I have a Western Digital 250 GB external HD. I connected it to my PC, and NO PROBLEM, then I wanted it also connected to my iMAC. I bought a USB 2port switch, and connected it to the iMAC. It asked me to initialize the disc so I saved everything I had on the disc to my PC and then initialized and of course it erased the disc. Now the iMAC sees the drive just fine but upon clicking the switch the PC cannot see it anymore. Is this possible to do and what do I need to do to make it work for both the iMAC and the PC? I'm running OS9, and XP. ANY and ALL suggestions welcome and wanted.... thanks folks.
Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations gkittelson on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
trying to connect Western Digital to 2 comps...
- Thread starter printwhiz
- Start date
NotSoCunning
Technical User
You need to make sure that the hard drive is formated to FAT32 and not NTFS by the PC. A mac will not read NTFS at all but should read FAT partitions.
I found this forum with details about someone trying to do something similar it sounds pretty hit and miss tbh.
gl
I found this forum with details about someone trying to do something similar it sounds pretty hit and miss tbh.
gl
- Thread starter
- #3
NotSoCunning
Technical User
Format it on the PC.
You need it formated by the PC so assuming you are using WinXP:
Right Click on 'My Computer' and select 'Manage', once the panel has loaded select 'Disk Management'. You should see all your drives listed along with the file system. Right click on the new drive (NOT the old one) and select 'Format' make sure you select FAT32 and away you go.
The disc utility should do the same thing, but I wouldn't like to put money on it. If the mac still won't read it, try breaking it into 2 partitions.
You need it formated by the PC so assuming you are using WinXP:
Right Click on 'My Computer' and select 'Manage', once the panel has loaded select 'Disk Management'. You should see all your drives listed along with the file system. Right click on the new drive (NOT the old one) and select 'Format' make sure you select FAT32 and away you go
.The disc utility should do the same thing, but I wouldn't like to put money on it
. If the mac still won't read it, try breaking it into 2 partitions.- Thread starter
- #5
printwhiz
You could just share this drive or a folder on this drive by using this software:
Martin
We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
You could just share this drive or a folder on this drive by using this software:
Martin
We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
- Thread starter
- #7
Right Click on 'My Computer' and select 'Manage', once the panel has loaded select 'Disk Management'. You should see all your drives listed along with the file system. Right click on the new drive (NOT the old one) and select 'Format' make sure you select FAT32 and away you go .
i got this to work. So thanks a bunch NotSoCunning. now my problem is that in order to create a FAT32 partition it must be roughly 30GB or less than 32- but my drive is 232GB, so I can get 7 partitions but the MAC only reads the first one, so is the 30GB all that will be available to the MAC or is there a way to get it to read ALL FAT32 partitions on the drive. If it is going to use/read just the 1st, I might make the other partition NTFS and as big as whatever is left/202GB and just use it on the PC.
.i got this to work. So thanks a bunch NotSoCunning. now my problem is that in order to create a FAT32 partition it must be roughly 30GB or less than 32- but my drive is 232GB, so I can get 7 partitions but the MAC only reads the first one, so is the 30GB all that will be available to the MAC or is there a way to get it to read ALL FAT32 partitions on the drive. If it is going to use/read just the 1st, I might make the other partition NTFS and as big as whatever is left/202GB and just use it on the PC.
NotSoCunning
Technical User
Just looked into this it appears that windows defaults to a 32k cluster size which results in 32GB partitions. When you format simply manually select 64k in the 'Allocation Unit' box rather than leaving it default and it should format the entire drive.
You will need to delete all partitions on the drive first.
You will need to delete all partitions on the drive first.
- Thread starter
- #9
HelloMyNamesJen
Technical User
I have a related question.
I just bought an iBook. I have an external hard drive (120 GB) that I've always used for my PC laptop. I want to back up all this data onto DVD; I don't have a burner on my PC, but i do on the mac.
I'm wondering if the hard drive will read okay on both the mac and pc without corrupting the files or changing the pc access. The hd is formatted NTFS.
Any help is appreciated. I haven't hooked the HD up to the ibook yet b/c I was afraid of compatability issues.
-jen
I just bought an iBook. I have an external hard drive (120 GB) that I've always used for my PC laptop. I want to back up all this data onto DVD; I don't have a burner on my PC, but i do on the mac.
I'm wondering if the hard drive will read okay on both the mac and pc without corrupting the files or changing the pc access. The hd is formatted NTFS.
Any help is appreciated. I haven't hooked the HD up to the ibook yet b/c I was afraid of compatability issues.
-jen
HelloMyNamesJen
Technical User
So with the hard drive formatted to Fat32, the Mac will be able to read it and burn the dvd to back it up. This shouldn't cause any changes in the PC reading from it, right?
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Question
- Locked
- Question