Mac external drive on a windows machine?

[whyrichard]

Hello Mac people!

i have a lacie harddrive that i originally used on a mac but now need to backup my work pcxppro machine.


and nothing works.


how the HELELE do i get this harddrive to work on this crapppy windows machine?

i can't stand windows.

i tried installing the lacie usb driver, it installed (after telling me that it was not windows logo certified) and tnothing happened.

what do i do?


thanks,
r.

 

[faintember]

Doesn't this have to do with formatting? If it is HFS then Windows cant write to it, but if the drive is FAT 32 then it can be written to by both Mac's and Windows machines.

If this is the case, then there is nothing you can do unless you reformat the drive to FAT 32.

Someone correct me if i am wrong...

 

[grapes911]

Someone correct me if i am wrong...

You are pretty much correct. There is software to use HFS formatted drives with Windows, but they cost money and I don't find them too reliable. My advice is to reformat the drive.

 

[mrichmon]

Doesn't this have to do with formatting? If it is HFS then Windows cant write to it, but if the drive is FAT 32 then it can be written to by both Mac's and Windows machines.

If this is the case, then there is nothing you can do unless you reformat the drive to FAT 32.

Someone correct me if i am wrong...

You are correct.

For Windows to be able to use the drive you will need to reformat the disk. This means that all the data on the disk will be deleted. If you only need to use the drive in Windows then you can format the drive using either a FAT 32 filesystem (also known as an MS DOS filesystem) or using NTFS. Under Windows 2000 and Windows XP, NTFS is the prefered filesystem to use in most cases.

However, if you need to use the drive under Windows and under OS X then your only option (without using additional software) is to format the drive using the FAT 32 filesystem. Both Windows and OS X can read and write the FAT 32 filesystem so you can access files on the drive from either OS.

 

[faintember]

You are pretty much correct. There is software to use HFS formatted drives with Windows, but they cost money and I don't find them too reliable. My advice is to reformat the drive.

That I did not know! Sounds interesting as a last-ditch effort, but the thought of that does sound quite unreliable.

I guess this will all change with the migration to Intel chips?

 

[whyrichard]

in the disk utility on a mac machine i couldn't find an option for fat32...

only journaled, case sensative, etc...


where do i convert this external hd for fat32?


thanks,
r.

 

[semaja2]

also if your unable to still get your drive to work in xp goto computer managment and goto disk managment and make sure your drive is deteced and the paritition has a drive letter

 

[grapes911]

in the disk utility on a mac machine i couldn't find an option for fat32...

only journaled, case sensative, etc...


where do i convert this external hd for fat32?


thanks,
r.

Look for MS formatting.

 

[grapes911]

I guess this will all change with the migration to Intel chips?

Nope. Won't change a thing. The physical hardware reads drives exactly the same way no matter who makes the computer (assuming it uses a standardized hard drive and not some proprietary device. Macs and PC use standard hard drives). Formatting is how the OS and drivers read the drive.

 

[whyrichard]

also if your unable to still get your drive to work in xp goto computer managment and goto disk managment and make sure your drive is deteced and the paritition has a drive letter

looks like there is no drive letter assigned...

i went already a mac machine and reformatted it as a fat32, i think, and put one thing on it fromthe mac environment just to see that it worked.

but back at the xppro machine there is nothing other than the usual.



thanks!


frustrated,

r.

 

[semaja2]

ok in disk managment right click on the partition and click change drive letter and paths

PS im refering to the xp machine here

 

[mrichmon]

looks like there is no drive letter assigned...

i went already a mac machine and reformatted it as a fat32, i think, and put one thing on it fromthe mac environment just to see that it worked.

but back at the xppro machine there is nothing other than the usual.

An additional wrinkle is that the partition table that OS X uses is different from the partition table that Windows uses. A partition table describes how many partitions exist on the drive.

The easiest way to set up what you are trying to do is to connect the drive to a Windows machine. Open the control panel then open system administration. There is an option there for drive management. Under the drive management tool, select the drive and use the right-click menu to create a partition and format the partition using a FAT filesystem. There might be a single option in this tool to "prepare this disk for use in windows" or some similar option.

Once you have formatted the disk under Windows and you can copy a small file to the disk, use the tool in the task tray to remove the external drive from the system so you can unplug it and connect it to the Mac. If you have formatted the drive using the FAT filesystem the Mac will be able to mount the disk.

Detailed instructions on formatting a drive under windows can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309000

 

[pulsewidth947]

If you format as FAT32, you cant use spotlight comments in Tiger... bear that in mind. I use MacDrive in Windows and it lets me access my Lacie drive (HFS+) just like a regular drive.