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Using external hard drives w/ mac & pc

mr.brettmr.brett 678 Posts
edited January 2007 in Strut Central
I just got a 500 gig external in and was wondering what the best way to format it is. I have a macbook and a pc laptop that i'll use it with. I have my other hard drives formatted in fat32, but apparently there's a limit to how many gigs of fat32 a mac will recognize? I tried looking at apple's site and thought I found something saying how mac's will work with whatever format you have with your pc, but when I do an NTFS format, I get an error saying that I can't write on it with my mac.Thanks

  Comments

  • spelunkspelunk 3,400 Posts
    Are you sure when you format in NTFS you're using NTFS extended? I'd format NTFS extended using your mac, and then test it out with your PC. FAT32 is a pretty archaic format, not well designed for large files (and with a 500GB drive you probably have a bunch.)
  • AserAser 2,351 Posts
    os x = hfs+ & fat 32 (read/write), ntfs (read only)
    xp = ntfs & fat 32 (read/write), hfs+ (no built in support)

    best bet if you need to share a drive between the two platforms. Format in hfs+, then install macdrive on your xp machine. Macdrive allows xp machines to read/write hfs+.

    problem solved
  • spelunkspelunk 3,400 Posts
    os x = hfs+ & fat 32 (read/write), ntfs (read only)
    xp = ntfs & fat 32 (read/write), hfs+ (no built in support)

    best bet if you need to share a drive between the two platforms. Format in hfs+, then install macdrive on your xp machine. Macdrive allows xp machines to read/write hfs+.

    problem solved

    =correct. Don't listen to me, I can't get my acronyms straight right now.
  • TheBeatGoesTheBeatGoes 711 Posts
    thanks for this post, old family friend got in touch with me and wants to mail me a 200 GB HD full of mp3s. he's a PC dude and i'm on a MAC. my internet searches led me to belive FAT 32 would be cool but you think HFS is the way to go?

    Will FAT 32 be okay if i just want to get the files i think i'll need off this drive then re-format it later? What are the downsides to FAT32?
  • mr.brettmr.brett 678 Posts
    I'm having problems getting macdrive to recognize my HFS partition... even after i make it with the stupid program. I've also tried making the partition with my mac with no success. Any suggestions?

    Will fat32 work on a 500gig drive?
  • mr.brettmr.brett 678 Posts
    Will FAT 32 be okay if i just want to get the files i think i'll need off this drive then re-format it later? What are the downsides to FAT32?

    I've got a 250 gig external that's uses fat32 and it seems to work between the two.
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