I just bought my first Mac!

[Bazza1]

What are some suggestions for an external hard drive, that are Mac compatible? Thanks

Don't be conned / ripped off by the Mac-formatted external hard drives out there - especially those sold at a significant premium. Any old HDD will do. I use a portable Seagate 1TB portable (doesn't require an external power source) model, which I got on sale.

I simply ran the Disk Utility > Click on Drive > Erase > Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to properly format it - and then, in my case, I then used Disk Format > Partition to split the HDD in two - one partition of 500GB as space for my Time Machine, the other 500GB as my Expansion Drive for items I don't need on my Air on a daily (mobile) basis.

 

[joemd60]

Don't be conned / ripped off by the Mac-formatted external hard drives out there - especially those sold at a significant premium. Any old HDD will do. I use a portable Seagate 1TB portable (doesn't require an external power source) model, which I got on sale.

I simply ran the Disk Utility > Click on Drive > Erase > Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to properly format it - and then, in my case, I then used Disk Format > Partition to split the HDD in two - one partition of 500GB as space for my Time Machine, the other 500GB as my Expansion Drive for items I don't need on my Air on a daily (mobile) basis.

Thank you Bazza,
So is this as easy to do as it sounds? Or am I going to turn a $100 EHD into a paperweight when I try it out?
I'll keep this reference until I order one, thanks again for the tip.

 

[joemd60]

It is that easy. There's nothing special about the hardware of an external hard drive to make it for a Mac. Just the way a drive is formatted.

Thanks Karen, I'll look around Amazon and see what they have.

 

[Bazza1]

Thank you Bazza,
So is this as easy to do as it sounds? Or am I going to turn a $100 EHD into a paperweight when I try it out?
I'll keep this reference until I order one, thanks again for the tip.

joemd60 - I just did a quickie Google and found a YouTube on this that is quite good. In his case, he's created 3 partitions - one for Time Machine, one for Mac files and one for Windows files, so he can share the HDD with a Windows computer. Also, you'll note the Partitioning allows you to set the formatting for each partition and deals with it all, whereas I did a full format and then the partition. Both clearly work. Hope this takes the some of the fear factor away - though frankly, If I could do it fearlessly and without screwing up, anybody can....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc9VnF-QIdY

 

[joemd60]

joemd60 - I just did a quickie Google and found a YouTube on this that is quite good. In his case, he's created 3 partitions - one for Time Machine, one for Mac files and one for Windows files, so he can share the HDD with a Windows computer. Also, you'll note the Partitioning allows you to set the formatting for each partition and deals with it all, whereas I did a full format and then the partition. Both clearly work. Hope this takes the some of the fear factor away - though frankly, If I could do it fearlessly and without screwing up, anybody can....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc9VnF-QIdY

Thank you Bazza! Much appreciated. I'll keep that on file.

 

[Agrinho]

Congratulations, I'm sure you love it by now. I went from Windows to Mac not knowing anything about it, but it was a very natural experience for me.

 

[KungFooJoe]

congrats!

 

[ChamNG]

Congratulations!

 

[allure08]

My 2013 MacBook Air 13" model will be in tomorrow evening! What are some free and paid apps from the Mac App Store that are must haves? And I would appreciate any OS X tips and tricks as this is the first Mac I've ever owned, or used ( For more then 45 minuets). Thanks in advance!

Sent from my iPad using iMore Forums

welcome to the family! i got my first mac in 2009 and i have been with macs ever since! you just can't go back to trashy windows after that...

 

[AddFar]

nice!