Share files from External HD to PC and Mac

smknSRT8 · 07-29-2008, 02:41 PM

I want to take large files from my PC to my Mac. I have a 500Gb MyBook, but when I have the file on my PC, and I want to copy it to the Mac it does not even know that the External HD is connected.

I initially setup my MyBook to use as my "Time Machine" on Leopard. Any thoughts. I read some articles online about this not being as straightfoward as I want it to be.

Another question I have is, if I do it with a flash drive it works. So why won't my really big 500Gb "flash drive" do the same?

dturner · 07-29-2008, 07:51 PM

Don't mean for this to sound like it is going to, but is time machine "on".

smknSRT8 · 07-29-2008, 07:58 PM

I might not have been clear with what I am trying to do.

I have an external HD that ever since I got it brand new, has been used as my Time Machine backup, and the place I put all my music and movies. But I use my PC, to rip music and DVDs, and what i want to do is just add them to my external HD. When I connect my external HD to my PC, it does not even register that the HD is connected.

Does that make a little more sense?

dturner · 07-29-2008, 08:13 PM

Originally Posted by smknSRT8

I might not have been clear with what I am trying to do.

I have an external HD that ever since I got it brand new, has been used as my Time Machine backup, and the place I put all my music and movies. But I use my PC, to rip music and DVDs, and what i want to do is just add them to my external HD. When I connect my external HD to my PC, it does not even register that the HD is connected.

Does that make a little more sense?

Might be a little more confused now.

Only because of what I have in bold above. How did they get there in the first place if PC doesn't recognize the HD?

dturner · 07-29-2008, 08:32 PM

OK. Been up since 4am this morning. Don't have any business trying to help anyone.

I get it now. You want to go from PC to HD to Mac. and PC doesn't recognize the HD.
So HD doesn't even show up in explorer?
It will work because I did the same thing to get info off PC when I got my MBP. But it has been so long since I have fooled with a PC that we will have to hope someone else hops in with some answers.
I have my HD way before the mac and the only thing I really remember is that the HD came with a CD for drivers.

420greg · 07-29-2008, 09:40 PM

If you were using the external drive for time machine then it is formated OS X Extended. Windows will never see it. It has to be reformated to fat32 if you want both your mac and your pc to be able see it.

Move off all your media with the mac.
Open Disk Utility and click the erase tab.
Change the volume format to MS-DOS Fat and click erase.
Move your media back.

Now you can move the external drive to the pc.

DemonHunter · 07-29-2008, 09:44 PM

Have you tried assigning the hard drive a new drive letter? Sometimes in windows when you connect an external hard drive to a PC, it has a drive letter pre-assigned to it and that may conflict with an existing drive already assigned to that letter. Use the steps below and it may fix your problem. Just because it doen't show up in "My Computer" doesn't mean it's not there.

For Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

For Windows Vista:

Right click Computer and select Manage,
Select Disk Management,
Go to full screen to see all of your drives,
Right click the drive you want to change,
Select - Change drive letter and paths.
Follow the screen prompts.

Hope it helps.

420greg · 07-29-2008, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by dturner

It will work because I did the same thing to get info off PC when I got my MBP. I have my HD way before the mac...

There is the answer.

Since it was hooked to a PC first, it was formatted on a pc. Macs can see pc drives but windows can not see mac drives.

smknSRT8 · 07-29-2008, 09:58 PM

Originally Posted by 420greg

If you were using the external drive for time machine then it is formated OS X Extended. Windows will never see it. It has to be reformated to fat32 if you want both your mac and your pc to be able see it.

Move off all your media with the mac.
Open Disk Utility and click the erase tab.
Change the volume format to MS-DOS Fat and click erase.
Move your media back.

Now you can move the external drive to the pc.

So let me get this straight. Since Mac can read a PC drive, but a PC cant read a mac drive, i need to format for pc, since the mac can see both??
Correct?

When I copy the "mac" files back to the hard drive, will i still be able to use time machine?

420greg · 07-29-2008, 10:27 PM

The drive for time machine can only be used on the mac since it has to be formatted OS X Extended. You may want to get a smaller external drove for time machine.