1tb external drive only readable on a mac

ryosnk

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Ok, so I just bought a 1tb external drive and did the time machine app of my Mac but my wife wants to save some data from our PC but it does not read it so is there a way for me not to lose my data from the time machine and still be able to save data from the pc since it seems by doing the time machine on the external drive it was formatted to be only mac.

Thanks on any help.
 
Find out what file system the drive is formatted in and see if you can find a driver for it online.

Linux might also be able to read it, so you could get a LiveCD and mount the external drive and copy stuff to it.

It could also be that your wife isn't ejecting the disk properly, leaving the filesystem as marked in use. You could fix that by stopping it properly on a mac or just overriding it using mount's -f option in Linux.
 
[quote name='Liquid 2']Find out what file system the drive is formatted in and see if you can find a driver for it online.

Linux might also be able to read it, so you could get a LiveCD and mount the external drive and copy stuff to it.

It could also be that your wife isn't ejecting the disk properly, leaving the filesystem as marked in use. You could fix that by stopping it properly on a mac or just overriding it using mount's -f option in Linux.[/quote]
Odds are that it's using that strange HTFS Journaled format. Or whatever the name is. Regardless, a Windows PC can only read it by using some special software that I seem to remember costing a far bit of money, and even then I don't know for sure that it can write to it. Linux I'm fairly certain has nothing.
 
Hmm, you definately need to undo what the Time Machine app did, and that might include a re-format. Your other option, which has its potential dangers, is to use a third party software (like good 'ol Partition Magic) to resize the Time Machine Partition, and making space/partition that Windows could use.

My Fiance is an art student, and she uses Macs (or rather, Final Cut Studio) for most of her school work. She has an external hard drive that is formatted to Fat32, in case she needs to shuffle work from her XP laptop to her iMac in her office.

I'll edit this post, or I'll repost when I get to talk to her later on today about your situation, since she's my resident Apple expert.

EDIT: Okay, so I realized that Partition Magic has no support for either HFS or HFS+, which are the file system used by Apple, so that option is out.

But, your wife is not that unlucky. You could use MacDrive 7, a commercial software that allows windows machine to both read and write unto a HFS(+) file system. It's free to try, $50 to buy. Try that and see if it works.

Hope that helps out :)
 
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[quote name='YodaEXE']Nope, you'll need to format to something the PC can use. Also, stop using a Mac.[/QUOTE]

Is this 1998, when douchebags on forums still decide what operating systems are cool to use?

To actually answer the guy's question.
The filesystem will be HFS+ Journaled, you can use this, for free:
http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/index2.html
HFS Explorer is what you want.
 
1tb is to much for motherboard to handle
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Will try to see if any of the programs will help if not I might go ahead and buy another external drive.

Thanks to all for you help.
 
You should do one of a couple of things. See if you format it to FAT32, there for both PC and Mac can use it.

Or you you use some software on either PC/Mac/Linux, hook up the HD and resize the Mac partition. Then with the saved space make a new partition in NTFS or FAT32.

You might also be able to do this. Divide the drive into two partitions, one FAT32 or NTFs and the other blank. Hook it up to your Mac, and try to use only the free space in making the new Mac partition.
 
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