Can't find external folder to open documents

Felicia Veldkamp · Nov 12, 2014

Hi,

I've been having problems with my Seagate Portable Drive (Expansion) 1 TB. compatible with windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8.

I plugged it in my 2.0 & 3.0 USB and it installs the driver. When i try to find the external disk on my HP 360 laptop (windows 8.1) i can't find it to access the folders i have on it.
On other laptops it doesn't seem to have this problem.

When i connect the ext. drive to the laptop it makes a sound and the light on the drive goes on. I see the icon in the right corner below that asks if i want to safely remove the drive, so this means my computer detects the disk. From there on I clicked on my devices and i found the disk but it only shows the details of the ext.drive (names, codes, IT things that i don't understand) it doesn't open the drive so i can access my files.

I tried reinstalling the disk and it doesn't make a difference. i tried all usb ports.
I only used it once before to backup my macbook which are the files that i need.
i tried to find the answer on forums but didn't find an answer yet.

What can i do?

Darkbreeze · Nov 12, 2014

You need to reformat it with a windows file system. Windows will not recognize Apple formats and if you used it with your MacBook, it has been formatted for one of the Apple file formats.

Here's how to format it for Windows:

http://www.howtogeek.com/195530/how-to-convert-a-mac-formatted-drive-to-a-windows-drive/

If the files that are on there are in the Mac (Probably FAT3 format) format, you will need to use a Mac product to access, read and back them up. Once you back them up, you can repartition the drive for windows use, but you can't read one with the other.

Darkbreeze · Nov 12, 2014

http://www.howtogeek.com/195530/how-to-convert-a-mac-formatted-drive-to-a-windows-drive/

You can't read Mac formats with windows or visa versa. You'll need to use a Mac product to access and backup you files and then reformat it to a Windows format, usually NTFS, to use it with windows. You won't be able to read your Mac files on your windows computer or the other way around though.

Felicia Veldkamp · Nov 13, 2014

Darkbreeze :

I found the folder on a Samsung Chromebook though, the only reason i couldn't open my documents was because he didn't have a certain app for it.
If it had anything to do with it being mac files wouldn't it show the folder but show me a notification that i cant open it because of the file being from macbook? it doesn't show the folders now at all

Darkbreeze · Nov 13, 2014

It likely wouldn't show you anything at all because the entire file system structure would be unrecognizable. It might know that something was there but it would have no idea how to translate what's there to something structural. If the drive was formatted while attached to a mac it won't read in windows. If it wasn't, then I have no idea how you used it with your Mac. In fact, you couldn't.

Search

Can't find external folder to open documents

Felicia Veldkamp

Reputable

Darkbreeze

Retired Mod

Darkbreeze

Retired Mod

Felicia Veldkamp

Reputable

Darkbreeze

Retired Mod

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page