Transferring files from MacBook Pro to External Hard Drive

[Wahooti Fandango]

Howdy. I am trying to transfer files from my MacBook Pro to my external hard drive that I was previously using with my old PC. It will not let me, but does let me transfer files from the external hard drive to the Mac. Is this a formatting issue with the drive/files on the drive? How do I fix it? Reformat the drive? Is NTFS any good?

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Cheers for any help.

 

[Doctor Feel]

lol apple.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Damn you Mr Trollface.

 

[uncustom]

Your hard drive is not compatiable with mac for copying files to it, You would have to probably reformat it to NTFS I happen to have a LaCie Hard Drive (Haven't checked, But im pretty sure its formated as NTFS) with I used with my Mac/Bootcamp and my other Windows PC, When I first used my hard drive, it asked me if I wanted to use it with Mac or Windows or Both, So I chose both, It creates 2 sections (You can chose the sizes). They both show up on the desktop both on Mac and Windows, but on my other PC only the windows compatiable one shows up. I can copy files to both sections on Mac, but on my Windows Bootcamp, I can only copy them to my windows compatiable section although I can still see both.

I suggest looking up for Mac Compatiable Hard Drives or getting a LaCie one, however if you are able to backup your files on the Hard Drive, and reformat it, hopefully it can work

 

[The Casey Cat]

Yep you need to reformat the drive. If it's any help you can use usb stick flash drives to copy files between a mac and windows pc.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Cheers for the help guys.

 

[BotsMaster]

Please burn that Mac when you're done.

Thank you.

 

[standingroomonly]

NTFS is the file system on your hard drive.

NTFS is not compatible with Mac.

The hard drive itself IS compatible.

If you want to use the drive on both Mac and PC at the same time format it (either using the Mac or PC, doesn't matter) to FAT32 file system, if you're using the Mac Disk Utility app it's listed as MS-DOS (FAT)

If you don't want to format the drive you can get third party software that will enable you to read NTFS on a Mac.

 

[red+black]

Reformat your external drive as a single exFAT partition (rather than FAT32).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Quick question; when reformatting do I need to back the files up somewhere? In other words does reformatting wipe the drive in the process?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[standingroomonly]

Yes reformatting will wipe your drive

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Okay. Cheers, mate. Will try this reformatting in the next few days.

 

[Dry Rot]

When you resolve the simple format issue, are you going to use Time Machine to back up on your new hard drive?

Has worked beautifully for me.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Have not really looked into it, but would be a good idea.

 

[CraigB]

As mentioned format the drive from the MAC into exFat and you will be able to read and write to the HD from either MAC and or PC.

If your PC is a little older (XP) or even Vista you may need to install a Microsoft Patch to get it to read and write correctly to exFAT. Google is your friend in this regard.

 

[red+black]

If your PC is a little older (XP) or even Vista you may need to install a Microsoft Patch to get it to read and write correctly to exFAT. Google is your friend in this regard.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=19364

I'd keep a copy of the update above to install on any other XP machines you encounter (eg. on the network, in Dropbox, on a FAT32/NTFS flash drive, etc)

 

[rfctigerarmy]

I don't use Time Machine. Last time I heard, it backs up the whole hard disk. I use a program which just backs up the specific folders I want backed up.

 

[giantroo]

I use this:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26288/ntfs-for-mac-os-x

NTFS for Mac OS X breaks down the barriers between Windows and Mac OS X. Effectively solves the communication problems between the Mac system and NTFS, providing full read and write access to Windows NTFS partitions under Mac OS X. Excellent solution for end users, SOHO and Enterprise, supports all NTFS versions from Windows NT 3.1 to Windows 7 (NTFS versions 1.2, 3.0 and 3.1) and mounts the NTFS volumes as native ones.

 

[red+black]

exFAT is free and native.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Reformatted and is working well. Thanks again for the help.