PC for gaming and everything else, and my macbook for uni and entertainment.
i have an external western digital 300gb drive for my PC already, and i recently bought another USB powered western digital 250gb 'mypassword' harddrive. (http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=205&lang=en)
the initial plan was to use that as a Timemachine Backup drive, so i got home opened it, and plugged it straight into my macbook. i set it as my timemachine back up drive and let it do the complete first backup for a few hours, so now its fine, ive tested it and its amazing. The thing is i then go to transfer a few files that i only have on the PC to my macbook and windows couldnt regconise the new USB powered hard drive, so i googled around and realised timemachine will take over the entire drive. so i erased the data through disk utility and partitioned it into 2 seperate partitions (both volume format are 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)', 170gb for TM and rest for Data storage.
so now i timemachined it onto it again and test storage drive. both work on the macbook, but now on the PC it doesnt get picked up again. so i later found out again that the volume format should be MS-DOS for the one that i need for both PC and Mac. now i redo everything again with the storage partition MS-DOS, it still doesnt work. i've downloaded the drivers for the hard drive for the PC. it is still not working. Do i have a dud harddrive??
it saids its compatitable for both vista and Mac on the box packaging tho.
maybe i shouldve plugged it into the PC first? >_<
anyhelp would be greatly appericated.

 

[misterredman]

You may have to change the partition table in Disk Utility to MBR to have windows recognize it. There is an option in the pertitioning section of Disk Utility.

Keep in mind that changing the partition table probably requires the erasing of all data on the disk and that you won't be able to boot OS X with that external drive (not even the with the HFS+ partition).

 

[cake69]

You may have to change the partition table in Disk Utility to MBR to have windows recognize it. There is an option in the pertitioning section of Disk Utility.

Keep in mind that changing the partition table probably requires the erasing of all data on the disk and that you won't be able to boot OS X with that external drive (not even the with the HFS+ partition).

yeh how do i erase it???completely i mean
if i just erase it takes only a few seconds and i dont think somehow it deletes everything on there. not booting OS X ? what do u mean btw, i have the macbook's internal hd installed with OS X and the external one is for TM and data transfer. thanks for ur help btw. still tryin to do it.
ill post back if anything changes

edit: also how do i exactly do i change it to MBR? what does that mean btw???

 

[misterredman]

yeh how do i erase it???completely i mean
if i just erase it takes only a few seconds and i dont think somehow it deletes everything on there. not booting OS X ? what do u mean btw, i have the macbook's internal hd installed with OS X and the external one is for TM and data transfer. thanks for ur help btw. still tryin to do it.
ill post back if anything changes

edit: also how do i exactly do i change it to MBR? what does that mean btw???

First thing make sure you don't touch the internal drive. So in disk utility select the external one (not the volume names but the entry just above, that describe the entire external disk). Then set the partition scheme under the partiotion tab, as you wish (2 partitions), and change the format of them (one HFS+ and one MS-DOS). Then find the button with options at the bottom. Clicking on it will open a new window with 3 options. Select MBR.

To boot from the external drive (or from any drive) you mac will need the hard drive on which OS X is installed to have the GUID partition table (if it's intel) or the APT (if it's a PPC).
So if you change the partition table of the external drive you won't be able to start from the external disk but only from the internal one (like you are already doing right now). I just wanted to be sure you knew that.

About the time it takes to erase it: don't worry if it's fast, it won't affect what you are trying to do.

 

[cake69]

ok ive fixed this problem.
i tested it on my friends laptop running vista sp1 and it seem to work but not my main PC. so i begin to think and google around more and it turns out that the usb plug point on the top of my pc was not producing enough power to run the usb powered hard drive, ive switched the cable to the rear of the box and it ran fine. thx for allt he help guys appericate it