Tag Archives: external drive

MacIssues > external drive

How to choose a format for an external drive in OS X


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USBDriveIconXFormatting an external drive to work with your Mac can be done in several ways. While for the most part drives ship in formats that are universally recognized among operating systems so data can at least be read, there are times when you may wish to wipe a drive and set it up to be most compatible with your Mac. On the other hand, you may have a drive you have primarily used with your Mac, but now wish to use it with a Windows system. In these cases, it helps to know how best to format your drive. Continue reading ⇒

MacIssues > external drive

Tackle external hard drives randomly ejecting in OS X


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HardDriveIconXA fault in OS X may exist for some users, where external drives unexpectedly eject and cause the system to display a “Disk ejected improperly” warning message. This usually occurs when the system is idling, such as when it is asleep, but at times may happen in the middle of file transfers or when browsing the drive for various files. When this happens, the drive’s view will disappear and all activity from it will halt, interrupting the transfer process. Continue reading ⇒

MacIssues > external drive

Unable to boot to a secondary hard drive? This may help


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HardDriveIconXOne long-standing and useful feature in OS X is its ability to boot from practically any mountable partition, including external drives. This allows for quick ways to test an installation, isolate different uses of your Mac to separate boot drives, troubleshoot aspects of your Mac’s hardware and internal storage, and create bootable backups of your Mac’s hard drive. While useful, there are times when your Mac will not boot to such partitions, even if they are perfectly healthy. If so, then here is what to do about it. Continue reading ⇒

MacIssues > external drive

Prevent OS X requesting permission to delete files on external drives


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USBDriveIconXIf you have an external drive that you use with your Mac, and provided it is in a format that your Mac can read, then you by default should be able to access all of the files on it. However, there may be times when you are either barred from opening or accessing files or folders, or performing actions like deleting files may result in errors.

These error can include simple confirmation requests such as “Are you sure you want to delete the item“, or be full Continue reading ⇒

MacIssues > external drive

How to determine if your Mac’s hard drive is failing


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HardDriveIconXYour hard drive failing can mean loss or corruption to important data, or perhaps to applications and system software that can destabilize the system. If your Mac is regularly showing hangs, is running exceptionally sluggishly, crashes, or you get odd permissions denied errors about the inability to access certain files for which you previously had access, then your drive may be about to fail. Continue reading ⇒

MacIssues > external drive

How to prepare a drive for use in OS X


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USBDriveIconXWhen you purchase a thumb drive or hard drive and attach or install it in your Mac, you likely will be able to use it right away; however, depending on the uses you intend for the drive, its default setup may not be the most optimal.

In most cases, manufacturers ship drives formatted to the FAT32 filesystem, since this format is universally supported Continue reading ⇒