converting a 'Seagate' hard drive programmed for MAC to use in a PC?

[mafibisha]

Is it possible for a 'Seagate' hard drive that was programmed for a MAC to be converted to use in a PC?

 

[jendahl12]

Easy; there's no programming involved.

What you likely WILL have to do is though is once you plug the drive in (assuming everything on the drive you don't mind deleting forever, e.g. it's brand new and not a drive from a relative that has stuff you want to save) just reformat it.

To do that just right click on the drive...chose Format...and for type choose NTFS if you are running Windows XP or newer.

 

[smphbear]

.

 

[mafibisha]

Easy; there's no programming involved.

What you likely WILL have to do is though is once you plug the drive in (assuming everything on the drive you don't mind deleting forever, e.g. it's brand new and not a drive from a relative that has stuff you want to save) just reformat it.

To do that just right click on the drive...chose Format...and for type choose NTFS if you are running Windows XP or newer.

THANK you very much for your reply!! I guess I wasn't really clear, and no one I've ask IRL has a clue either LOL

It actually has stuff on it that we DO want, and don't want to erase -- ever. So that will make a difference I guess

So Is it still possible to use on a PC? Or will we have to have an expert (?) somewhere do it?

 

[smphbear]

Usually when you want to use a hard drive for both Mac and PC you have to format it that way when you set up. When you set it up, you tell it how much space to give to each side. I don't know of a way to do what you want ... not sure if it is possible.

 

[mafibisha]

Usually when you want to use a hard drive for both Mac and PC you have to format it that way when you set up. When you set it up, you tell it how much space to give to each side. I don't know of a way to do what you want ... not sure if it is possible.

Or we need to find someone with a MAC to watch it, and from there, can we save it on another disc....?

(we do have friends with MACs)

 

[mafibisha]

Or we need to find someone with a MAC to watch it, and from there, can we save it on another disc....?

(we do have friends with MACs)

Any of you awesome tech peeps have any ideas...?

 

[smphbear]

Do you still have a Mac and a PC? Are you ever going to want to save Mac files again, or are you just holding onto files from a Mac? How much stored data are we talking about?

 

[rantnnravin]

You *may* be able to partition it - like when you install virtual pc software on the Mac (pre BootCamp)

 

[mafibisha]

You *may* be able to partition it - like when you install virtual pc software on the Mac (pre BootCamp)

Ahh... thank you for your reply, but I don't get it .... can you please expound on this, maybe in less-techie terms? Sorry we're still sorta techie challenged, especially with the Mac.

 

[rantnnravin]

Ahh... thank you for your reply, but I don't get it .... can you please expound on this, maybe in less-techie terms? Sorry we're still sorta techie challenged, especially with the Mac.

when you partition the hard drive, you are basically cutting it into pieces (partitions). So you might have a 50gb drive for your son, a 125gb drive each for you and your wife, etc... one of those partitions can be formatted as MS -DOS (to run windows).
By using "Disk Utility" (it's in the utilities menu. click -- go ---> utilities ---> disk utility) choose the drive you want to split, choose the partition option, indicate how many partitions you want, name them, tell what size and format you want for each. If you have 10.6 or later, you should have the option of doing this without erasing your disc. HOWEVER whenever doing anything hard-drive related you should always back-up files to an external drive.

i hope this helps - for more info a simple google search or checking out the http://www.mac-forums.com/ or http://forums.macrumors.com/should help