NYRangers92 Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 My sister has an external hard drive for her Mac and I want to take some movies off of it and put onto my PC. My computer won't recognize the hard drive though and won't let me open it. The hd says it's Mac and windows compatible but nothing happens when plugged into my PC. Anyone know what to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 You have to partition it one side mac and one side PC. PC/Mac compatible just means the drive can be written to either. Once it's written, it can't be read by both because of different file systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRangers92 Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 So how do I go about doing that or is it too late Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Think it's too late. Partitioning needs to be done before initial writing, partitions now will format it (erase existing data). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRangers92 Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 So I can't take everything off it and put it back on my sisters computer, then re-format it and put it all back on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morphinity 2.0 Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 There is a file system that only Macs can read. If it's formatted in that file system, do what Pete said and partition a portion of it to be FAT32. If it's not the Mac file system (I think it's called 'MAC' but I'm not sure), then I'm not sure what the issue is. Bottom line, check the file system and report back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 So I can't take everything off it and put it back on my sisters computer, then re-format it and put it all back on? Yes, you can, and make sure she formats it OSX Journaled. It doesn't need to be FAT32 (Windows). An OSX Journaled formatted harddrive should read on any operating system without a problem, or at least that's how I always handled it in the past. I can't speak to how well it's read on Windows 8 or the more recent Windows operating systems. Haven't used one in years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morphinity 2.0 Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Damn, I'm off to a bad start today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 So I can't take everything off it and put it back on my sisters computer, then re-format it and put it all back on? Yea, you can. Didn't realize that was an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRangers92 Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 Alright cool I'll do this after work. Thanks for the help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Damn, I'm off to a bad start today. The only problem with FAT32 is that the format will not allow files over 4GB to be transferred on the Mac side, which eliminates most high-end movie files, which tend to start around 4.2 gigs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYR2711 Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 If the movies are in iTunes, you can try putting it on a thumb drive and try to transfer it that way. My wife has done that with music from one of her friends with a Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morphinity 2.0 Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Yeah, and NTFS which doesn't have that limit is natively read-only on Mac. However it's pretty easy to fix that (you just have to download a program on your Mac). All of my hard drives are formatted NTFS. If he said that he was transferring HD movies, then I wouldn't have suggested FAT32, but I suppose I should assume that it's HD movies nowadays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRangers92 Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 Yeah they're torrents. Around 10 movies or so that are 400mb each I think I think I have a high capacity thumb drive lying around somewhere so I'll just do it that way if this doesn't work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morphinity 2.0 Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 The FAT32 would be okay, but Phil's right. FAT32 has the fatal flaw of limiting file sizes to 4GB. It's very frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRangers92 Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 Alright so steps to do this so I'm clear... -pull everything off the hard drive and put it back on the Mac -uninstall the hd from the Mac -reinstall the hd and format it under osx journal -put what I want back on the HD and it should work on my pc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreaseCrusader91 Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Alright so steps to do this so I'm clear... -pull everything off the hard drive and put it back on the Mac -uninstall the hd from the Mac -reinstall the hd and format it under osx journal -put what I want back on the HD and it should work on my pc If you only copied the files instead of transfering the actual source file you can just format and journal the hard drive. If they are still on her computer just smoke the hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morphinity 2.0 Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Can you just check what the file system is before you do it? I'm curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRangers92 Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 Yeah they're still on her computer, I just copied them over Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Yeah they're still on her computer, I just copied them over Then just erase the drive and re-format to what works best. If your files are just 400 megs or so a piece, I'd wipe the drive and reformat OSX Journaled, then transfer one file and see if it responds as you like it to when you go to the PC. If so, transfer the rest of the files. If the OSX Journaled still gives you problems and you don't think you're gonna end up transferring HD files (over 4 gigs), format it again to FAT32 and you will have no more issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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