i just recvd a new 500gb external hd that i have connected via USB until i got a sata card. it came formatted for windows NTFS so its pretty useless w/my powermac quicksilver. so my question is if i wish to use if primarily on my mac but sitll have the option to read (and write if possible on a windows system) what format option should i choose in disk utility. ...and by "format" i guess thats wha i'm doing when i use disk utility's "partition" function?
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HELP format hd
- Thread starter Toby Goodbar
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You will have to use FAT32. It works on both PC and Mac for read/write. Just don't keep important data on the drive or depend on file ownership and permissions to work but you will be able to interchange data
Why share the drive by plugging and un-plugging it? Use the network. Then you can use Apple's HFS+ format
You could leave it formatted NTFS and download MacFuse & NTFS-3G ( free ) or paragon ( not so free )
or format it hfs+ ( mac extended journaled )and download macdrive 7 for windows to be able to read/write to it
or format it FAT32 ( MAC DOS ) but you are limited to 4GB file transfers ( native read/write )
To format it highlight the drive in the left pane of disk utilities then the erase tab ( top ) then chose your volume format then hit the erase button
or format it hfs+ ( mac extended journaled )and download macdrive 7 for windows to be able to read/write to it
or format it FAT32 ( MAC DOS ) but you are limited to 4GB file transfers ( native read/write )
To format it highlight the drive in the left pane of disk utilities then the erase tab ( top ) then chose your volume format then hit the erase button
because theres no network. i want if for times when i go home for the holidays n visit family. (i'm da only mac using black sheep in my immediate family) i plan on keeping movies and music on it so i can bring entertainment w/me easily.
im going to format if HFS+ and dload macdrive once i need it. thanx. i didn't know about macdrive and i really wasnt sure about how mac can conduct fat32 formatting. i already tried on a friends window system and it wouldn't.
so i need "mac os extended (journaled)" in disk utility? what is the "ms-dos file system" option for?
If you format in HFS (not journaled), you can use HFSExplorer, which is free, to read and write to an HFS formatted volume under Windows.
HFS+ is a much better & improved file system that supports much larger files & block addresses ( 32bit rather than 16bit) plus 32bit mapping
sooo.... if format my hard drive as mac os extended how is is different from mac os extended (journaled) because i did it as journaled. i'm in the middle of transferring data now and i'm not sure if i should reformat it then....
Neil321, I meant HFS+ not the old HFS.
Toby Goodbar, formatting an external drive with no journaling enabled seems to be the consensus amongst users of a lot of external drives.
I for an example use 6 to 7 external drives (Firewire 400&800, USB) simultaneously and have them all formatted with no journaling enabled.
Before that, some of them had journaling enabled and they pretty fracked up a lot by being inconsistent in their behaviour - no mounting even when connected and other things I don't care to remember right now.
I don't know the technical background of this, of course.
PS: here is an article by Apple about journaling.
Toby Goodbar, formatting an external drive with no journaling enabled seems to be the consensus amongst users of a lot of external drives.
I for an example use 6 to 7 external drives (Firewire 400&800, USB) simultaneously and have them all formatted with no journaling enabled.
Before that, some of them had journaling enabled and they pretty fracked up a lot by being inconsistent in their behaviour - no mounting even when connected and other things I don't care to remember right now.
I don't know the technical background of this, of course.
PS: here is an article by Apple about journaling.