Winders/Mac external drive question

[dando]

Dilemma...trying to get an external drive to work with both Mac OSX (Yosemite .10) and Windoze 7. The drive has been formatted to exFAT on each machine, but the drive appears and can be read on the Mac when formatted on Windows. However, the Mac can't write to the drive without erasing the data on it from a Windows backup. I re-formatted the drive on the Mac and did a Time Machine backup. Transferred the drive to the Windows 7 machine and it doesn't appear in the list of available drives under My Computer? I've read that exFAT formatting on OSX machines may be an issue with Windows machines, but this issue was supposedly resolved in OSX 10.8 and greater. Thoughts?

[cameraman]

Easy fix.

https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/


You put the Paragon drivers on your Mac and it has full support for all NTFS formats.

They also have drivers for windows that give full support to Mac formats. I have it on my machines and both sides can freely read and write to each other.

[Insomniac]

If none of your files is bigger than 4GB, you could just use FAT32.

If you wanted to, you can also create two partitions and format each one into the writeable format each OS supports since they are both readable by both OSs.

Otherwise, cameraman's suggestion is best if you want to write to the drive with both OSs.

Edit: Just realized you formatted the drive in OS X. The problem probably isn't the file system but the disk's partitions. Apple has long since moved to the newer GPT. Your Windows system may only support MBR. So you should try to initialize and format the disk exFAT on your Windows machine.

[dando]

If none of your files is bigger than 4GB, you could just use FAT32.

If you wanted to, you can also create two partitions and format each one into the writeable format each OS supports since they are both readable by both OSs.

Otherwise, cameraman's suggestion is best if you want to write to the drive with both OSs.

Edit: Just realized you formatted the drive in OS X. The problem probably isn't the file system but the disk's partitions. Apple has long since moved to the newer GPT. Your Windows system may only support MBR. So you should try to initialize and format the disk exFAT on your Windows machine.

I fairly certain none of the files are >4GB, but the ex took so many damn pics and videos of the girls, who knows what's in that mosh pit. I generally maintained just the stuff I took. Otherwise just .JPGs, .MP3s, .PDFs, .DOCs, and .XLSs files far less that 1GB.

I formatted it on both machines and tried backups on each machine after each backup. The ExFAT on Windows resulted in the drive being seen and writeable on Windows. The formatting n Windows also seemed to hang. The Start button grayed out and Cancel was unresponsive. When I disconnected and reconnected the drive, it was visible and read/writeable. On the Mac it saw the drive and Time Machine immediately prompted to erase the drive (did not know that ExFAT was not supported by Time Machine at the time). After formatting on the Mac the drive is seen and read/writeable, but is not seen by Windows in My Computer or Disk Management as an available drive. It is seen as a connected device under USB connections on the Taskbar.

[Insomniac]

I fairly certain none of the files are >4GB, but the ex took so many damn pics and videos of the girls, who knows what's in that mosh pit. I generally maintained just the stuff I took. Otherwise just .JPGs, .MP3s, .PDFs, .DOCs, and .XLSs files far less that 1GB.

I formatted it on both machines and tried backups on each machine after each backup. The ExFAT on Windows resulted in the drive being seen and writeable on Windows. The formatting n Windows also seemed to hang. The Start button grayed out and Cancel was unresponsive. When I disconnected and reconnected the drive, it was visible and read/writeable. On the Mac it saw the drive and Time Machine immediately prompted to erase the drive (did not know that ExFAT was not supported by Time Machine at the time). After formatting on the Mac the drive is seen and read/writeable, but is not seen by Windows in My Computer or Disk Management as an available drive. It is seen as a connected device under USB connections on the Taskbar.

I have an external drive that I used on both OS X and Windows and for Time Machine. I can't access (mount) the Time Machine partition. I basically partitioned the 1 TB drive into 750 GB and 250 GB partitions in Windows. I formated the 750 GB as exFAT on Windows. I then took the drive to my MacBook Pro (I think it was SL back then, but shouldn't matter). I opened it up in Disk Utility and set up the remaining 250 GB as HFS+. I pointed time machine there and used the other partition for files on both systems. SO OS X can see and use both partitions and Windows can only see (mount) and use the exFAT one. I hope that works for you. To get Time Machine to work on exFAT or NTFS is a bit more work.

[Insomniac]

Any luck dando? An update to my previous post. I had to wipe my disk to return my Macbook this morning. It did not say HFS+, but "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" instead.

[dando]

Any luck dando? An update to my previous post. I had to wipe my disk to return my Macbook this morning. It did not say HFS+, but "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" instead.

Finally decided to use dedicated drives after breaking down the aging desktop PC in the home office that's showing it's age severely (no longer recognizes me as an admin among other assorted ailments). Since I already have two non-portable external drives for the desktop, I'm just going to use one of them for the all-in-one I have in the kitchen for the girls to use as the primary desktop/server. Portable hard drive will be used for the MacBook backups. I was hoping to use just one drive since it's 1TB, and I have limited space in the new place I'm moving to (I'm shrinking four computers into two). All in various stages of backupness. :\ FAT32 has done the trick so far, but I've yet to run Time Machine on the MacBook after re-formatting it as Mac OS Extended.

[dando]

Inso/cman:

Thoughts on this...I have an early 2008 MacBook Pro w/4GB RAM. That's the max per Apple, but others have boosted to 6GB with no issues and some performance gain. Is it worth ~$70 to swap in a 4GB SIMM to boost performance? This thing is really slow launching apps and hangs for a bit within apps switching tabs, between apps, etc. I already have a 750 GB HD, so an SSD at 250GB isn't really logical (nor $$$ feasible). Any decent utilities to decrapify it? This this old, but other than a few non-functioning keys on the keyboard (delete and forward arrow no worky and shift-q doesn't work, but caps lock-q does). Based on Youtube videos, replacing the keyboard looks like more than I want to do since it basically involves pulling the entire chassis apart.

