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Ntfs HD problem on Imac

P

pomus

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 17, 2007
66
0
Hello, I recently bought an Al Imac and am really excited to use time machine on leopard. I have an old Microsystem ext. HD and it is locked for some reason. I used to use it on an laptop that had xp. My question is: is there any way to reformat the disk so I could use it on my Imac? When I get info from HD, it says NTFS and that I only have permission to read.

Someone please help, I can't stand the fact that my iMac can't use time machine on my ext. HD. :( thanx.
 
I can't select anything when I go to Disk utility on the Erase section.
 
pomus said:
I can't select anything when I go to Disk utility on the Erase section.
Click to expand...

Open the get info window for the drive, go down to the Sharing and Permissions section, click the lock, enter your password, then change Privilege , and change it to read and right.

Now, go back to disk utility and see if you can erase now.
 
also, in the button where the info is, it says:
write status: read only
S.M.A.R.T status: not supported
partition map scheme : unformatted

Does this have anything to do with me not being able to write on the HD?
 
pomus said:
also, in the button where the info is, it says:
write status: read only
S.M.A.R.T status: not supported
partition map scheme : unformatted

Does this have anything to do with me not being able to write on the HD?
Click to expand...

No, that has nothing to do to it.
 
thanks for the response. When I go to get info>sharing & permissions, it says "you can only read."
 
is there any way to reformat my ext. HD on my xp to make it compatible on my iMac?
 
pomus said:
is there any way to reformat my ext. HD on my xp to make it compatible on my iMac?
Click to expand...

You can format it as Fat32, which will be readable and writeable by both OSes. Plug it in, go to my computer, right click, format, and select fat32 + quick erase. Be sure to back up whatever's on the drive first.
 
When I tried to format my HD on my XP, it only gives me NTFS as an option. Is there any app that can help me reformat my HD.
 
pomus said:
thanks, will give it a try.
Click to expand...

I'm really surprised you can't format the drive with disk utility.

If you select the physical drive, not the volume, and then go to the partition tab, what do you see there?

You should be able to delete the NTFS volume from there and create a new volume.

That's if you can't just use erase from the erase tab.
 
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