HDD formatted in MAC for Windows.

[ak]

I have a hard drive that was formatted on a MAC machine
for Windows (i am guessing DOS), but when i connected the
drive to my XP computer it was not recognized and was
asked to initialize the drive. Unfortunately that is not
an option because i would use valuable files stored on
the drive. is there any way i can make my XP machine
recognize the drive so i can copy the files? i would
greatly appreciate any help.
thanks
AK

 

[EGMcCann]

There are some Mac-PC programs... HFV Explorer, for one. I don't believe
there's any sort of driver for XP to directly read the disk.

How do you mean it was "formatted on a Mac machine for DOS?" If it was like
the Performa 640, Powermac 6100 "PC Compatible," or possibly one of the
machines that had a PC card in it, the data may be in a "virtual partition"
which will just show up as a large file, and even something like HFV
Explorer won't be able to read the contents.You'll need a similar machine
with the PC compatibility features to copy the files off. You should be
able, in that case, to network them with something like PC Maclan, or DAVE.

 

[Dwight Stewart]

I have a hard drive that was formatted on a MAC
machine for Windows (i am guessing DOS), but
when i connected the drive to my XP computer it
was not recognized and was asked to initialize the
drive. Unfortunately that is not an option because
i would use valuable files stored on the drive. is
there any way i can make my XP machine
recognize the drive so i can copy the files? i would
greatly appreciate any help.

We'll assume you formatted the drive using the "Erase" menu option under
the "Special" menu on the Macintosh. Even though you've formatted the drive
in Windows format, it doesn't mean the drive hardware itself will be
recognized by your computer. Do you still have the Macintosh? If so, copy
those files back onto that Macintosh. After you've done so, reconnect the
drive to your Windows computer and let it format the drive with the default
drivers. Now connect the drive to the Mac again, copy your files back onto
the drive (don't erase), and then reconnect it to your Windows computer. You
should have no problems moving the files now.

You might be wondering why the "Erase" menu option on the Mac didn't work.
First of all, the Mac "Erase" option doesn't install Windows hardware
drivers. It was originally designed for floppies that go into drive hardware
already installed on both computers. Later, the ability to format removable
disks was added. Sadly, since the Mac doesn't look too close at the
hardware, the "Erase" option can't tell the difference between a removable
disk and a conventional hard drive. As a result, it offers to format both.
Since a removable disk is inserted into hardware already added to the
computer (hardware with drivers), this works just fine. However, it doesn't
work with a conventional drive (no drivers).

By the way, if you want to make the process much easier, make sure to add
the proper DOS file extensions before moving those Mac files to the Windows
computer. Otherwise, Windows will have no idea what to do with those files
once they're on the hard drive.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

 

[AK]

the hard drive was connected via USB to the Mac machine
running OSX. for some reason Mac didn't recognize the
Windows drive (which under normal circumstances it should
have), so i formatted it in MS DOS File Type and copied
the files. now the XP machine doesn't recognize the drive
and asks to initialize it.
i will look into HFV Explorer and see if that might help
see the files, otherwise i will have to erase all data,
reformat either FAT32 or NTFS (depending which format the
Mac will recognize) and re-copy the files).
thanks for your help. if you can think of another solution
i would greatly appreciate the input.
thanks
Andre

 

[AK]

thanks for the response.

i am guessing that the drive was formatted using
the "Erase" option. initially the Mac was able to see the
drive which was formatted in NTFS, but for some odd reason
it didn't not recognize it the second time around, so my
Mac friend reformatted it (erased) as an MS DOS File Type
drive. i am assuming that's why my XP does not recognize
the drive.

your explanation is very informative and it now makes
sense. Mac simply does not install the hardware drivers
for Windows (am i correct?)

as for the file extensions i am hoping i won't have
problems.

i guess i will have to reformat the drive on the XP and
hopefully Mac will recognize it and won't ask to
initialize the drive. thanks very much for the help and
the information.

Andre K

-----Original Message-----



We'll assume you formatted the drive using the "Erase"

menu option under the "Special" menu on the Macintosh.
Even though you've formatted the drive in Windows format,
it doesn't mean the drive hardware itself will be
recognized by your computer. Do you still have the
Macintosh? If so, copy those files back onto that
Macintosh. After you've done so, reconnect the drive to
your Windows computer and let it format the drive with the
default drivers. Now connect the drive to the Mac again,
copy your files back onto the drive (don't erase), and
then reconnect it to your Windows computer. You should
have no problems moving the files now.

You might be wondering why the "Erase" menu option on the
Mac didn't work. First of all, the Mac "Erase" option
doesn't install Windows hardware drivers. It was
originally designed for floppies that go into drive
hardware already installed on both computers. Later, the
ability to format removable disks was added. Sadly, since
the Mac doesn't look too close at the hardware,
the "Erase" option can't tell the difference between a
removable disk and a conventional hard drive. As a result,
it offers to format both. Since a removable disk is
inserted into hardware already added to the computer
(hardware with drivers), this works just fine. However, it
doesn't work with a conventional drive (no drivers).

By the way, if you want to make the process much easier,
make sure to add the proper DOS file extensions before
moving those Mac files to the Windows computer. Otherwise,
Windows will have no idea what to do with those files
once they're on the hard drive.

Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

 

[AK]

i was just told that the drive was initialized in Mac OSX,
which apparently uses a different formatting method than
OS9, and i need to find out about mounting a drive that's
been formatted in OSX. any idea?

thanks
andre K

 

[Plato]

i was just told that the drive was initialized in Mac OSX,

Pretty silly trying to put a mac drive in a winbox.

 

[AK]

i am not trying to put a Mac drive in windows. i am
trying to copy the content of it onto windows. got a
solution?

 

[Malke]

i am not trying to put a Mac drive in windows. i am
trying to copy the content of it onto windows. got a
solution?

OSX,Pretty silly trying to put a mac drive in a winbox.

I answered you in some details earlier, but this later post sheds some
light on what you're trying to do. I believe that Linux will read the
Mac file system, so you could use Knoppix to copy the data over. You'll
need to copy it to a FAT or FAT32 file system though; the current Linux
kernel doesn't support writing to NTFS (the next one coming is slated
to).

Malke