So, my external hard drive was once used on a computer using Windows. Everything that has been installed onto this is locked. My computer is a Macintosh. I cannot add new files or delete the old ones from the x-hd. What am I supposed to do?
Computers & Internet - Maxtor - OneTouch II Hard Drive
Answers & Comments
If your external HDD was used on a windows machine, it was probably formatted in the NTFS file format. Mac uses Fat32. The entire HDD has to be formatted to Fat32 for the Mac system to use.
First, you have to make sure that there is nothing on that drive that you want, because when your Mac formats it, all the information will be lost.
Step 0. Connect your external hard drive to your Mac.
Step 1. Click on Go -> Utilities; or press the Shift + Command + U shortcut key:
Step 2. Find Disk Utility and double click on it:
Step 3. Select your external hard drive on the left hand side of Disk Utility:
Step 4. Choose the Erase tab on the right hand side of the screen, then choose the Volume Format you want. If you are using Macs only, then choosing Mac OS Extended (Journaled) would be good. If you got PCs around or you want PCs to be able to connect to your external hard drive, then the MS-DOS(FAT) is the one you want. (it formats the hard drive to FAT32).
Step 5. Click on the Erase button to format the hard drive. After that, you should be able to connect your new external hard drive to your Mac and being able to read and write >