Windows Ext hard drive stopped working after using time machine

[fahim128]

Would appreciate help on this problem I have

i borrowed my friend's external hard drive (who has windows 7) to back up my MacBook. I backed up my stuff, however when I gave his hard drive back, it stopped working on his laptop. The laptop recognises that a device is connected, but he cannot access anything as there is no device sign in his "computer"

He has tested it on other Windows devices and same problem happens. However when I put the hard drive back on to my MacBook, I can still see all his files

Please can someone help as this is my fault!!!
Thanks

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i used time machine btw, to back up my MacBook, i forgot to mention on my original post

 

[4zuresky]

Sounds like the hard drive was formatted to recognize mac os and not windows. When you decided to use the machine as a time machine the macbook automatically format the hard drive to Mac os journal extended. Windows computers cannot read hard drives like that.

I feel like either one of you will have to get a new hard drive or reformat the hard drive to NTFS and install some form of program that'll allow the macbook to read windows side of things.

Good luck!

Edit: spelling error

 

[fahim128]

Sounds like the hard drive was formatted to recognize mac os and not windows. When you decided to use the machine as a time machine the macbook automatically format the hard drive to Mac os journal extended. Windows computers cannot read hard drives like that.

I feel like either one of you will have to get a new hard drive or reformat the hard drive to NTFS and install some form of program that'll allow the macbook to read windows side of things.

Good luck!

Edit: spelling error

Thanks for the reply

Do you know how I can reformat the hard drive to NTFS? I'm just worried about fixing my friends hard drive. He had all of his backups on it!

 

[old-wiz]

Thanks for the reply

Do you know how I can reformat the hard drive to NTFS? I'm just worried about fixing my friends hard drive. He had all of his backups on it!

If your friend had backups on it they are gone. With Tme Machine re-formatting to osx extended journaled everything on the disk prior is gone.

 

[4zuresky]

All the backups are gone the moment you used it as time machine.

Plug in the usb to your macbook. Disk utility. Click on hard drive. Format. Then select NTFS for Windows side.

 

[old-wiz]

When you used time machine to save stuff on the windows drive it ovewrote whatever was there before. No recovery program is going to get the data back. While some of the data might still be there, there's no way to get it back.