External Harddrive

[insomniac321123]

I just switched to mac. On my old pc I had about 75 gigs of music on an external harddrive. I want to leave them on the harddrive and not transfer them to the internal harddrive. I imported them just fine, but I cant edit the files in itunes. I also cant add any cds to it. I checked the drive info and it said that I can onky read not write. What do I need to do to fix this problem?

Thanks,
Insomniac

 

[iPhil]

The harddrive is might be formatted in NTFS not Fat32 format that Mac can write to also .. NTFS is Microsoft's format like HFS+ is Apple's

 

[insomniac321123]

so is there anyway I can chage it without losing all of my data?

 

[dmetzcher]

so is there anyway I can chage it without losing all of my data?

No. The only thing that you can do is move the files off the external drive, format it with Apple's Disk Utility application (in the Applications/Utilities folder), and then move the data back. If you are only going to be hooking the drive up to your new Mac, you can format it as HFS+, but FAT32 will allow you to hook it up to either a Mac or PC.

 

[Temujin]

but FAT32 will allow you to hook it up to either a Mac or PC.

Which is limited to around 4GB file sizes

 

[Eraserhead]

Or you could partition it 50/50 50% FAT32, 50% HFS, i can't remember exactly how I did it (i had to use the command line as root user.) but it works.

 

[dmetzcher]

Which is limited to around 4GB file sizes

Right. Was going to mention that, but left it out because he's moving an iTunes library, and there are probably no 4GB files in it. But, now that I think of it, with the video podcasts starting to move to HD, and movies coming to iTunes, I suppose that could change in a year or two.

 

[tnt725]

what to look for when buying an external hard drive

I am relatively new to the MAC. I need to transfer /backup my files to an external harddrive. I have a lot of video files which is slowing down my performance and space on the internal hard drive.
Here are my specs of my laptop :
Hardware Overview:

Machine Name: iBook G4
Machine Model: PowerBook6,5
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.33 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 768 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.8.7f1

It was suggested that I purchase a hard drive with 320GB to 500GB and an external case). This individual recommended a Western Digital external drive with a case (I assume the case is a protective case to store the external drive???????.

I currently have 3 gigs of space available so I am in need of cleaning out the internal hard drive or saving to cd's which I have been doing.

I am sorry for being so naive about this tpoic but I do want to get the right drive. I did see USB and firewire. Is one preferred over another or do I look for a drive that is compatibel with both? Much thanks.......

 

[d3b]

External Harddrive

No. The only thing that you can do is move the files off the external drive, format it with Apple's Disk Utility application (in the Applications/Utilities folder), and then move the data back. If you are only going to be hooking the drive up to your new Mac, you can format it as HFS+, but FAT32 will allow you to hook it up to either a Mac or PC.

I am new to Mac (Intel Duo Mini) and I am trying to connect to an ethernet drive on my Windows Network.

I understood that the Mac could read NTFS partitions, but could not write to them ? I cannot get even that far with my setup as although I can successfully ping the drive, trying to use finder to connect to it gives me an error saying that the server could not be found on the network. Is there the equivalent of the windows 'map a drive' facility in OS X. I am missing something basic in the Mac setup. I have changed the workgroup and set an IP address.

The ethernet drive is a Maxtor 300 formatted NTFS

David (Struggling but enjoying every minute)

 

[dmetzcher]

I am new to Mac (Intel Duo Mini) and I am trying to connect to an ethernet drive on my Windows Network.

I understood that the Mac could read NTFS partitions, but could not write to them ? I cannot get even that far with my setup as although I can successfully ping the drive, trying to use finder to connect to it gives me an error saying that the server could not be found on the network. Is there the equivalent of the windows 'map a drive' facility in OS X. I am missing something basic in the Mac setup. I have changed the workgroup and set an IP address.

The ethernet drive is a Maxtor 300 formatted NTFS

David (Struggling but enjoying every minute)

The Mac OS can read or write to an NTFS formatted drive, so long as you are connecting to that drive via your network. (The Mac connects to the Windows PC, and accesses the drive that way.) What are you doing to connect to the drive? If you are on the network, try switching to the Finder, typing Command+K, and typing the following into the field that appears.

smb://WindowsComputerName/ShareName

Replace WindowsComputerName with the name of the Windows machine, and ShareName with the name of the share on the drive attached to the Windows machine. SMB is the protocol used to connect to Windows.

 

[d3b]

External Hardrive

The drive is an independent ethernet drive not attached to any PC.

I have tried to use smb://maxtor300/david which is the logical drive on the ethernet drive. I have also tried using the IP address for the drive. I am surprised not to get anything back from the drive as an IP device. Do I need to change a partition to FAT32 before I will see anything via the Mac.

Thanks again.

David

The Mac OS can read or write to an NTFS formatted drive, so long as you are connecting to that drive via your network. (The Mac connects to the Windows PC, and accesses the drive that way.) What are you doing to connect to the drive? If you are on the network, try switching to the Finder, typing Command+K, and typing the following into the field that appears.

smb://WindowsComputerName/ShareName

Replace WindowsComputerName with the name of the Windows machine, and ShareName with the name of the share on the drive attached to the Windows machine. SMB is the protocol used to connect to Windows.

 

[dmetzcher]

The drive is an independent ethernet drive not attached to any PC.

I have tried to use smb://maxtor300/david which is the logical drive on the ethernet drive. I have also tried using the IP address for the drive. I am surprised not to get anything back from the drive as an IP device. Do I need to change a partition to FAT32 before I will see anything via the Mac.

Thanks again.

David

I've never worked with one of those drives, but my guess would be yes, you would need to have it be FAT32. I am not positive, however, and am not telling you to wipe the drive and do it. But, do you have a way to back up the drive and then reformat as FAT32 to test it out?

Hopefully, someone else will respond in a couple days and give a little more information than I have.

 

[Temujin]

The drive is an independent ethernet drive not attached to any PC.

I have tried to use smb://maxtor300/david which is the logical drive on the ethernet drive. I have also tried using the IP address for the drive. I am surprised not to get anything back from the drive as an IP device. Do I need to change a partition to FAT32 before I will see anything via the Mac.

Thanks again.

David

Your Mac should be able to see the partition no matter how it's partitioned.

 

[Nate4747]

The drive is an independent ethernet drive not attached to any PC.

I have tried to use smb://maxtor300/david which is the logical drive on the ethernet drive. I have also tried using the IP address for the drive. I am surprised not to get anything back from the drive as an IP device. Do I need to change a partition to FAT32 before I will see anything via the Mac.

Thanks again.

David

Usually Bonjour will pick up on anything that is on the same subnet. If I were you I would check to be sure they are all on the same subnet (192.168.x.x or 10.0.x.x). When you click on the Network button in a Finder window does it show anything up? Sometimes you have to wait about a minute for it to find everything.