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I need to format my HD for Windows & Mac..

M

maccie13

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I have a 1TB iOmega harddisk which I bought when I used to use a Windows desktop. Its got movies, music and stuff. Used: 427GB. Available: 573GB. Obviously, I can only read from the HD on my Mac. What I want is to be able to use it to read and write on Mac and Windows platforms. I obviously have to backup the data from my HD onto my Macbook which means its time to bring Time Machine into the business, but I don't know how to operate TM so I need assistance with that. And I will also need some help with Disk Utility after the backing up (with TM) is done.

Big thanks to those who are going to get me through this 🙂
 
Hey,

Well, for the writing to both partitions on the HDD use Paragons NTFS for Mac (Not free, but really worth the $$) - It allows read/write to any windows partition.

TM is really easy to use.

What don't you understand about it? also - what do you need to do in Disk utility?

R.
 
I disagree with the first responder.

Since you have a backup of all the data on that external I would format it EXfat using a Windows PC to do that, as Mac doesn't do it correctly and Windows for some reason can't read drives formatted on a Mac EXfat (at least that has been my experience). That way both Mac and Windows will be able to read and write to that drive.
 
Tander said:
Hey,

Well, for the writing to both partitions on the HDD use Paragons NTFS for Mac (Not free, but really worth the $$) - It allows read/write to any windows partition.

TM is really easy to use.

What don't you understand about it? also - what do you need to do in Disk utility?

R.
Click to expand...

What is Paragons NTFS?

Actually, I wanted to back up the data from my HD to my Macbook and I can accomplish that by simple copy-paste. I thought that TM would do it for me but after some online reading I found out that TM is used to do the exact opposite job i.e. backup the data from my Macbook to another disk (external). So, I wanted to basically get rid of this confusion 🙂

And in Disk Utility I wanted to know which format and partition scheme to apply for the Windows partition but Shootist just answered that query..

shootist said:
I disagree with the first responder.

Since you have a backup of all the data on that external I would format it EXfat using a Windows PC to do that, as Mac doesn't do it correctly and Windows for some reason can't read drives formatted on a Mac EXfat (at least that has been my experience). That way both Mac and Windows will be able to read and write to that drive.
Click to expand...

So you suggest that I do formatting entirely on a Windows PC and not on a Mac?
 
maccie13 said:
And in Disk Utility I wanted to know which format and partition scheme to apply for the Windows partition but Shootist just answered that query..



So you suggest that I do formatting entirely on a Windows PC and not on a Mac?
Click to expand...

Yes because Apples, Macs, implementation of EXfat is screwy and every drive that I have formatted EXfat on a Mac is not readable on any PC. Doing the same formatting to EXfat on a PC and both PC and Mac can read and write to those drives.
 
I formatted exFAT with DiskUtility and never had any problems. I don't access the data very much from Windows though. Yet the few times never seemed to cause any problems.
 
Format A Hard Drive Using Disk Utility (which is in your /Applications/Utilities folder)

Choose the appropriate format:

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)

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, here are some alternatives:
    • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion)
    • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
    • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
    • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36).
    • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, 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
  • You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.

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 can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
    [*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
  • You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
 
I just installed MacFUSE.pkg but I dont know what to do now.. Tried to delete a file on my external HD but fail! Do I dig into this MacFUSE thing or just take a safe route and format it using Windows/Disk Utility? I'm thinking I'll try using DU first and, if that doesn't work I'll try it with Windows... Btw, there is no option of NTFS in DU. What's MS-DOS (FAT) good for?
And what partitioning scheme should I use? GUID Partition Table or Apple Partition Map or Master Boot Record?
 
maccie13 said:
I just installed MacFUSE.pkg but I dont know what to do now.. Tried to delete a file on my external HD but fail! Do I dig into this MacFUSE thing or just take a safe route and format it using Windows/Disk Utility? I'm thinking I'll try using DU first and, if that doesn't work I'll try it with Windows... Btw, there is no option of NTFS in DU. What's MS-DOS (FAT) good for?
And what partitioning scheme should I use? GUID Partition Table or Apple Partition Map or Master Boot Record?
Click to expand...
Did you read my last post? The links provide all the information you need.
 
Ive never had issues with FAT32. In Afghanistan everyone had different computers and FAT32 worked great between macs and pc's to transfer music porn/movies
 
DrNick8404 said:
Ive never had issues with FAT32. In Afghanistan everyone had different computers and FAT32 worked great between macs and pc's to transfer music porn/movies
Click to expand...
The primary problem with FAT32 is no file can be larger than 4GB. For some, that's not an issue; for others, it is.
 
GGJstudios said:
Did you read my last post? The links provide all the information you need.
Click to expand...

I did read it but I still dont know if MacFUSE will provide a sure solution. From what I read it seems unlikely. So should I dig into it or not is the question..
 
Exfat I have found works great. However for Windows machines running XP you need to download and install a patch from MS to enable exFat support.
 
I've got an external USB drive formatted ExFat by my Lion MBP and it's readable by any windows PC it's plugged into.
 
Dweez said:
I've got an external USB drive formatted ExFat by my Lion MBP and it's readable by any windows PC it's plugged into.
Click to expand...

My 4GB USB works (reads/writes) on a Mac and Windows without having formatted it. So whats the difference between USBs and HDs?
 
maccie13 said:
My 4GB USB works (reads/writes) on a Mac and Windows without having formatted it.
Click to expand...
That's because it came pre-formatted, most likely as FAT32. All drives need to be formatted before they can work with a particular OS. Most come pre-formatted as FAT32, NTFS or HFS+, but the user can change the format, if they wish.
 
maccie13 said:
My 4GB USB works (reads/writes) on a Mac and Windows without having formatted it. So whats the difference between USBs and HDs?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing the 4 gig USB device is a thumb drive, most likely formatted with FAT / FAT32?
 
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