Sold Macbook Pro....forgot to format external drive (now what?)

[funnyatleast]

I just sold my macbook pro, and I have been using an external hardrive to back up important files. By mistake I turned it into a timemachine hardrive while i still owned the mac. I have NO macs in my house only windows since i just sold it, and windows cant read Timemachine external.

I can go to the apple store and format my drive to FAT32??? (not exactly sure if that is right), will this delete everything on it? If so, then I have no idea what to do, because I need those files.

 

[robbieduncan]

I can go to the apple store and format my drive to FAT32??? (not exactly sure if that is right), will this delete everything on it? If so, then I have no idea what to do, because I need those files.

If you format the drive you loose all the data. Don't do that. An Apple Store may be able to help you out.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Get another external HDD (if necessary due to HDD capacity constraints on the internal HDD of your Windows computer) and connect both external HDDs to the Windows computer.
Download the 7-day trial of MacDrive and install it in Windows.
Now you can read the HFS+ formatted HDD from your Mac and copy all your data (the one you want) from the old HDD to the new HDD and then you can format the old HDD and copy the data back.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
• Maximum file size: 4GB.
• Maximum volume size: 2TB

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: Install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free)
  
• Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx 33USD).
• Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard, 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

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended)

• Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
• Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner backups of Mac internal hard drive.
• To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
• To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
• Maximum file size: 8EiB
• Maximum volume size: 8EiB

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

 

[funnyatleast]

Get another external HDD (if necessary due to HDD capacity constraints on the internal HDD of your Windows computer) and connect both external HDDs to the Windows computer.
Download the 7-day trial of MacDrive and install it in Windows.
Now you can read the HFS+ formatted HDD from your Mac and copy all your data (the one you want) from the old HDD to the new HDD and then you can format the old HDD and copy the data back.

wow thanks for the great post, really helped. I am going to try it out right now. Now I dont have to feel awkward standing in a mac store converting my hardrive to FAT32 for an hour.....I will just wait till I buy my new mac, atleast I can access my files now till then.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

wow thanks for the great post, really helped. I am going to try it out right now. Now I dont have to feel awkward standing in a mac store converting my hardrive to FAT32 for an hour.....I will just wait till I buy my new mac, atleast I can access my files now till then.

You can't convert HFS+ to FAT32 and know, that the trial of MacDrive will only work for seven days.

 

[funnyatleast]

You can't convert HFS+ to FAT32 and know, that the trial of MacDrive will only work for seven days.

then how do i get it to a usable windows format

 

[simsaladimbamba]

then how do i get it to a usable windows format

Formatting it.
I think I misunderstood you saying "converting my hardrive to FAT32 for an hour" as you actually trying to convert you old HDD to FAT32.
I guess you planned to copy your data off the HDD first.
To format it, use Disk Management in Windows.

 

[Bill Gates]

HFSExplorer is another (free!) option for read-only access to HFS-formatted drives. I use it all the time.

 

[funnyatleast]

Formatting it.
I think I misunderstood you saying "converting my hardrive to FAT32 for an hour" as you actually trying to convert you old HDD to FAT32.
I guess you planned to copy your data off the HDD first.
To format it, use Disk Management in Windows.

yes i was going to copy everything off the timemachine drive, and if I can format it in windows I will do that.