External hard drive problem

puvoharvey · 11-13-2009, 11:46 PM

Im new to macs, and pretty computer illiterate, so please forgive a dumb question.

I originally got an external hard drive to take stuff off my old PC's so i could put stuff on my mac. Ie pics, music, movies etc, whenever i wanted to use them.

I then got some files, movies, off a friend's hard drive and put them on my mac. Fine, all the files work etc.

Now, as i dont want the files on my lappy, with limited space etc, i went move them onto my own hard drive. The problem is, it wont let me move anything onto it. From my PC, it was easy drag and drop. From my mac, it simply wont let me put anything on the hard drive, despite there being around 350 gig of space.

My question is, why wont it let me put stuff from my mac onto the external hard drive? This is really frustrating!

Puvo.

trevor · 11-14-2009, 10:58 AM

One possibility is that the external drive is formatted in NTFS. This is a proprietary Microsoft filesystem, and Apple doesn't ship OS X with write support for NTFS. There is a free open source way to get OS X to be able to write to NTFS drives, though. You can download and install ntfs-3g and MacFUSE onto your Mac, which will then allow you to write to an NTFS hard drive.

http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/

Trevor

puvoharvey · 11-14-2009, 07:36 PM

thanks will try that at some point.

Its really annoying, anyone elses hard drive works fine.

Puvo.

hayne · 11-14-2009, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by puvoharvey


	Its really annoying, anyone elses hard drive works fine.

Any drive formatted with one of the formats understood by OS X will work fine. Those formats are (chiefly):
HFS+ (OS native format)
FAT (older Windows native format).

A lot of external drives are formatted with FAT.

puvoharvey · 11-15-2009, 02:55 AM

I can take stuff off this hard drive fine. Its all good to put stuff onto my mac, but i cant take the same files, or any files for that matter and put it back on the hard drive. Its a brand new seagate 500 gig portable hard drive. Seriously starting to annoy me!

this is it:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/pro...sion_portable/

puvoharvey · 11-15-2009, 03:21 AM

It seems to be in NTFS format when checking the properties of the drive. I have Dl'ed Macfuse, and installed it no worries.

However, DL'ing and installing NTFS-3g is a mission, i have absolutely NO idea on what needs to be done to install it. Yes i have read the install readme, but it well above my computer knowledge.

HELP!

hayne · 11-15-2009, 04:34 AM

If dealing with MacFUSE etc is beyond you, I'd advise doing the simple and fully-Apple-supporting thing: reformat the drive to use the native OS X format - HFS+.
You do this by using the "Disk Utility" application (under /Applications/Utilities) - choose the format "Mac OS Extended" (another name for HFS+). See this Apple article: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.h...n/duh1009.html

11-13-2009, 11:46 PM	#1
puvoharvey Prospect Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 4	External hard drive problem Im new to macs, and pretty computer illiterate, so please forgive a dumb question. I originally got an external hard drive to take stuff off my old PC's so i could put stuff on my mac. Ie pics, music, movies etc, whenever i wanted to use them. I then got some files, movies, off a friend's hard drive and put them on my mac. Fine, all the files work etc. Now, as i dont want the files on my lappy, with limited space etc, i went move them onto my own hard drive. The problem is, it wont let me move anything onto it. From my PC, it was easy drag and drop. From my mac, it simply wont let me put anything on the hard drive, despite there being around 350 gig of space. My question is, why wont it let me put stuff from my mac onto the external hard drive? This is really frustrating! Puvo.

11-14-2009, 10:58 AM	#2
trevor Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Boulder, CO USA Posts: 16,715	One possibility is that the external drive is formatted in NTFS. This is a proprietary Microsoft filesystem, and Apple doesn't ship OS X with write support for NTFS. There is a free open source way to get OS X to be able to write to NTFS drives, though. You can download and install ntfs-3g and MacFUSE onto your Mac, which will then allow you to write to an NTFS hard drive. http://www.ntfs-3g.org/ http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/ Trevor __________________ Eight steps to Internet unpopularity - Chris Breen.

11-15-2009, 04:34 AM	#7
hayne Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Montreal Posts: 29,276	If dealing with MacFUSE etc is beyond you, I'd advise doing the simple and fully-Apple-supporting thing: reformat the drive to use the native OS X format - HFS+. You do this by using the "Disk Utility" application (under /Applications/Utilities) - choose the format "Mac OS Extended" (another name for HFS+). See this Apple article: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.h...n/duh1009.html __________________ hayne.net/macosx.html

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11-14-2009, 07:36 PM	#3
puvoharvey Prospect Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 4	thanks will try that at some point. Its really annoying, anyone elses hard drive works fine. Puvo.

11-15-2009, 02:55 AM	#5
puvoharvey Prospect Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 4	I can take stuff off this hard drive fine. Its all good to put stuff onto my mac, but i cant take the same files, or any files for that matter and put it back on the hard drive. Its a brand new seagate 500 gig portable hard drive. Seriously starting to annoy me! this is it: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/pro...sion_portable/

11-15-2009, 03:21 AM	#6
puvoharvey Prospect Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 4	It seems to be in NTFS format when checking the properties of the drive. I have Dl'ed Macfuse, and installed it no worries. However, DL'ing and installing NTFS-3g is a mission, i have absolutely NO idea on what needs to be done to install it. Yes i have read the install readme, but it well above my computer knowledge. HELP!