[keb7]

I'm new to the Mac having just purchased a Macbook (after another PC crashed on me). Whilst using a PC (Windows XP) I had an external hard drive (Maxtor) to back up my photos. I copied the photos onto my Macbook without a problem.

I have tried to use the hard drive to back up the iphoto library but it's read only. I've checked out some of the discussions on the Macworld forum and it seems that the problem is most likely that the external drive is formatted to NTSC which is only read only compatible with Mac.

I'm wondering whether I can somehow reformat the drive so I can use it to store my iphoto library?

Anyone know whether that's possible and how I go about it? Also if it is possible does that mean I will lose everything on the drive (i.e. I have to copy it off the drive first?)

Thanks

[Tom_Diola]

Yes definitely copy the stuff off the external onto the internal.

Why don't you just use the Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility in the Mac OS to reformat it for the Mac.
Use Mac OS Extended Journal.

note: If you do this chances are you can't use it on the Windoze system...

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
It is called WIndows NT File System or NTFS.



Mac OS X can read the NTFS but it is unable to write to it as Microsoft hasn't provided information to Apple to allow such. FAT16 / FAT32 can be both read and written to by Mac OS X.

You can absolutely format your external into a more Mac friendly state. FAT32 if you want to share it with a Windows installation or HFS or HFS ( Journaled ) if it will be solely used with Mac OS X systems. You use Disk Utility's ( located in /Applications/Utilities ) Erase or Partition tabs after selecting the disk.

[Tom_Diola]

I have tried the Fat thing but Windoze couldn't read the HDD . . . But maybe it was the particular enclosure/HDD ...