Time machine and the external hard disk dirve (HDD)

Discussion in 'Mac Apps and Mac App Store' started by joonyee94, Sep 26, 2012.

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  1. joonyee94, Sep 26, 2012

    joonyee94 macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2012
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    Malaysia
    #1
    Yeah, as you can see above, I used my HDD as a backup drive to my new macbook air, but here's the problem. After it reformated my HDD, I wanna used my HDD to transfer some files from my friends, of his Windows PC and mine just can't detect the HDD, I need you guy's help to guide me to let Windows PC to detect my HDD or just simply reformat it back to Window's PC format. Thanks~ Please reply me as soon as possible!!
     
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  2. netslacker, Sep 27, 2012

    netslacker macrumors 6502

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2008
    #2
    If the drive was used for Time Machine then it's formatted HFS+ which is Mac only. You have some options:

    1. Find an HFS+ windows driver and install on windows PC.
    2. Repartition and reformat the drive to a Mac AND Windows compatible format. Mac supports FAT32 and exFAT (so does windows).

    If it's a Windows 7 PC that you want to share with then go with exFAT as it supports files greater than 4gb.

    To reformat the drive, use Disk Utility.app in the Utilities folder under Applications and repartition and reformat the drive. Doing so will completely wipe the drive of all of its data but will make it compatible with both OSes. The down side here is that you can no longer use it for Time Machine as that requires HFS+ formatting.
     
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  3. Weaselboy, Sep 27, 2012

    Weaselboy Moderator

    Weaselboy

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    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2005
    Location:
    California
    #3
    I would keep one partition in HFS+ to be used for Time Machine then create a second partition in exFAT to be used for sharing files with your Windows friends.
     
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