Plugging in external hd with windows files, must format?

[Orangey]

Do external drives need to be reformatted or can I just convert them from ntfs to fat32 and enjoy?

[philiparcario]

are you looking to save the data?

or do you want a blank drive that will work with both windows and mac?

or do you want a blank drive that works just for mac?.
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2.66ghz late 2009 6gb ram intel x25-e 60gb ssd 2nd int hdd 640gb macmini 2.0ghz c2d 4gb ram 120 oem hdd 2007/2008 model
2 1.5tb seagate freeagent for macs
2 2 bay sans digital with 4 2tb disks
1 8tb owc mercury elite raid

[Orangey]

I have a couple of drives I used with a windows laptop that I'd like to hook up to the mini. I'm looking to make my mini a NAS, and add storage.

The data is in NTSF format. I understand Apple works with FAT32, so could I convert the format, plug it in, and the mini would recognize the data? Or do I have to back it up, format to an Apple standard, and restore the data?

[philiparcario]

since you want the data back it up. then take the drive and format it to Fat32. copy the data from the backup to the fat32 drive. make sure all files are smaller then 32gb. then see if you can read the files. if you can't you will need to switch the files ext sometimes that works sometimes not. depends are exactly what the file ext is on the pc data.
_________________
2.66ghz late 2009 6gb ram intel x25-e 60gb ssd 2nd int hdd 640gb macmini 2.0ghz c2d 4gb ram 120 oem hdd 2007/2008 model
2 1.5tb seagate freeagent for macs
2 2 bay sans digital with 4 2tb disks
1 8tb owc mercury elite raid

[Orangey]

Alright ty.

[bry223]

Like others mentioned it has to be FAT32, OSX can read NTFS but it can't write to it wich is where the problem is.

You can format the drive under windows, but you can only format a drive 32gb or smaller.

There is a work around, since I formatted my 750gb HD to FAT32 in Windows in a matter of 5 seconds, I used a program called FAT32Format, its a small file that you launch via the cmd line and it does everything else for you.

http://www.brothersoft.com/fat32format-162881.html

[Smithcraft]

You can get a hack to write NTFS, but I hear it's slow.

SC
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[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB Seagate - 10.4.11

[Media System] Intel CD mini - 2.16Ghz 2GB 60GB HDD - 3 x WD 1TB MyBook - 10.5.x

Make sure it has pins!

[ron5646]

I have been using ver 6.5 of Paragon NTFS for Mac OSX, and it works very well. Lets me read and write to/from NTFS-formatted disks.

Now out to version 7.0, and is $39.95 from Paragon Software. Follow this link:
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Regards,
Ron
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Go Mac! Live from Australia

[sleepyhead]

I believe SC is referring to ntfs-3g. It works well enough for me, the only restriction being with BootCamp, where I cannot select to boot off from the Windows (ie ntfs) partition. In other words, I have to hold the option key during the boot process to enable booting up into Windows. Since you're not using your external ntfs drives for booting into Windows, this is not an issue.

I think you'll get better performance with Paragon, but there's no harm checking out the free ntfs-3g to see if it works for you:
http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/