external hard drive and fat 32

[roger]

I have a mac os x version 10.5.8
i have recently been given a prestigio external hard drive, when i plugged it in nothing happened, it just buzzed but did not bring up the icon on desk top as it was supposed to. The instruction book states that mac 10.x or higher will work but ( fat32 format only).
My question is has my mac got fat 32? What ever that may be. Is the lack of it, if so, stopping my new toy from functioning.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Hi Roger

FAT32 is the format that is needed for an Ext Hard Drive to work between both Windows & Mac computers, to be able to both Read & Write between both platforms ... so yes, your Mac has the ability to both read and write to a FAT32 formatted drive AND the ability to format a drive as FAT32.

As far as the Prestigio not showing up on your Mac, there are a couple of things to look at.

1. In Finder, go to the Menubar at the top of the screen and click on:

Finder ~> Preferences​

In the Finder Preferences window that opens, make sure that a tick is placed to the left of "External Discs" in "Devices".

Close the window and see if the ext drive shows up.​

2. Try another USB 2 cable to see if that is the problem.

3. Try a different USB 2 port on your Mac.

4. Launch Disc Utility (Applications ~> Utilities) and see if the Prestigio shows up in the left column.

 

[roger]

Thank you so very much for you quick response. It worked when using another usb port.
Just to ease my mind when I started the time machine program to use my new drive it gave a warning that it would remove anything on the drive and could not be retrieved. At this point my nerve failed my and i stopped. Is this all part of the formatting process to FAT 32. I should say that the drive is brand new. Sorry to be asking such basic questions but I am not very computer literate as I am pushing 70.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

If you intend using the Prestigio HD solely for Time Machine then I wouldn't format the drive as FAT32 (MSDOS) as your Mac will need access to the drive at all times.

Do you have any important files on the Prestigio HD? Before you let Time Machine go ahead and prepare the Ext HD it would be a good idea to back them up because by what you've written it does seem that Time Machine will erase the drive as part of the process..

The format to choose for your Ext HD is Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Don't worry about what type of questions you are asking as we all need to ask questions from time to time