Help Needed Erasing A External HD

[Bazzy]

Hi All,

I have a spare external portable HD that I was using for back ups but am now using another HD instead.

I would like to use this spare HD just to store Movies as they are taking up space on my UMBP. Currently, this spare HD is formatted to work with Time Machine. Can anyone please tell me, if I erase it via disk utility, what should I format it to so that the HD can be accessed by both Mac & PC owners? There is the usual Mac OS Extended options, MS-DOS (FAT) & ExFAT.

Also, in Disk Utility, there seems to be two options on which to erase - one which says "250GB WD 25000BEA External Media" & another below (but slightly off to one side) which says "Macbook Pro Time Machine Back Up" (I named that) - which one do I select to erase?

Many Thanks,

Bazzy!

 

[jampat]

Lookup and install NTFS-3G for OS X. Format the drive as NTFS, it would then be accessible by both (although for me NTFS over USB is much slower than HFS+). Alternatively buy macdrive for the PC and format as HFS+.

To access a large hard drive across both operating systems will require software be installed on one or the other.

 

[mscriv]

It depends on the size of the movies Bazzy. The most simple solution is to just format the drive as FAT32 so it will be accessible to both Mac and PC. However, FAT32 can not store files over 4GB in size, so if you are wanting to store large HD movies that are over 4GB in size then FAT32 won't work for you.

Also, in Disk Utility, there seems to be two options on which to erase - one which says "250GB WD 25000BEA External Media" & another below (but slightly off to one side) which says "Macbook Pro Time Machine Back Up" (I named that) - which one do I select to erase?

You want to click on the part that is named "Time Machine Back Up" and erase/reformat that part.

 

[Bazzy]

It depends on the size of the movies Bazzy. The most simple solution is to just format the drive as FAT32 so it will be accessible to both Mac and PC. However, FAT32 can not store files over 4GB in size, so if you are wanting to store large HD movies that are over 4GB in size then FAT32 won't work for you.

You want to click on the part that is named "Time Machine Back Up" and erase/reformat that part.

Hi,

I just had a look - most movies are .avi format & hd ones are .mp4 format most are less than 3GB. I do also have the following non-hd movies:

12 movies which are DVD Player Media Document format - approx 8GB each

4 movies which are VOB File (DVD Video) format inside a "Video_TS Folder" - approx - 6GB-8GB each.

Can I convert these to say .avi or .mp4 easily somehow (to also save GB's) & then format to FAT32?

Bazzy!

 

[mscriv]

Sure you can convert those other movies to another format to cut down on the size. I use Handbrake for my video conversion needs, but the most recent version no longer supports .avi, so you would have to convert to .mp4. There are numerous video conversion programs out there. Just do some research and find the one that you think will meet your needs best.

 

[Bazzy]

Sure you can convert those other movies to another format to cut down on the size. I use Handbrake for my video conversion needs, but the most recent version no longer supports .avi, so you would have to convert to .mp4. There are numerous video conversion programs out there. Just do some research and find the one that you think will meet your needs best.

Hi,

Many thanks for the help! May I ask, in order to preserve best quality & optimise accessibility, which is the best format to convert to - .avi, .mp4 or other? Any particularly good apps you can recommend that a novice can use?

Thanks,

Bazzy!

 

[mscriv]

I can only speak from a mac perspective as I'm a mac user. My video conversion programs of choice are Handbrake and VisualHub. VisualHub is an older program that is no longer being developed or supported where as Handbrake has a whole community of support with its own forum.

With just a minimal amount of research I think you could use Handbrake to meet your needs. I convert most of my movies to .mp4 for good quality at a smaller file size.