[SilverJ]

Hello all,

I have found a similar thread to this already but it didn't really solve it completely for me.
I read up on the problems between using an external hard drive between windows and osx.

Ok, so I formatted the external hard drive which is in a Macpower FW800 case with a Seagate 500gb hard drive inside using my windows computer like suggested.

That was after I originally formatted my Hard drive using the MBP and found that it was not recognised using my windows machine...

I then searched the forum and found that it needed to be formatted in NTFS in Windows and then install mac fuse and NTFS-3G on the MBP and restarted... After the restart I connected up the ext hard drive and it could not be recognised... :-(

Upon going into disk utility it appeared there but could not be erased or anything...
Error message was that it could not be unmounted...

Can someone please at least help me to remove the mac fuse and NTFS-3G from my system so I can at least attempt to re-format it using my mac and only use it to read and write only on there. That way I can at least buy the mac drive app for my windows machine if I really want to still use it on that machine...

I even tried some scripts that I found to try and format it in terminal, but I am no expert and didn't have much success doing that either.

What are my options please...

Thank you very much...

[rob05]

Firstly is the drive seen with disk utility under os x?

If it is try and format the external drive as MS DOS Fat 32

This will allow both the mac PC to see the drive and use it.

I am not sure if there will be a size limit.

[oli]

Originally Posted by rob05

Firstly is the drive seen with disk utility under os x?

If it is try and format the external drive as MS DOS Fat 32

This will allow both the mac PC to see the drive and use it.

I am not sure if there will be a size limit.

This is what I'd recommend as well, and as far as I'm aware there is no size limit if you're formatting it from your Mac.

[choy]

SilverJ, I don't know who recommended NTFS format, it's not a good solution for cross-platform use as the NTFS driver for mac os x is unsupported<edit - not illegal> and requires some command line knowledge

Reformat it as FAT32 on your Mac using disk utility in the applications folder. If you try formatting to FAT32 on your PC, the max size partition will be 32GB.

Unfortunately this is not without its shortcomings. Max (single) file sizes will be limited to 4GB - so if, for example you copied a 4.7GB DVD movie, you would not be able to write this to the drive.

To uninstall NTFS-3G, go to this thread and look for uninstaller.dmg posted by Shadow of Ged:
http://forums.applenova.com/showthre...t=21842&page=6

The other alternative is to format as a HFS+ drive (the default mac format) then install MacDrive on your pc. THis works very well, but it is not free. YOu can find out more about it here:
http://www.dataviz.com/purchase/shop...l?prod_id=1136


Good luck

Hopefully one day Microsuck will decide to open up NTFS (which is a proprietary format) and then we'll be able to use NTFS volumes on a mac

[Remorhaz]

Originally Posted by oli

This is what I'd recommend as well, and as far as I'm aware there is no size limit if you're formatting it from your Mac.

I'm fairly sure that if you format it as FAT32 you'll be limited to 4GB maximum file sizes.

BTW: When you use MacFuse and an NTFS driver you'll most likely still need to use terminal commands to mount the drive each time you want to use it (i.e. it doesn't automatically appear like HFS and FAT32 drives do).

[SilverJ]

Thank you champs,
I'll certainly try this tomorrow night and let you know how I go.

[mab]

Originally Posted by choy

SilverJ, I don't know who recommended NTFS format, it's not a good solution for cross-platform use as the NTFS driver for mac os x is officially illegal and unsupported

Unsupported yes illegal no. Last I read the guy who wrote NTFS-3G was hired by Apple, so hopefully, there will be supported read write support in the future

But the new packages of NTFS-3G on this page should mount the drive automatically

[gameon]

the most painless way is to format the drive as hfs and purchase a copy of macdrive

[oli]

Originally Posted by Remorhaz

I'm fairly sure that if you format it as FAT32 you'll be limited to 4GB maximum file sizes.

Ah yes, I overlooked that. I actually meant there wouldn't be any limitations as far as creating the partition goes - unlike the Windows limitation with 32GB partitions which someone else mentioned allready.

