How to reformat Portable Hard Drive from PC to Mac

**Rain Man** · 05-07-2009, 09:34 PM

Someone bought me a new portable 350gb hard drive and tested it by trying it out on a PC. When I got hold of the unit and connected it to my MB, it would not show. That's where I realize that it was formatted in MS OS.

Is there a way to fix this?

TIA!

**skinhead** · 05-07-2009, 09:57 PM

USB or firewire? can disk utility detect the drive?

Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility

**MacSonic 779** · 05-07-2009, 10:30 PM

I am not an expert but you could try to format the ext HD as FAT32 so it can be read both by PC or Mac using Disk Utility. When you connected the HD to your Mac laptop, did a message appear asking you what steps to take? Like asking you to initialize the disk? You may also format your disk as a bootable Mac OSX journaled extended but this is only for Mac use.

**rattrapante** · 05-07-2009, 11:54 PM

Even if I drive is formated for windows (NTFS), it should still show up in your mac and will act as a read only drive. You can still access files from it just not write anything on the drive.

**codename_ethan** · 05-08-2009, 02:33 AM

Rattrapante is correct. One of my external disk is NTFS-formatted and it shows up as a read-only HD in my MB.

**Rain Man** · 05-08-2009, 12:20 PM

Thanks guys for the response.

The problem is that it does not show up in my desktop as well as in the DISK Utilities. Havent tried hooking it up to a PC.

**Rain Man** · 05-08-2009, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by skinhead

USB or firewire? can disk utility detect the drive?

Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility

USB po and the disk utility does not detect it.

**Theus** · 05-08-2009, 01:04 PM

could be that it's not getting enough power from usb interface. try using the other "usb cable" if it has another one.

**Rain Man** · 05-08-2009, 02:14 PM

Originally Posted by Theus

could be that it's not getting enough power from usb interface. try using the other "usb cable" if it has another one.

let me try this one out. thanks for the idea.

**Rain Man** · 05-08-2009, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by Theus

could be that it's not getting enough power from usb interface. try using the other "usb cable" if it has another one.

Hey Theus, it worked. Just had to install the USB cabling properly. The USB Cable had a dual-usb on one end and single on the other. I got confused on which one went to which device.

Thanks Theus and all of you guys who responded. Simply Great!