External Harddrive.

Hi,
I'm thinking about buying the harddrive as think it kind of cheap. Toshiba 1TB Canvio Basics 3.0 Portable Hard Drive in Black at $89.00 in Portable Hard Drives

Anyway I'm planning on getting a Mac next year for uni, and it says that this harddrive is not comptable with mac unless I convert it to FAT32.

I just want to know what FAT32 is?? Will it make it slower when transferring stuff??
Also is it easy to change it to fat32??

Thanks

Mitchell said:

Hi,

I just want to know what FAT32 is?? Will it make it slower when transferring stuff??
Also is it easy to change it to fat32??

Thanks

Click to expand...

You could Google Fat32 while waiting for an answer here.

As to formatting the drive, that is easy.
Attach it to the computer & open my computer & right click your new drive & choose Format.
Choose Fat32 from the dropdown menu.
Do not choose the Quick format.

Do a full format.
A full format takes a very long time to complete.
A picture :

Another picture :

Just remember that FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB...so you cannot keep files larger than 4GB on a FAT32 partition. If you need to have files in Windows greater than 4GB, I suggest creating 2 partitions on your external hard drive. An NTFS for large files, and a FAT32 that you can use for Windows and Mac.

pparks1 said:

Just remember that FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB...so you cannot keep files larger than 4GB on a FAT32 partition. If you need to have files in Windows greater than 4GB, I suggest creating 2 partitions on your external hard drive. An NTFS for large files, and a FAT32 that you can use for Windows and Mac.

Click to expand...

I have a folder of about 300gb of movies. Will I be able to transfer that all in one go? I know none of my movies are more then 4gb in size. Also if I plan on doing system image backup on it will that work or not, because I assume a system image is going to be more than 4g

Mitchell said:

pparks1 said:

Just remember that FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB...so you cannot keep files larger than 4GB on a FAT32 partition. If you need to have files in Windows greater than 4GB, I suggest creating 2 partitions on your external hard drive. An NTFS for large files, and a FAT32 that you can use for Windows and Mac.

Click to expand...

I have a folder of about 300gb of movies. Will I be able to transfer that all in one go? I know none of my movies are more then 4gb in size. Also if I plan on doing system image backup on it will that work or not, because I assume a system image is going to be more than 4g

Click to expand...

As long as no single file is greater than 4GB in size, you are fine.

With respect to system images, some applications allow you to split the file at specific points, so check and see if you imaging app offers this options. For example, instead of a 20GB system image file, you might have 10 x 2GB files.