# PC-formatted external hard drive has missing files in Mac OS X



## berndawg84 (Nov 9, 2001)

So I got my brand spankin new Macbook Pro yesterday and I love it already. I can actually have a bunch of programs open at once and it doesn't seem to mind (my Dell 1.1 ghz with256 MB of RAM was a nightmare!)

I have an external hard drive I used with my PC that I will now use with my Mac. I realized quickly that I could read files off the hard drive and could transfer them from the hard drive to the Mac, but I could not transfer files from the Mac to the hard drive. I investigated and realized that the HD was formatted in NTFS, which is not supported by Mac. So, I have to re-format it in FAT32 I believe so that it works with my Mac (if that is incorrect, let me know).

Here's the other issue though. When viewing the hard drive on my Mac, I have one folder with music files that is simply not there. When I connect the hard drive to my old PC, the folder is visible. In Mac OS, I tried using this trick with "Terminal" in order to show all hidden files in Mac OS, but still no luck:

http://www.osxfaq.com/DailyTips/02-2005/02-01.ws

Any ideas on why this folder is not showing up in Mac OS? As far as I can tell, all the other folders are. The folder is all music files, but I doubt that's the issue.


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## Serge_N_Gin (Sep 7, 2004)

Sounds tricky .... my suggestion here is to copy the folder back to the PC and delete the folder and contents from the ext hd, then make sure the folder is set to share and then copy it back onto the ext hd.

Is the folder that won't show a copy of your PC's My Music folder? I don't really know if that's relevant but I'd make a fresh folder on your PC's Desktop and copy/move the mp3's into that new folder and then transfer the folder to the ext hd then connect it up to the Mac and see if there's any change to your issue.

Can you remember before you reformatted the ext hd from NTFS to FAT32, whether or not the folder showed on your Mac?

Other than that, I'm a bit stumped .... but you've done a tremendous job so far IMHO!


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