cant write on to targa ext HD on mac - why ?

ChicoMendez

for some reason i can write to my targa 250gb HD from a windows machine but not from my mbp - why one know why ? as i desperately need to back some stuff up!

tnx alot!

pleasant Co.

Could it be a NTFS formatted HDD?

babypink

how is the drive formatted?

*nix doesn't have native NTFS support. You could try installing this driver http://www.ntfs-3g.org/ but its command line only and a pain

jpfahy

format it as FAT using disk utility and you will be able to write to it from both Mac and Windows but you will be limited to individual file sizes of no more than 4gb

ChicoMendez

jpfahy wrote:

format it as FAT using disk utility and you will be able to write to it from both Mac and Windows but you will be limited to individual file sizes of no more than 4gb

if i reformat it - i lose everything i already have on it ?

tnx

K.O.Kiki

I think you would lose everything, yes.

ethernet

ChicoMendez wrote:

if i reformat it - i lose everything i already have on it ?

tnx

Copy everything on to your PC's or Mac's HDD first and then format with FAT 32. Restore your files. Just make sure none of your files are bigger than 4 GB first.

Cabaal

ChicoMendez wrote:

if i reformat it - i lose everything i already have on it ?

tnx

Yes you would, as such you'd need to backup the contents of the drive before hand.

Basically, if your using a drive with Mac and Windows you two choices
NTFS - Works in Windows 2000, XP, Vista, allows files larger then 4GB in size, Mac OSX will only be able to read this format and will not be able to write to the drive

FAT32 - Works with Windows 95,98,ME etc, Works with OSX and OSX can read/write to it however it des not allow files larger then 4GB in size

Basically the file size limit becomes a issue if you editing large video files or if you store DVD ISO.

dub45

Why not partition the disc and have a partition for your Mac stuff and one for the Windows stuff?

ChicoMendez

Cabaal wrote: »

Yes you would, as such you'd need to backup the contents of the drive before hand.

Basically, if your using a drive with Mac and Windows you two choices
NTFS - Works in Windows 2000, XP, Vista, allows files larger then 4GB in size, Mac OSX will only be able to read this format and will not be able to write to the drive

FAT32 - Works with Windows 95,98,ME etc, Works with OSX and OSX can read/write to it however it des not allow files larger then 4GB in size

Basically the file size limit becomes a issue if you editing large video files or if you store DVD ISO.

HI

so u are saying that if i reformat it as FAT32 then i can NOT use it with Windows 2000, XP, Vista?

im trying to use the disk utility - how do i format the drive - what options do i select ?

tnx

ChicoMendez

I have just reformatted the drive via a seagate program on my PC

however for some reason when i access the HD via Mac i can only see the files i put on via Mac and like wise with the PC - is this normal ?

tnx

cornbb

No, that doesn't sound normal.

In Windows, go to View options and enable viewing for hidden files and folders. In OS X only files/folders that begin with . are hidden (eg ".Trashes"). They should still be visible in Windows.