[choy]

Originally Posted by mab

Unsupported yes illegal no. Last I read the guy who wrote NTFS-3G was hired by Apple, so hopefully, there will be supported read write support in the future

But the new packages of NTFS-3G on this page should mount the drive automatically

THanks I stand corrected.

Also thanks for that link. Very up to date NTFS package!

[SilverJ]

Originally Posted by mab

Unsupported yes illegal no. Last I read the guy who wrote NTFS-3G was hired by Apple, so hopefully, there will be supported read write support in the future

But the new packages of NTFS-3G on this page should mount the drive automatically

That is the package that I installed,
but it didn't work...

I can see it in Disk Utility but cannot see it mounted on the desktop or in finder,

so think I will try and remove it all,
and format it in the native mac format with journaling and guess I'll just have to get mac drive for windows..

[NORMANDY]

Does anyone know where I can get one to suit the above, that has FIREWIRE and USB (I am pulling one of my internal drives from a Mirror Door G4 FW800 model, which has 120GB Ultra ATA/100; 7200 rpm drives, and I want to have them in external enclosures, but I am having trouble finding a case for them, CAN ANYONE HELP?

[decryption]

Originally Posted by jpicard

Does anyone know where I can get one to suit the above, that has FIREWIRE and USB (I am pulling one of my internal drives from a Mirror Door G4 FW800 model, which has 120GB Ultra ATA/100; 7200 rpm drives, and I want to have them in external enclosures, but I am having trouble finding a case for them, CAN ANYONE HELP?

You want a 3.5" enclosure that has USB & FireWire? Take your pick: http://www.epowermac.com.au/prodtype...earchCriteria=

[NORMANDY]

Originally Posted by decryption

You want a 3.5" enclosure that has USB & FireWire? Take your pick: http://www.epowermac.com.au/prodtype...earchCriteria=

Thanks , I find that site it way over priced when same things on ebay are 20 bucks.... and they charge 100 bucks for the same thing. This is for a very poor student, thus price is a real issue for this item.

[decryption]

Originally Posted by jpicard

Thanks , I find that site it way over priced when same things on ebay are 20 bucks.... and they charge 100 bucks for the same thing. This is for a very poor student, thus price is a real issue for this item.

Then grab it off eBay

[NORMANDY]

Originally Posted by decryption

Then grab it off eBay

I would, but all the external drive enclosures on ebay they talk about IDE, thus I am unsure if they will suit this type of drive. Is anyone able to point me in the right direction for this sort of thing? Thanks in advance.

[gaehl]

Originally Posted by jpicard

I would, but all the external drive enclosures on ebay they talk about IDE, thus I am unsure if they will suit this type of drive. Is anyone able to point me in the right direction for this sort of thing? Thanks in advance.

The drives you have are IDE drives not SATA drives. so an 3.5 IDE enclosure with Firewire and USB is what you want.

[NORMANDY]

Originally Posted by gaehl

The drives you have are IDE drives not SATA drives. so an 3.5 IDE enclosure with Firewire and USB is what you want.

OK cool thanks , so any 3.5 inch ide enclosure will do?

[SilverJ]

Wow my post seems to have gone a bit astray here...
I have it all working again fine,
I have decided to just buy mac drive 7.
I have searched around a few websites and have had no luck finding a place that sells the software within Australia. Can anyone let me know if you can but it within Australia. You can download it for 49.99 US from the official website mediafour, but I'd rather have a cd version and the shipping for the CD version was an insane $97 for the shipping!!!

[choy]

Google search:
http://www.pcsol.com.au/2proddetail....desc=Utilities
http://www.intellitron.com.au/Script...idCategory=413
http://www.dvdirect.com.au/shop/search.php?mode=search
(dvdirect list macdrive 6 but I am sure they can get the current version)

All the links above are tested and all the software is orderable from those websites

Not sure why you really need the CD version- if you need a backup, burn it yourself. All you need is the legit serial number. After all, some shareware doesn't have a boxed copy anyway. I'd personally save the money and download it (it literally is just a box and a pretty cd - the instructions come on the CD)