Traci, If you want to be able to read the drive on both windows and Mac you can use Fat32. You can partition the drive on the Mac and dedicate one partition to the file system for the Mac and make the other partition Fat32. If you make it NTFS you would have to connect it to Windows because the Mac cannot format it in the NTFS format. Fat32 would be visible to the Mac, so it really depends on what you want to do. You can use Disk Utility to accomplish this task.
On Dec 28, 2011, at 9:09 PM, Traci wrote: > So, I have been semi-successful. > > I've emptied my external drive onto my windows desktop, and I formatted about > 40GB as NTFS, however I can't figure out how to format the rest of the drive > a Mac Journal. > > I'm wondering if I went about this backwards? Maybe I should format the > drive on Mac, 40GB fat32 and the rest as Mac Journal, then go over to my > Windows and reformat the fat32 partition? Lol, not sure, that sound a little > nutty. > > Any guidance here? :) > > Traci > Sent by Macbook Air Mail > > On Dec 26, 2011, at 5:45 PM, Scott Howell wrote: > >> You could do that, but it will take some time to back all that data up. Of >> course no matter what you do you should have a good backup. You could try a >> tool like Drive Genius or a program that will let you repartition the drive >> without trashing the data. You could certainly save the money and just copy >> everything over to your other machine and then partition and format the >> drive as you like. >> >> On Dec 26, 2011, at 8:38 PM, Traci wrote: >> >>> Ok, I've ran into a little hitch in my plan. >>> >>> My external hard drive is actually ntfs, and there is more on it than I >>> realized. I'm using just under 30GB. >>> >>> Lol, I'm not sure where I can temporarily place all this data, why I >>> experiment with reformating. >>> >>> My windows laptop desktop makes the best sense, however free space on the >>> laptop is 37GB. Can the machine handle being so full? >>> >>> Is creating a folder on my macbook desktop even an option? Paste all the >>> data inside, then connect the drive to my windows to reformat? >>> >>> The instructions on the web are saying format a partition as ntfs, then >>> leave the rest of the drive as empty unformatted space. Connect the drive >>> to my Mac and format that empty partition as Mac Journal. >>> >>> What are the groups thoughts here? >>> >>> Traci >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: Scott Howell >>> To: [email protected] >>> Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 1:57 PM >>> Subject: Re: pc/mac external harddrive >>> >>> SUre, go for it. You have the right idea. >>> >>> On Dec 26, 2011, at 4:21 PM, Traci wrote: >>> >>>> Hello all, >>>> >>>> Ok, for the last hour or so, I've been reading material on the web about >>>> using an external hard drive between mac/pc's. >>>> >>>> If I understand this correctly, I can partition the external drive into 2 >>>> sections. One can be fat32 for windows and one can be mac journal >>>> something. >>>> >>>> I don't plan on swapping data between machines, I just want to put this >>>> 250gb drive to best use. I've been using it for Months backing up my >>>> windows machine, now I want to use it for my Mac, but I don't want to lose >>>> my windows data. >>>> >>>> So, for example: >>>> 20GB is dedicated to windows, >>>> and the rest is dedicated to Mac. >>>> >>>> What do you guys think? Is this doable or recommended? >>>> >>>> Thanks so much, >>>> Traci >>>> Sent by Macbook Air Mail >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> [email protected]. >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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