Partitioning an external hard drive
Need some help with a computer issue.
I want to get an external hard drive to back up my Macbook and my PC desktop.
The macbook is running Mac OS X 10.4.11, an older system. The desktop is a new Gateway. Don't know if any of that matters.
I'm looking for a hard drive with about 1T of storage. There are hard drives that will work with both Mac and PC but it looks like you have to format the hard drive to get it to work with the Mac, which I can't do because I want to first backup the stuff on the Macbook and connect the hard drive to the PC, back up the files on the PC then leave it connected to the PC to automatically back it up.
I've read that you can partition the hard drive so that a portion of it can be used on the Mac and a portion of it can be used on the PC. If I do that, I'll probably want 250Gb for the Macbook and 750Gb for the PC.
Can anyone tell me how to do this? I want to make sure that it can be done before I spend the money. Because if it's too complicated for me to do, then I'll just buy two smaller external harddrives.
Note: I'm pretty sure, if I'm understanding it correctly, that I do not need bootability for the Mac.
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
^Sort-of. Except I have an old Macbook, so I don't have Bootcamp or Time Machine, two things he talks about in the video.
But I'll look around. Thanks for the reply :)
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
So what you wanna do is to pretty much transfer the data form your macbook to your desktop using an external hard drive?
Any external hard drive will do the job, assuming it's large enough for your needs (1TB should be enough unless you have A LOT of files).
If you live in the United States or Canada, you can get this hard drive online.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822149194
All you'll have to do is to plug it into your desktop and format it to NTFS (should be read either in Mac or Widows), although these drives already come formatted and it's as easy as plug, see the window popping up in the screen, drag the files, wait until the transfer is complete and pass them to the desktop.
Is that what you want to do or is it a different thing?
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
I had to do this a while back for a graphic design class in college. I can't remember the exact steps, but I know the format you want is FAT32 as it is compatible with both Windows and Mac. Any hard drive should work, as my teacher had no guidelines on type just that it had to be external.
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
The problem with FAT32 is that it won't allow her to transfer files bigger than 4GB. NTFS allows for faster transfer rates and it is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS, as well as with Linux.
EDIT: Turns out NTFS doesn't work with Mac OS O_O What the?
There should be workaronds, but either way, for the sake of simplicity, you can use FAT32 or try a workaround like this one if you feel confident enough.
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lif...-mac-os-x.html
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
As you probably have used Mac's version of word, excel etc. a program I would recommend to convert the files would be the OpenOffice products they are entirely free and you can open virtually any word ( or excel, or PowerPoint etc) document format and save it as a different format.
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
Quote:
Originally Posted by
KarinaGiselle
The problem with FAT32 is that it won't allow her to transfer files bigger than 4GB. NTFS allows for faster transfer rates and it is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS, as well as with Linux.
EDIT: Turns out NTFS doesn't work with Mac OS O_O What the?
There should be workaronds, but either way, for the sake of simplicity, you can use FAT32 or try a workaround like this one if you feel confident enough.
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lif...-mac-os-x.html
I thought FAT32 was the one that is compatible with both. I'm just going to go ahead and order a drive today and mess around with it.
But keep the info coming if you have it :) I need all the help I can get.
I think what I'll do is partition the hard drive to three parts: NTFS, FAT32 and the other one for Mac I think is called OS X extended (journaled). The only issue is that I do have files bigger than the FAT32 can handle.
But no, my main objective is to just be able to back up both computers on the hard drive, not necessarily read both computer's files on the desktop. Though that would certainly be useful.
Yes, I have OpenOffice on both computers, but I'm more worried about video files, etc.
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
Just format the drive to FAT32, that should do and you'll avoid unnecessary headaches.
I'd suggest you to get a 2TB external drive if you can afford it.
EDIT: What exactly do you have that is bigger than 4GB EACH file?
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
For those who might have the same issue and don't mind spending money on programs, here's a solution:
To the PC, download MacDrive 9 or 9 Pro (costs $50 or $70)
(MacDrive 7 does not support Windows 7)
To the Mac, download Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X (costs $20)
Installing MacDrive 7 on the PC will allow it to read the files written to the external drive from the Mac.
Installing Paragon on the Mac will allow it to read the files written to the external drive from the PC.
However, I'm still looking for a good solution that does not require downloading and paying for "patches".
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
Quote:
Originally Posted by
KarinaGiselle
Just format the drive to FAT32, that should do and you'll avoid unnecessary headaches.
I'd suggest you to get a 2TB external drive if you can afford it.
EDIT: What exactly do you have that is bigger than 4GB EACH file?
Oh wait, never mind. I was thinking about video files. But I looked at the files and they're a lot smaller than I thought.
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
Alright, here's my solution so far. The one that I think will work. I'll format and partition the hard drive to FAT32 and then I'll try it out. If it doesn't work, I'll reformat the hard drive again before deleting anything off the computers.
It should only take a few minutes to format it in the first place, but it will probably take a few hours to format it once the info is on there.
That the work-in-progress solution, so if anyone is an "expert" in this, I still welcome info. But I'll go ahead and order the drive today because it looks like I can do this somehow.
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
If ALL you want to do is to backup your data and be able to transfer it from your mac to your PC back and forth, just do the following
* Buy an external 1TB (or 2TB if you can) hard drive (be it online or whatever).
* Plug it into your computer and format it to FAT32 to avoid compatibility issues between Mac and Windows.
* Start transferring the data you want to the drive
* ???
* Profit! :D
It's that simple. If there are files bigger than 4GB EACH, then I suggest you to buy the NTFS addon for Mac OS, but you mentioned already that you don't have files that big so, whatever.
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
Quote:
Originally Posted by
KarinaGiselle
Just format the drive to FAT32, that should do and you'll avoid unnecessary headaches.
I'd suggest you to get a 2TB external drive if you can afford it.
EDIT: What exactly do you have that is bigger than 4GB EACH file?
Movies....and movie edits
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
In that case, there are addons to support NTFS on Mac OS. But I insist, the only movies that are 4GB bigger are usually HD Blu Ray rips. Even home made HD clips that you'd sell in clips4sale aren't supposed to be that big. But anyway, there are the options.
Re: Partitioning an external hard drive
Quote:
Originally Posted by
KarinaGiselle
In that case, there are addons to support NTFS on Mac OS. But I insist, the only movies that are 4GB bigger are usually HD Blu Ray rips. Even home made HD clips that you'd sell in clips4sale aren't supposed to be that big. But anyway, there are the options.
Thank you. That's good to know. I thought my videos were larger, but I'm going thru them and they are small enough to use that file format.
I think my largest movie edit is only 8 KB, so I should be fine :)