Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

External HDD on network between mac and pc?

M

maxxscholten

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hey guys, wow it's been a long time since I've posted anything here.

I'm trying to working something out and so far none of my research has helped. I have a 1 TB external HDD that is currently formatted for Mac (extended journal... or something like that) in which I keep things like my Aperture Library (40+ gigs), backups of music, video files (50+ gigs) - all of which won't fit on my puny 60 GB hard drive that sits in my MacBook. Problem is, when I would like to access Aperture, I cannot unless I have my external HDD plugged in, so that it may access the library (same thing happens with my Flip HD Video program).

I've recently finished building a HTPC running Win 7 and it hooked to my plasma in the living room. What I would like to do is somehow put this external HDD on the network (either directly through my router, or somehow through the Win 7 machine) so that when I'm working on my MacBook at home, I don't have to plug in my external to access Aperture and other files in it - but rather be connected to it as long as my internet connection is fine.

Also, it would be super dandy if I would be able to access the external through the Win 7 machine as well - but I figure because of the difference in formatting, this may not be possible.


Any thoughts or help on this situation would be aweeessssome.
 
Buy an Airport Extreme, hang the drive off the back of it.

Or, just format the drive for NTFS on your Windows 7 Machine, and share the drive from there to your MacBook.
 
maxxscholten said:
If I formatted it to NTFS, would my MacBook still be able to recognize it?
Click to expand...

Yes, because it would be shared over the network. The mac wouldn't be writing to it, but the Windows 7 machine would be. The Windows 7 machine would be talking to your Mac over the network under a common language.
 
This is my setup and I can access files, stream blu-ray etc. without any problems to my Win 7 laptop:
  • A bunch of external hdd's (formated as ntfs) connected to my iMac.
  • D-Link DIR-655 router
  • D-Link RangeBooster N USB Adapter (DWA-140) connected to the laptop
Install Paragon NTFS for Mac on your macbook and you can read and write easily.
 
Due to a lovely thing called Samba it won't be a problem - you don't need NTFS-3G on your Mac; it will be communicating through the smb protocol and W7 will be doing the reading/writing and then sending it over to the mac.

Format the drive under NTFS, put on all your files and then share it over the network. Linux/Mac/Windows will all be to access it and write to it (as long as you have given them permission).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back