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formatting external HDD- wat to do ?

A

angeldust33

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Ok folks here is the thing !!

i have a wstern digital 250 GB usb/fw external hdd.
now i want to use it to backup my mac (60 gb hdd),
tsfr files to and from other ppl's pc's !! and relocate my itunes music !!
and also to use it while recording music in garageband/logic !!

now i am clueless about what to format it as, ,,, as i have been reading things about how the max file size in fat 32 is 2 gb and how mac only read ntfs and doesnt write to it etc etc etc ....

my questions are
1 > what format or formats should it be in to be used on both
mac and PC (i just need to keep like 10 gb's for pc as i just have to transfer files to and fro)

2. is there any use to also use it as a bootable disk ??

3.is making partitions better , as in does it help performance

i would relly appreciate the help !!

happy halloween everyone !! 🙂 😀
 
angeldust33 said:
Ok folks here is the thing !!

i have a wstern digital 250 GB usb/fw external hdd.
now i want to use it to backup my mac (60 gb hdd),
tsfr files to and from other ppl's pc's !! and relocate my itunes music !!
and also to use it while recording music in garageband/logic !!

now i am clueless about what to format it as, ,,, as i have been reading things about how the max file size in fat 32 is 2 gb and how mac only read ntfs and doesnt write to it etc etc etc ....

my questions are
1 > what format or formats should it be in to be used on both
mac and PC (i just need to keep like 10 gb's for pc as i just have to transfer files to and fro)

2. is there any use to also use it as a bootable disk ??

3.is making partitions better , as in does it help performance

i would relly appreciate the help !!

happy halloween everyone !! 🙂 😀
Click to expand...

You will have to make at least 2 partitions.
The bootable Mac partition will have to be Macintosh Extended (HFS Plus)
The partition for the PC transfer will have to be DOS (FAT32)
 
and how can i do that ??
via terminal ??

and the fat 32 that i would make for windows transfers...
would i be able to transfer files more than 2 gb in size ?

Thank you 🙂
 
I believe the transfer file limit for FAT32 is 4GB but I could be wrong. Although Terminal can format this drive for you, Disk Utility in the Utilities folder is probably a more user-friendly alternative. 🙂
 
If you want to keep your music etc. on the drive as well as your backup (if you are using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper or some such), you will need 3 partitions. One for the PC to use, one for the clone and one for your extra files. If you put your iTunes songs etc. on the same partition as the clone, when you backup you will lose your songs, etc.
 
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