How do I reformat a external hard drive? 1

[curiousPCdude]

I have a hard drive in Mac format and I need to put it in PC format. This is a 500gig drive, and there is 250gigs already on it. How can I reformat the drive without losing the data thats on the drive? The brand name is seagate.

 

[acewarlock]

You can't, reformmating deletes all data.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[kjv1611]

Actually, you can do it, but you want to be careful with how you do it.

Ways to get it done:
[ol]
[li]First back up all your data to another location if possible - or if you're not for some reason concerned about the data, just don't worry about it - but you WILL lose that data if you don't back up with this method. Then connect it to a Windows or Linux machine, and use that computer to format the drive. I'd just go with whatever you're comfortable with.[/li]
[li]There is another method that you MIGHT can use, but I've never tried it. First, you'll want to find an application that will read/write both Apple partitions and PC partitions, or at least can manage them. If you find an application that will work with existing partitions, as far as being able to modify them, even if they have data on them, then you could create one partition on half of the drive (the half that is currently free space) in the format you choose, then xfer the files over, then reformat the original partition that had the data on it.. Anyway, seems like that is more trouble than it's worth. I'd suggest option 1 if at all possible.[/li]
[/ol]

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[vacunita]

If its external, chances are it's formatted in FAT32. So a PC will be able to read it. If you are sure the PC can't read it, then you really need to backup your files and perform the format, and then restore the fields to it.

Otherwise, by any other technique you are at a very high risk of loosing the data.

Now if you want this drive to be able to be seen in both a MAC and a PC I suggest you keep it in FAT32 format.

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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[kjv1611]

One question I didn't think of asking originally. Are you SURE that you can't see the hard drive on the Windows PC, or is it just that you can't open certain file types? That's a different issue altogether.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[Amos43]

If you can see the data on it already on both mac and PC, why do you want to reformat it?

If you want to do it for maintenance purposes, you need to copy the 250 gigs somewhere else, format, and then copy it back. Format in FAT32 because Mac's can't write to NTFS (Mac OS X can mount NTFS as read-only).

 

[wahnula]

My 2¢...

I would make a complete image (clone) of the drive before doing anything.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/hdclonefree.html

...is a free cloning utility. My personal favorite is Ghost2003, and many like Acronis TrueImage, both about $30 on eBay.


Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[curiousPCdude]

I can't see the drive at all on the PC. It only comes up on a mac. is there a program I can get to be able to see the files on a pc? they are all mp3's.

 

[vacunita]

Try MACdrive. it should and let you mount the drive and make it visible to the PC, as well as read and write to it.

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[Williamc1977]

You can see it on your PC but you need to know where to look.

Have you tried going into, control pannel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management ??

you should be able to see that drive in there, As it can see the linux partition that i have, But you can not format it without losing any data.. Best to backup your data first then format it as NTFS if you going to keep it in the PC with Window O/S.

 

[Williamc1977]

In regard to above reply..

You can only see that drive itself and not the data thats on that drive...

 

[curiousPCdude]

Thanks The MACdrive software worked great! I downloaded the free trial but it only works for 5 days and to buy it is $50. does anyone know if there is maybe an older version or something similar that I could download for free?