[Velocity211]

I recently purchased a Powerbook G4, I have a Maxtor 300GB External HDD but the file system is NTFS, so my PB can't write to it. Is there any way to convert NTFS to HFS+ (or whatever the Mac could read and write to)?

[mduell]

Yes, you can reformat it to HFS+ in Disk Utility.
GET ALL YOUR DATA OFF THE DRIVE FIRST. EVERYTHING ON THE DRIVE WILL BE ERASED WHEN YOU REFORMAT IT.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Mac's can defiantly write to NTFS formatted drives, but they cannot boot from them. Have you tried hooking the Hard Drive up to the PowerBook? I would recommend reformatting it to HFS+, (If you can get the data off the drive first.)

[Velocity211]

Well, I know the Mac could reformat the HDD, but the whole reason I'm asking is, is there a way to convert it w/o erasing the hard drive?

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Spaceman Spiff

Mac's can defiantly write to NTFS formatted drives, but they cannot boot from them. Have you tried hooking the Hard Drive up to the PowerBook? I would recommend reformatting it to HFS+, (If you can get the data off the drive first.)

No, they can't. You're thinking of FAT32.

Originally Posted by Velocity211

Well, I know the Mac could reformat the HDD, but the whole reason I'm asking is, is there a way to convert it w/o erasing the hard drive?

I don't think so... Partition Magic supports many formats, but I don't think it supports Apple's HFS.

[Velocity211]

So the only way to convert the file system is to reformat the hard drive?

[thesunisgone]

YES that's the only way. What do you want??? A magic spell!!!?

Man I hate people like this...these are the people who just can't grasp the difference between satellite tv and cable tv....uhhh...but they both have a box on my teevee set....duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. ..*drool*

[Tomchu]

Originally Posted by thesunisgone

YES that's the only way. What do you want??? A magic spell!!!?

Man I hate people like this...these are the people who just can't grasp the difference between satellite tv and cable tv....uhhh...but they both have a box on my teevee set....duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. ..*drool*

This coming from the same guy who claims to have dropped his 17" Powerbook into the toilet.

[FireWire]

Wow! Some people should definitively step down on coffee! Why are you expecting that everybody knows everything about anything? What's wrong with asking? That's the point of this forum, no?

[Dr.Michael]

Originally Posted by Velocity211

I recently purchased a Powerbook G4, I have a Maxtor 300GB External HDD but the file system is NTFS, so my PB can't write to it. Is there any way to convert NTFS to HFS+ (or whatever the Mac could read and write to)?

Partition magic promises to convert between NTFS and FAT32 without reformating or data loss for disks > 300GB. FAT32 is read- and writable from Mac OS.

But check in any pc forum how reliable this is before you do it. Although I have good experiences with partition magic, it is owned now by symantec...

[olePigeon]

FAT32 is still very slow reading/writing from a Mac, though.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Originally Posted by mduell

No, they can't. You're thinking of FAT32.

Thats right. embarrassed

[Maflynn]

Originally Posted by Dr.Michael

Partition magic promises to convert between NTFS and FAT32 without reformating or data loss for disks > 300GB. FAT32 is read- and writable from Mac OS.

But check in any pc forum how reliable this is before you do it. Although I have good experiences with partition magic, it is owned now by symantec...

My luck with partition magic has been spotty, especially when dealing with ntfs partitions. I seem to always lose the partition or have problems with it after resizing it or hiding it, I eventually gave up on the application as it caused more problems then it solved. Things may have improved since I last used it (about 5 years ago).

Mike

[Dr.Michael]

Originally Posted by Maflynn

My luck with partition magic has been spotty, especially when dealing with ntfs partitions. I seem to always lose the partition or have problems with it after resizing it or hiding it, I eventually gave up on the application as it caused more problems then it solved. Things may have improved since I last used it (about 5 years ago).

Mike

five years is a long time. But I also used it that long ago and then never again because I gave up Windows in 2001. It took a while until partiton magic fully supported NTFS. But I assume this has improved. It MUST because NTFS is standard on professional windows installations (cough - I mean as professional as windows can be).

But anyway, I propose to snoop around in windows forums to get reliable info. Here the knowledge density concerning windows is not high and definitely not professional enough.

[Ozmodiar]

I've been able to mount NTFS as a readable filesystem in OS X before, but I've never heard of converting between systems without a reformat.

[Dr.Michael]

Originally Posted by Ozmodiar

I've been able to mount NTFS as a readable filesystem in OS X before, but I've never heard of converting between systems without a reformat.

Windows can do that. If you have a FAT32 it can be converted to NTFS without reformat. Thats very common, because windows is by default installed on a FAT32 even if you have chosen NTFS as your fs. The conversion to NTFS has always been done after the installation of the os.
Do have a look into the specs of partition magic. You may not have heard, but, as I assumed, windows knowledge is bad in a Mac forum.

[chabig]

When HFS+ was introduced, you could convert HFS to HFS+ without reformatting.

Chris

[Stratus Fear]

Originally Posted by Dr.Michael

because windows is by default installed on a FAT32 even if you have chosen NTFS as your fs. The conversion to NTFS has always been done after the installation of the os.

This was only true up through NT4. Since Windows 2000, as long as you don't install Windows using Windows Setup in DOS mode, it formats and installs NTFS from the first step.