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External hard Drive

post #1 of 11
11/22/11 at 3:27am
Thread Starter 
When you buy an external hard drive say either Seagate or Western Digital do they come formatted already if using the MBA 11 inch? Thanks
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post #2 of 11
11/22/11 at 6:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by marvfox View Post

When you buy an external hard drive do they come formatted already

Yes and no. Don't waste your money on the ones that can be bought formatted correctly. Buy absolutely anything you want and format it yourself once you plug it into your computer. It takes 20 seconds and is free, compared to the often $50-$100 extra charge on the ones that come formatted.
PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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post #3 of 11
11/22/11 at 6:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

Yes and no. Don't waste your money on the ones that can be bought formatted correctly. Buy absolutely anything you want and format it yourself once you plug it into your computer. It takes 20 seconds and is free, compared to the often $50-$100 extra charge on the ones that come formatted.

Unless you want FW800. The WD MyBook Studio is fantastic, and it comes Mac Formatted.
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post #4 of 11
11/22/11 at 7:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonton View Post

Unless you want FW800. The WD MyBook Studio is fantastic, and it comes Mac Formatted.

MacBook Air, man.
PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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post #5 of 11
11/22/11 at 8:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

MacBook Air, man.

Wait... aren't there supposed to be Thunderbolt adapters?
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post #6 of 11
11/22/11 at 9:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonton View Post

Wait... aren't there supposed to be Thunderbolt adapters?

Sure, but none exist for FireWire, USB, or Ethernet yet.
PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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post #7 of 11
11/22/11 at 3:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

Sure, but none exist for FireWire, USB, or Ethernet yet.

Well there is one. The Cinema Display.

But I digress. You're right. Marv should get a USB drive and reformat it.
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post #8 of 11
11/22/11 at 5:26pm
Not sure if your question was actually answered or not.

It is most likely formatted as Master Boot Record and Fat32. Your Mac will be able to read and write to it with no problems.

If you'd like to be able to boot from the drive (Say you wish to create a partition on it to install OSX as a bootable backup in the event your internal HDD fails,) then you'll want to re-format it as GUID and MacOS Extended.
From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, "Look at that!" -...
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From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, "Look at that!" -...
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post #9 of 11
11/24/11 at 3:07am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

MacBook Air, man.

What does this crack mean?
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post #10 of 11
11/24/11 at 7:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by marvfox View Post

What does this crack mean?

He mentioned that a FireWire hard drive would work well, but your laptop doesn't have any FireWire ports.
PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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post #11 of 11
11/26/11 at 2:59am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

He mentioned that a FireWire hard drive would work well, but your laptop doesn't have any FireWire ports.

You are correct sir.
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