External Hard Drive Writes, but unable to read.

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Filth

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I have an 120GB Maxtor HDD, formated in FAT. It was my old PC desktop Hard drive, I've bought a external casing with power supply(USB 2.0 cable). Transferred all my files to another computer, then brought it back to my powerbook to format it to FAT instead of NTFS. afterwhich i went back to the other computer and transferred all my files into the external had drive.

Tried plugging to my powerbook, it mounts fine, I can see all my files inside. But when i click to open a file, say for example a picture, it cannot be opened. Tried dragging files out of it onto my Powerbook desktop, it jsut doesnt read as well, hanging at the "xx minutes remaining" window. I have to plug out the USB cable to sort of "recover" from the hang.

After which, i tried copying some files to the hard drive. and it worked fine. but the moment i completed the copying and try to drag them out, it hangs again.

does anyone know what might cause this? or any tips on what i can do... need this external drive to be able to read and write on my powerbook as well as a windows pc....

(i have a powerbook g4 1.67ghz superdrive btw)
 
As you have discovered, OSX format is different than FAT. For the drive to work in OSX you need MAC OSX extended format, while under Window's either FAT or XP and later NTFS.
As far as a solution to have the drive work on both machines, I don't know of a universal format for the drive. But, if you have the two machines networked, you can choose which machine you want the drive to reside, format it accordingly, and allow file sharing, and remotely access the files on the drive. In other words, for example, you could format the drive in OSX and set up file sharing. Through the PC you access the MAC and allow read and write permissions on the external drive, and use it that way. May not be the solution you seek.
Perhaps RAID solution is possible. I don't know much about that. Maybe some one else can help you here, or cruise some of Apple's web sites to learn more about RAID drives.
 
As you have discovered, OSX format is different than FAT. For the drive to work in OSX you need MAC OSX extended format, while under Window's either FAT or XP and later NTFS.
Click to expand...

This isn't true.
You should be able to Read/Write to a Fat drive on a Mac.

Get Info on the drive and see if there's a check box to ignore permissions.
 
lets clarify this: I said they are different formats, not that it won't work. There are limitations to Fat system file system. Please read about them.

Using Fat format, either fat16, or fat32 has file size limitations. Please see this article:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp

Fat32 has 4gb file capacity, and long user names are problematic: http://homepage.mac.com/wenguangwang/myhome/fat-iso9660-limitations.html

I had this same experience, when I bought a my Lacie Porche drive. I was eager to hook it up to my PB and transfer my numerous music files to it. I got numerous errors reporting long file names not supported, and several hang ups. Then I realized, it was formated for a PC by default. Since I only use it on my Mac, I formatted it for OSX.

Check out this: http://macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812

and this: http://www.macosx.com/content/faq.php/q3307/Hfs+.html

Lastly, http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread20264.html
 
bobw said:
This isn't true.
You should be able to Read/Write to a Fat drive on a Mac.

Get Info on the drive and see if there's a check box to ignore permissions.
Click to expand...

Nope, it says i can read and write.

If i format the drive in Mac journaled format, it wont be able to mount on a PC right?
 
The PC will not be able to read the drive in OSX journaled.
In the links I gave you, it basically states to format the drive using OSX disk utility, use the MS-DOS format. Formatting the disk using you PC will put file size limitations, although using OSX to format it, in MS-DOS is better, ironically but that is what people have found to work.

FAT file system doesn't recognize permissions, as mentioned in the links.

It boils done to this, format the drive using OSX as a MS-DOS disk. Give this a try with a variety of file formats (E.G., movies, mp3, etc). Make sure you are getting the mileage you need before dumping everything on there.

As posted, most people use MacDrive, a program that allows your PC to recognize OSX format. This offers a great solution and most reliable.
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/
 
hmm my external hdd was formatted to MS-DOS format using OSX. that is why i do not understand why it wont work. have also tried copying small and large files, various formats, one by one and multiple files, i just cant open files on the HDD with my OSX, can only copy stuff into it.
its fine on a PC though. I will go on to try mac in a few days time.
 
yup, am now copying my stuff to another computer, then format the hdd to a mac osx file system and try again. will just have to just macdrive to put back the stuff inside i guess
 
ok, formatted the external hdd in mac os journaled. STILL cant read. only can write. I give up. siggghhh
 
It may sound a bit basic, but maybe you should recheck the connections. I came across this once before and the ribbon cable on the back of the drive was not quite in at one end and I could only write to the drive and not read from it.
 
Sounds like you have to bring the drive back. Or use it on the PC and network to it from the MAC.
 
maybe i would try to borrow another casing from a friend. the external hdd casing i bought is a really cheap one. having doubts about its quality.
 
Tommo said:
It may sound a bit basic, but maybe you should recheck the connections. I came across this once before and the ribbon cable on the back of the drive was not quite in at one end and I could only write to the drive and not read from it.
Click to expand...

I had similar once on internal disk, so yes: check the cables (or better
yet, try other cables). This was a SCSI cable and they have tiny pins, so it was
too easy to break them.
 
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