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Harddrive Problems

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  • 11-11-2010 1:32pm
    #1
    drunkymonkey
    Registered Users Posts: 557 ✭✭✭


    Might seem like a stupid question but you never know till you ask!

    I just bought a Western Digital external harddrive. I have a Mac but my main computer at the moment is a Windows. It works perfect on the windows plug and play really but when i plug the harddrive into the Mac to put stuff onto it its Read only and i can't take anything off the Mac.

    Why is this?


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    #2
    barryj
    Registered Users Posts: 185 ✭✭barryj


    Because it's formatted as an NTFS volume, which is read-only to the Mac.

    Mac native volumes are HFS+, which Windows can't read.

    If you want to share the same volume between both platforms it needs to be formatted as FAT32 or else use a third-party utility on either the Mac or Windows to let it read and write to the other format - I've no experience with such.

    Be aware that reformatting the volume to FAT32, will overwrite any data already on it, and also FAT32 has a maximum file size of 4GB - which may cause you some issues.

    Another option would be to create two volumes on the one drive - one for the PC and one for the Mac - note again, this is a destructive option.

    Personally, I'd keep a separate drive for each system. If you just want to swap some files now and again, either use network sharing or a usb key (formatted FAT32).

    - barry


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    #3
    drunkymonkey
    Registered Users Posts: 557 ✭✭✭drunkymonkey


    Thanks Barry , pretty much explained it all for me! :)

    It was just a few files i needed to get off so i'll use a USB key, i was just wondering why it didn't work with both.


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    #4
    Knasher
    Registered Users Posts: 2,370 ✭✭✭Knasher


    OSX just gained support for exFAT so I'd recommend formatting as that so you won't have the file or partition issues that FAT32 has.


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