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Reformatting external HD question??

W

WilliamBos

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 7, 2009
97
2
Innisfil, ON
Hi All,

I just got a new Mac Mini, 500GB, 4GB RAM, and waant to know how to reformat my HP 1TB HDD??

First, I need to know how to transfer the data on it (under 100GB) on to my Mini?? The drive is NTFS right now, so I need to transfer it, reformat it, and then trtansfer it back??

Once it is formatted to FAT#@, can a Vista Notebook still do back ups on it??

Or should I just transfer the data, and buy a new external HDD?? They are not too expensive.
 
To get data from the external HDD, connect it to the Mac mini and use Finder to copy the files to your Mac mini. Mac OS X can read NTFS formatted volumes.
To format the HDD use Disk Utility.
GGJstudios said:
FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
  • Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
NTFS (Windows NT File System)
  • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
  • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
  • To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X: Install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free)
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx 33USD).
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended)
  • Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
  • Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner backups of Mac internal hard drive.
  • To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
  • To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
  • Maximum file size: 8EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 8EiB
exFAT (FAT64)
  • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
  • exFAT partitions created with OS X 10.6.5 are inaccessible from Windows 7
  • Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
  • exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
  • Maximum file size: 16 EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
Click to expand...
 
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