[cameraman]

If the guys at OWC say it will work then it will work.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade

Type your model number in and see what it says. If they say four then believe them.

[Insomniac]

What version of OS X do you have? Yosemite was a bit of a disaster in terms of the performance hit. El Capitan is most focused on improving performance as a result.

Apple compresses memory usage so generally, 4 GB on a Mac isn't the same as 4 GB on Windows. Are you maxing out the memory if you look at Activity Monitor?

I think you may want to see if the problem is the OS or really memory. If it's not memory, then adding more will not help.

[dando]

What version of OS X do you have? Yosemite was a bit of a disaster in terms of the performance hit. El Capitan is most focused on improving performance as a result.

Apple compresses memory usage so generally, 4 GB on a Mac isn't the same as 4 GB on Windows. Are you maxing out the memory if you look at Activity Monitor?

I think you may want to see if the problem is the OS or really memory. If it's not memory, then adding more will not help.




Yosie 10105. It wasn't much better before I upgraded to Yosie from Lion (skipped Mavs). AM shows I'm currently using 3.5x of the 4GB. Chrome and a goodly # of tabs are likely the culprit. The next version of Chrome is supposed to address memory usage, until then.....

You mean there's a difference b/w OSX memory usage vs. Winders? Huh. ;) When we first started using IIS at CompuServe as one of M$FT's first Internet guinea pigs, our initial fix for resolving memory issues was to restart servers on a scheduled basis. That pig used memory like it was air. Hence my surprise to find that MacBooks only supported 4GB of RAM until 2009 when 8GB was supported if one installed a firmware update. Winders machines were supporting 16GB at the time....and needed it in many cases. I've been reading about the issues with Yosie, but it looks like Mavs, Lion and Leopard all had fleas as well. Complaints have already begun about the new Apple Music app for iOS in the latest update. I have friends already starting to use the iOS 9.1 beta. IMO, they're nuts. I also have an Android app developer friend who's using the Android Lollipop beta (everything Google is beta, IMO. Chromecast for the Mac still has BETA displayed ~18 mos. after Chromecast was launched.). I was trying to get him to try Cortana for Android first before I tried it. :gomer: ;)

[Insomniac]

Yosie 10105. It wasn't much better before I upgraded to Yosie from Lion (skipped Mavs). AM shows I'm currently using 3.5x of the 4GB. Chrome and a goodly # of tabs are likely the culprit. The next version of Chrome is supposed to address memory usage, until then.....

You mean there's a difference b/w OSX memory usage vs. Winders? Huh. ;) When we first started using IIS at CompuServe as one of M$FT's first Internet guinea pigs, our initial fix for resolving memory issues was to restart servers on a scheduled basis. That pig used memory like it was air. Hence my surprise to find that MacBooks only supported 4GB of RAM until 2009 when 8GB was supported if one installed a firmware update. Winders machines were supporting 16GB at the time....and needed it in many cases. I've been reading about the issues with Yosie, but it looks like Mavs, Lion and Leopard all had fleas as well. Complaints have already begun about the new Apple Music app for iOS in the latest update. I have friends already starting to use the iOS 9.1 beta. IMO, they're nuts. I also have an Android app developer friend who's using the Android Lollipop beta (everything Google is beta, IMO. Chromecast for the Mac still has BETA displayed ~18 mos. after Chromecast was launched.). I was trying to get him to try Cortana for Android first before I tried it. :gomer: ;)

Apple had to find a solution when even today they have 8 GB limits on some systems. You could try and disable flash by default in Chrome.

As for cleaning up your system. OS X is notorious for it's inability to cleanly remove Applications, On the flip side, you also don't generally end up with a ton of stuff running in the background either on startup or as services. Seems like more memory could help, but a seven year old notebook and Yosemite is also likely a bad combination. Maybe El Capitan will make things better. If you really want to clean it up, you could make sure you have a Time Machine Backup and do a complete system reset. Then use the migration assistant to selectively restore. But a warning, I just did this last night and I know some stuff is missing (I also did it to a different replacement machine).

[dando]

I installed Leopard on a MacBook (not this one) that previously had a newer version of OSX on it w/o a Time Machine backup, and ended up with a ton of apps that were dead. I might end up wiping it, but I'll need to wait for a drive to arrive for the Windows 7 laptop with a dead hard drive. I'm just all kinds of computer fun right now. :\

[Insomniac]

I installed Leopard on a MacBook (not this one) that previously had a newer version of OSX on it w/o a Time Machine backup, and ended up with a ton of apps that were dead. I might end up wiping it, but I'll need to wait for a drive to arrive for the Windows 7 laptop with a dead hard drive. I'm just all kinds of computer fun right now. :\

Ohhh yeah, you want to install Yosemite, not from your original DVD, it'll be clueless. You'll have to pull it from the AppStore and create a bootable DVD or USB.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2367748/how-to-make-a-bootable-os-x-10-10-yosemite-install-drive.html
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6619535

Also, they say El Capitan will be out at the end of the month.

[KLang]

The Gold Master of El Capitan was available a couple days ago if you sign up as a beta user. I installed it on my old MacBook Air last night but I haven't had time to do much with it yet. The GM may, or may not, be the same as the final release.