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March, 2024

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PC hard drive in a Mac

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Slinger1x1
Posts: 8853 - Karma: 65
alright, i have a 160gb hard drive but its basically full. im so careful not to fill it up completely but its a pain in the ass.
so im looking at a western digital scorpio black 320gb 7200 rpm hd. i would put it in my dell now and i know it would work fine.

question is, will it fit in a mac? my computer is coming up on 4 years od. after next year, i go to college and i will get a new computer. that computer could possibly be a mac. so would the hard drive be compatible? so i can continue to use this beastly hard drive instead of spending an arm and a leg to get one from mac when i get the computer? obviously i know i would have to format it.

thanks for your help. im assuming you can but i just want to check and i havent found anything usefull of the googlenator
Apr 18 2010 6:18PM
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uni-corn
Posts: 13846 - Karma: 651
Just get an external HD. It will save you LOADS of time worrying about this!
Apr 18 2010 6:19PM
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Slinger1x1
Posts: 8853 - Karma: 65
i have one, and i use it to back everything up.

but i dont find it very useful otherwise. i bring my computer around the house so i cant have it hooked up all the time. and i dont know what i would put on it... i mean i edit some videos for my lacrosse highlight tapes for recruiting, and i have like 65 gigs of music. thre rest is all like applications and computer data and what not. everything on my computer kinda needs to stay there
Apr 18 2010 6:32PM
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Slinger1x1
Posts: 8853 - Karma: 65
someone helpppp. i needa get this thang solved
Apr 18 2010 7:25PM
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nkmo.
Posts: 3994 - Karma: 285
I don't think I've ever heard of anyone who has 100+ gigs that NEED to stay on their comp. I dont see why it wouldnt work though if you just format it before you install it.
Apr 18 2010 7:32PM
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nkmo.
Posts: 3994 - Karma: 285
Actually, if you're planning on using it on your PC, then swapping it with everything still on there to a Mac I don't think it would work. Formatting issues.
Apr 18 2010 7:34PM
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rockjumper
Posts: 496 - Karma: 13
maybe you can find a SSD hard drive.
Apr 18 2010 7:35PM
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SOLID7
Posts: 239 - Karma: 11
Nnonononononononononono!!! If you loaded up your hard drive on your PC I believe it will be formatting erros indeed. Even with USB keys?! This is not all of them I believe, but when it happened to me I had to mess around on Terminal for a while to make it work!
Apr 18 2010 7:40PM
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nkmo.
Posts: 3994 - Karma: 285
Well, yeah, it physically WILL work. Hardware is Hardware. However I think he was asking if when he got a new comp he could just install the new HD with all the stuff he had still on there. Which you CAN'T do because of formatting. Sure you might be able to read the drive, but you probably won't be able to write to it.
Apr 18 2010 7:56PM
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SOLID7
Posts: 239 - Karma: 11
I'm not that stupid when it comes to computers :D. There are two different hard drive partionings at least commonly used: FAT32 and NTFS. Mac OSX can actually only write to FAT32 but not NTFS, however your drive might most likely be formatted in NTFS format, as it is apparently safer due to less chance of corruption. That means if you need read and write privileges to your NTFS formatted disk from a Mac, you will need command line tools. :D I hope that wasn't too much to read!
Apr 18 2010 8:01PM
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Heart
Posts: 6156 - Karma: 3,462
There are two different physical sizes of hard drive, 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch. Laptops always use 2.5 inch hard drives, and desktops can use either, though you need a mounting bracket to use a 2.5 inch. 2.5 inch hard drives will be more expensive than a 3.5.

Is that dell a laptop or desktop? If it is a desktop, get a mounting bracket and the hard drive. If it's a laptop, just get the hard drive by itself.

You will be able to use the same hard drive in your mac/new pc down the road.
Apr 18 2010 8:09PM
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Slinger1x1
Posts: 8853 - Karma: 65
no i specifically said "obviously i would reformat it." meaning i know i can just put in a hard drive with windows installed on it and expect it to work
Apr 18 2010 8:26PM
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nkmo.
Posts: 3994 - Karma: 285
Well then there you go. Should be fine. Just make sure the size and connections are the same.
Apr 18 2010 9:24PM
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BestDamnSkier
Posts: 275 - Karma: 14
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you can't have multiple hdd's in an iMac so make sure you get a Mac Pro.
Apr 18 2010 9:55PM
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eastAR5
Posts: 15084 - Karma: 730
no such thing as an internal 'pc hard drive' for laptops. I bought a 500 gb hitchi 7200rpm drive and im swapping it into my new macbook pro. It was the best drive for the money cheap , supposdely quiet and fast
Apr 18 2010 9:59PM
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mmallender.
Posts: 5805 - Karma: 936
you could also just pick up an enclosure for it and turn it into an external.
Apr 18 2010 10:23PM
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EH_DUBS
Posts: 3080 - Karma: 969
trick question. macs are pc's, if you mean personal computers.


but yeah its been answered. you will just have to reformat, nothing will stay on the drive once you re format so back up what you want when you do the switch.
Apr 18 2010 10:27PM
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