[Ken-f]

This is driving me insane. Every single external hard drive i try wont work on my stupid mac!!!! It's really getting to me.

The first one is a 2.5" portable 40gb.

The second a 2.5" 60gb.

The third a 3.5" WD elements 1TB drive.

Someone told me you had to partition it FAT. But it wont let me on the windows computer......so im stuck! What do i do?... I've googled....but i guess im googlin the wrong thing.

[Byrd]

Hi Ken,

do you mean the HD doesn't mount or power up on your Mac - tried another Mac or USB/FW port?

If using the HD on both a Mac and PC, yes formatting the drive as FAT32 is best as you can read/write on both platforms. You can do this under Apple's disk utility (the unformatted disk will come up on the left hand pane), or under Windows' Computer Management application:

How to Partition and Format Hard drives in Windows - SysChat

JB

[Ken-f]

I only have this one mac. The hdd works and can mount....(the 60gb) but thats about it. The other 2 don't show up at all. I'll give that disk utililty a go.

[Ken-f]

OH MY GOODNESS!! I LOVE YOU BYRD!!

I'm not sure the other ones will work, but i really cbb trying atm. That format took like...1 second! Finally i feel so much safer as my thousands of photos are now backing up to the hard drive.....my mac is starting to sound a bit louder (the hard drive im assuming). So i decided that i'd better back up now, instead of 'later' aka 'NEVER!'