Problem wih external HD.

[Jaume]

Hello everybody. I got as a present an external HD that was property
of my girl friend. She has a Mac and the gave me the HD with some
photos and mp3 she had. Well, as most of you know, you can't use a Mac
HD directly on Windows, so I downloaded Macdrive 7.0 (trial version),
copied the files and then attempted to format hte HD. so I can use it
on windows. I formated the HD but I got a message at the end of the
process saying windows was unable to format the HD. Anyway I tried it
and worked. I then uninstalled Macdrive 7.0 ... and was unable even to
see the HD in "My Computer" window. I re-installed Macdrive and I was
able to use it again. Formated the drive once more bbt received the
same message: windows was unable to format the drive. I then
reinstalled Macdrive and was able to access it.

My question is this: Is there a way to get the HD working without the
Macdrive?


The HD characteristics:

seagate
momentus 5400.3 80 gb
model st980815a

The External HD has the brand Samsung.



thank you for your help

Alberto

 

[Bob F.]

Hello everybody. I got as a present an external HD that was property
of my girl friend. She has a Mac and the gave me the HD with some
photos and mp3 she had. Well, as most of you know, you can't use a Mac
HD directly on Windows, so I downloaded Macdrive 7.0 (trial version),
copied the files and then attempted to format hte HD. so I can use it
on windows. I formated the HD but I got a message at the end of the
process saying windows was unable to format the HD. Anyway I tried it
and worked. I then uninstalled Macdrive 7.0 ... and was unable even to
see the HD in "My Computer" window. I re-installed Macdrive and I was
able to use it again. Formated the drive once more bbt received the
same message: windows was unable to format the drive. I then
reinstalled Macdrive and was able to access it.

My question is this: Is there a way to get the HD working without the
Macdrive?


The HD characteristics:

seagate
momentus 5400.3 80 gb
model st980815a

The External HD has the brand Samsung.

thank you for your help

Alberto

Did you try Vista Disk Manager? Start > Rt click on Computer > Manage >
Storage > Disk Manager. Can you see the drive in the Right Window? If so
you can Initialize it and give it a letter.

 

[Jaume]

Lots of thanks Bob and Paul for your help.

I am now formating the hard drive with severla partitions. i think it
will work.

BEst Regards

Alberto

 

[Jaume]

by the way, what is the benefit of enabling file and folder
compression during formating wiht NTFS?

thanks

Alberto

 

[Bob F.]

by the way, what is the benefit of enabling file and folder
compression during formating wiht NTFS?

thanks

Alberto

The feature saves disk space but it's at the cost of performance. Unless
you need the space, it's not recommended.