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Is it possible to use an external hard drive on Macbook and TV?

I recently got a 1TB Seagate external hard drive which I was intending on using for backing up my Macbook and also playing movies on the TV. I'm not the most technologically minded person, but managed to get the hard drive formatted to work on the Macbook, but now I'm plugging it into the TV and it says the USB device is not supported. I don't know what I need to do with the settings to get it to work on both or if this is even possible.
Original post by Charlotte49
I recently got a 1TB Seagate external hard drive which I was intending on using for backing up my Macbook and also playing movies on the TV. I'm not the most technologically minded person, but managed to get the hard drive formatted to work on the Macbook, but now I'm plugging it into the TV and it says the USB device is not supported. I don't know what I need to do with the settings to get it to work on both or if this is even possible.

It should be possible, my boyfriends external hard drive works ok every device they have, is it that your tv can't find it at all or that the file type is incompatible with the tv? As our tv refuses to read mkv files.
Original post by claireestelle
It should be possible, my boyfriends external hard drive works ok every device they have, is it that your tv can't find it at all or that the file type is incompatible with the tv? As our tv refuses to read mkv files.


I'm not sure, my movie files are in MP4 but I think that the issue is that I've already formatted it to work as a Time Machine with the Macbook. I know other people who use it between a PC and TV so either it's to do with the mac formatting or there's some sort of issue with my TV...
Original post by Charlotte49
I'm not sure, my movie files are in MP4 but I think that the issue is that I've already formatted it to work as a Time Machine with the Macbook. I know other people who use it between a PC and TV so either it's to do with the mac formatting or there's some sort of issue with my TV...


I d think it could be the mac formatting really, how long have you had the tv?
Original post by claireestelle
I d think it could be the mac formatting really, how long have you had the tv?


Only a couple of years or so, it's a reasonably modern Sony Bravia.
Original post by Charlotte49
Only a couple of years or so, it's a reasonably modern Sony Bravia.


It's quite likely to be a formatting problem if you're tv is pretty modern.
Original post by claireestelle
It's quite likely to be a formatting problem if you're tv is pretty modern.


Original post by Charlotte49
Only a couple of years or so, it's a reasonably modern Sony Bravia.


Would agree with Claire - form your mac, it could be that you reformatted the drive to Mac OS X Extended, which may not be compatible with your TV.

I would assume FAT32 would be the format you'd want, as that's what most USB sticks are formatted as, and should then be compatible between Mac, PC, and also I would presume TV as well (not too sure!). You might want to check online for what specific TV you have, and what formats it supports. (NTFS format should also work, but you'd need some software to be able to write to that on a Mac!)
Original post by mobbsy91
Would agree with Claire - form your mac, it could be that you reformatted the drive to Mac OS X Extended, which may not be compatible with your TV.

I would assume FAT32 would be the format you'd want, as that's what most USB sticks are formatted as, and should then be compatible between Mac, PC, and also I would presume TV as well (not too sure!). You might want to check online for what specific TV you have, and what formats it supports. (NTFS format should also work, but you'd need some software to be able to write to that on a Mac!)


Thanks a lot, finally got it sorted out and it's working great. The guide I read for formatting the hard drive for Mac said that it had to be in the OS X Extended so I'd just assumed that was the only option that would work with the laptop, wish these things would come with actual instructions...
Original post by Charlotte49
Thanks a lot, finally got it sorted out and it's working great. The guide I read for formatting the hard drive for Mac said that it had to be in the OS X Extended so I'd just assumed that was the only option that would work with the laptop, wish these things would come with actual instructions...


Yeh haha, it defaults to that, but yeh, can do other formats!! Glad you got it all sorted!!

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