Problems moving files to external hard drive

[tipmart87]

Hello

We have just bought our first MAC after using windows for 13 years.

Our first problem has been trying to move files from our MAC to our external hard drive

The External drive was used on our windows laptop before and we are attempting to move a downloaded movie from our MAC to the hard drive so we can use software (VSO) on our laptop to convert it to a watchable DVD


however, despite holding down the command button on our keyboard, the file will not move

Any solutions or is there similar software to VSO for a MAC that we can use?

Thank you

 

[GoCubsGo]

File transfers from your Mac to a Windows formatted drive will be limited as your drive is likely formatted NTFS and is likely limited to 4 GB transfer limits. Though, I''ve had issues with files over 2 GB.

 

[MacDawg]

If it was used for your Windows computer, it is probably formatted as NTFS
Your Mac will read NTFS, but will not write it natively
You will need 3rd party software such as NTFS-3G to do that

Or, you can format the drive as FAT32 and it will be read/write for OSX and Windows (MS DOS (FAT))
However, be aware that FAT32 will limit your file transfers to 4 GB

Check out the various file systems here: MR Guide: File Systems

 

[tipmart87]

If it was used for your Windows computer, it is probably formatted as NTFS
Your Mac will read NTFS, but will not write it natively
You will need 3rd party software such as NTFS-3G to do that

Or, you can format the drive as FAT32 and it will be read/write for OSX and Windows (MS DOS (FAT))
However, be aware that FAT32 will limit your file transfers to 4 GB

Check out the various file systems here: MR Guide: File Systems

If I re-format my hard drive, will i lose all the files already on it and will my windows laptop be able to read files from my MAC?

Thanks for all the help

 

[MacDawg]

If I re-format my hard drive, will i lose all the files already on it and will my windows laptop be able to read files from my MAC?

Thanks for all the help

Yes, if you reformat, it will erase the drive

If you format as FAT32, your Windows computer will also be able to read and write it
But again, you will be restricted to files of 4 GB or less

If you format for your Mac (HFS+), you will need something like MacDrive on you Windows computer to read/write the drive

If you keep it as NTFS, you can install NTFS-3G and read/write it