Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazy teacher]

Hi all,

So got a PC laptop (always had a mac) and just tried to plug in my external Hard drive. it detected it and said it was ready to use however I cannot see it! i uninstalled it and tried again, same thing. The device manager says everything is fine!

It has always been used with a mac so could this be the problem?

I also seem to have this thing called "removable disk: F" which is always there even when I have nothing plugged in. (It was there before I tried plugging in my external HD) I have tried safely removing it but it always appears again when I restart. If I click on it is says to insert a disc into drive F... what is this and could this be causing the problems with my external HD?

I have tried inserting a portable SD card reader and have no problems with that. It just loads it nicely as Drive G.

I am already beginng to regret my move away from mac!!!

Hope some one PC literate can help me!

Thanks!

[SuperHero]

Is the drive formatted?

Have you tried changing the pin settings. on my external drive I have to have the pins set to Master.

[crazy teacher]

Thanks for that wonderfully quick response!

Well I would assume it was mac formatted but I am not sure. Why does it tell me it is ready to use if it needs reformatting? How would I reformat it? Doing that is upsetting as I dont really want to lose everything I have on my HD already but if that is what needs done!

Also I dont know what you mean by having the pins set to master...?

Again thanks for the reply!

[SuperHero]

[Demophobe]

WinXP - NTFS or FAT32 file system

Mac - HPFS file system

Option 1 - Least desirable:
I don't think it's going to work out without a format. Formatting will cost you the contents of the drive, so back it up if you want to save it.

Option 2 - Pain in the neck, but maybe...:
As far as I know, (and that really ain't far ) Mac can read FAT32. You could try to back up the data on the drive, format it with FAT32 (which XP can also deal with), then copy the data back, thus saving it.

Option 3 - Best choice, IMO:
Look into a program called "Partition Magic ver. 8.01". I think it can convert between HPFS and FAT32. I know it has support for HPFS. It has a trial period, so you can use it then uninstall it. Or acquire it by other means....

The program should be able to convert without loss, so give it a try.

[pdxsteve]

The Mac file system is HFS (or HFS+), not HPFS. HPFS is an older file system for OS/2. Please, do not reformat your drive to HPFS, as that will be useless.

OS X will read NTFS format drives, but it can't write to them.

[mrsquirrel]

Download Macdrive

You will get a free trial for 14 days it lets you read and write to a mac formatted HDD under windows

Save your files to DVD then you can reformat the HDD no worries

[Demophobe]

I shoulda known better than reply to a thread that even mentions Mac. Sorry for the bad info.

[crazy teacher]

You guys are freakin wonderful! Thank you so much for all the advice!

Demophobe its cool! The fact you took the time to respond at all is great!

Mrsquirrel you are an absolute genius! I couldnt even see my drive listed when I went into 'my computer' but I downloaded that software restarted and lo and behold there's my external HD! Thank you so very much!

I have a feeling I will be on this board quite often until I get used to using a PC, so I hope you will all be patient with me and my perhaps sometimes stupid questions!

Next stop - figure out what this mystery removalble disk :F is and how to actually get this thing to at least recognise korean never mind be able to type it! Keep your eyes open i will prob be posting about that soon!!!

thanks again every one!