Are portable hard drives compatible with both Mac and PC?

davey..

I have a portable hard drive but havent opened it yet. I have a macbook but always borrow files from my other friends computers who all have pc's. I want to know can I connect my HD to my friends PC and then transfer them to my mac. Or will they be in a different format? and will my hd connect to my PS3 too?

Answer
Generally speaking,, Windows cannot read or write to a hard disk formatted for a Mac without third party software, although the Mac can read and write to a Windows formatted disk. If you want to transfer files, I suggest you skip the connecting of hard disks and have them send you those files via email if they're small enough, or via a service such as DropBox (https://www.dropbox.com/) or YouSendIt (http://www.yousendit.com/).

Mac Portable Hard Drive Help?

h8thecause

I recently bought a SimpleTech portable hard drive. Its a 160gb if that matters. I am working on trying to backup my music by dragging and dropping it on there, but when I plug it in and try to drag, it does not allow me. When I view the info for the portable hard drive, the sharing and permissions says: "I can only read". How would I fix this?

Answer
Check whether the hard disk has "Write Lock". If it is so make sure it is not write locked.

Make sure that the Hard Drive is not formatted as NTFS. Mac does not support writing data to a NTFS volume. Just right click the mounted volume in Finder and select "Get Info". In the Info window check for the "Format:". In case the format is NTFS, it shows "Windows NT Filesystem". [ http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/attachments/maccar/40138d1172094097-using-external-hd-between-mac-pc-picture-1.png ].
If it is so, your Mac will not allow you to write data to that volume.

There are 2 solutions :
1. Make Mac write data to NTFS volume : Install 3rd party NTFS support for Mac. Softwares like "Paragon NTFS" [ http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/ ] allows you to write data to NTFS volume.
2. Reformat the hard disk to Mac Compatible format : This will require you to erase the entire data present in the disk. You can use Disk Utility to reformat the hard disk. If you are not sharing it with Windows PC, you can format it with format as "HFS+" (referred as "Mac OS Extended" in disk utility). In case you intend to share it with Windows "Fat32" will be the format I would recommend. Remember Fat32 does not support files larger than 4GB.

I would recommend the second solution.

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Is this external hard drive compatible on a Mac?

portable hard drives compatible with mac image

Peter

I'm planning to buy this external hard drive to transfer my files between my PC to a Mac I'm going to get. I have to transfer my files in 1 day because I have to send this computer with my aunt to give to my cousins, who live in another country. If I use this external hard drive, is it compatible with a Mac that way all my files will be transferred?


Toshiba Canvio 500 GB External hard drive - 5.0 Gbps (SuperSpeed USB) - 5400 rpm

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+Canvio+3.0+500GB+External+USB+3.0+Portable+Hard+Drive+-+Black/White/1758088.p?id=1218292495616&skuId=1758088&st=Toshiba%20Canvio%20500%20GB%20External%20hard%20drive%20-%205.0%20Gbps%20(SuperSpeed%20USB)%20-%205400%20rpm&cp=1&lp=2


If they cannot be transferred, what is another way I can transfer my files from my PC to my Mac, which I haven't bought yet within a day?

Also, I may get my Mac in a week or possibly later today (its early in the morning). So, If I get it today, any ideas on how I can transfer many files quickly?

Also, I have a Dell Inspiron, so is that external hard drive compatible with both computers?

Answer
You can transfer your files by simply connecting your PC and Mac together using an Ethernet cable. That will be cheaper, reasonably fast, and much easier.

Complete instructions are here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518

Just scroll down to the "Direct connect" section.

How do I modify my Western Digital Passport on separate computers than the one I first plugged it into?

skatman45

I just got the Passport portable hard drive and plugged it into my school laptop (running Windows 7) but I need to transfer files from my home lap top (running Mac OS X) and when I plug it into my Macbook I can't add any files to the hard drive because it says it "Cannot be modified". What do I do?

Thank you

Answer
Firstly, is this drive Mac compatible?
Some WD drives are not.
If it is, try to re-format the drive but if/when you do, you will wipe it and lose anything that may be on it.
Mac > Utilities > Disk Utility.
Highlight the WD disk in the left pane.
Then click on Erase and choose FAT 32 as the new format.
This can be read by both Windows and Mac.
Best, Z.

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Can I use an external hard drive with my Xbox?

portable hard drives compatible with mac image

Kyle

I am ordering a Seagate Backup Plus 500GB Portable USB 3.0 External Hard Drive, (compatible with PC and Mac) from Staples. If I plug it into the USB input on my Xbox 360, (newest edition, 4GB) will I be able to select it as a storage device to save downloaded games to?

Answer
I know for sure that you can use a USB drive. You might as well try it out. There's nothing holding you back. Plug it in and see if it pops up when it asks you to pick which storage to get your saved games from.

Is my External Hard Drive Compatible with my Mac Book Pro?

Bella

I ambushing a Mac Book Pro but I have a Samsung G2 Portable External Hard Drive. Would it be compatible with my new laptop.

Answer
Hi there!

The skinny on your drive is this: Yes, the drive will work as an external hard drive and you can store files on it like any other drive; however, the Included backup and password protection software that coms with your drive doesn't support Mac OS.

Therefore, if you want to backup your Macintosh to this particular drive you'll have to reformat the drive to Mac's Extended Journaled format so that Time Machine (Mac OSX native) will recognize the drive: your drive is originally configured for Windows and, for one reason or another, Time Machine canât reformat the drive automatically, so you have to format it yourself first.

Also, if Time Machine is not your thing, here is a list of alternatives to the Macintosh's backup program: http://www.icreatemagazine.com/general/top-5/top-5-alternatives-to-time-machine/

Hope this answers your question.

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