mffox Loc: Avon, CT

I cannot figure out how to backup photos from my new MAC to an external hard drive. I'm sure it's a simple solution. Can anyone help me out?

Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

If the photos are in folders, just drag them onto the drive's icon. You can order the folders later.

If in iPhoto, or Picasa, or another library, just drag the library icon to the driver's icon.

mffox Loc: Avon, CT

Thanks, Fred. I'll give it a shot.

Steve Perry Loc: Sylvania, Ohio

You can also use Time Machine to automatically backup everything on your system. It should be under the applications folder and it super easy to setup. Once done, it will backup automatically for you and even keeps old revisions. I'd recommend a backup drive larger than the one on your hard drive however since the revisions can add up to more to more than the total space on your HD.

mffox Loc: Avon, CT

Mystery solved?? Backup attempts fail because external hard drive is formatted for Microsoft but not for MAC. MAC files and folders are rejected. (Call it Bill Gates' Revenge.) Now I just have to figure out how to re-format without losing everything that's already on there from my Microsoft days. (Sigh!!)

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Buy a external for mac. They are cheap. 1TB around $70. http://www.amazon.com/Black-Passport-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B00WJOVDYM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460074773&sr=8-1&keywords=1tb+wd+for+mac

Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

Move files onto the internal mac hard drive (or a flash drive), reformat with the Mac drive utility, then put them back onto the reformatted drive.

Kobuk Loc: Roseville, CA

On my last trip to Brazil's Pantanal with my new Mac Book Pro I had the same problem. One of my guests figured it out as my Western Digital hard drives were all formatted in NTFS but once we reformatted them to exFat there was not problem backing up my photos.

hfb46 Loc: UK

You need to use the "Disk Utility", Erase and choose the Mac format.

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

If there is the possibility you would want to use the external drive with a PC as well there is software for Mac ( Tuxera is one) that will let Mac write to NTFS drives.

RichieC Loc: Adirondacks

Reformat using
Applications > Utility > Disk Utility > Erase

You'll be presented with a dialog box you can choose how to format the drive. you can even format it FOR windows there.

Under help- look under manage physical disks and volumes.

Note that you have several options, that windows disk was specifically optimized to not be shareable. Normal settings it should work fine on either.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Reformatting will destroy ALL the files on the old drive, so first, you'll need to copy important files from your old drive to another one, then reformat the old drive (Mac OS X, Extended, Journaled), and finally, copy the files back to the old drive.

BobbyT Loc: Southern California

Does this "drag" "copy" or "move" the folder. I would like a copy and still keep the original file in "photos library".

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Another possibility — if you have a large hard drive on the new Mac, and a smallish hard drive from your PC — is to use Parallels Transporter and Parallels Desktop.

You can actually IMPORT your PC, Windows and all, to the Mac, using Parallels Transporter, and then you can run Windows, your old windows apps, etc. ON the Mac, at the same time you run OS X and OS X apps. You will need all the serial numbers for Windows and other apps, since moving them physically requires re-registration of most software.

I have worked this way for 8 years. I use both Macs and Windows PCs, and develop FileMaker Pro databases for both platforms. So having my PC IN my Mac, and being able to cut and paste from one environment to the other, is VERY convenient. It works quite well, and the latest version of Parallels works with any version of DOS, Windows, Linux...

If you go that route, you would be wise to have at least 8GB RAM, 512MB of VRAM, and sufficient hard drive space to hold everything. The more cores in your processor, the better. Parallels can be configured to use multiple cores, leaving others for the Mac.

Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

It copies.