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Anyone keep Docs/Music/Movies/Photos OS independent?

spriter

spriter

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 13, 2004
1,460
586
Hi guys,

Basically I'm looking at setting up so an external drive house all my Documents, Movies, Music and Photos so it doesn't matter if I'm using Leopard or Windows 7 to access them.

I find pitfalls with each OS so would like the ability to switch between each as and when, whilst keeping my Docs etc available to either.

FAT32 format is out for the external as I have some large ripped movies (+4GB), so I've installed NTFS-3G onto Leopard which allows read/write access and format ability and works well.

I was wondering if anyone does this and what the problems are.
eg. Can iTunes read from the same library?

I use Gmail so email/calendars are no problem. Foxmarks works with Safari and Firefox so bookmarks can be synced across either platform. I already have my photos managed by myself so iPhoto has not crunched them into it's single library file.

VMware is an option but it's too slow compared too native performance, as is a wifi network server setup compared to USB/firewire connection.

Thanks for any advice :)
 
If you want to be able to switch back and forth at a whim, buy Microsoft Office for Mac. If simple compatibility is your concern, save your files with TextEdit or Pages as .rtf or .doc.

spriter said:
eg. Can iTunes read from the same library?
Click to expand...

Yes. If you want the music files themselves to be easily interchangeable with other players, set iTunes to import as MP3.

All movies and photos will always be interchangeable.
 
spriter said:
Hi guys,

Basically I'm looking at setting up so an external drive house all my Documents, Movies, Music and Photos so it doesn't matter if I'm using Leopard or Windows 7 to access them.

I find pitfalls with each OS so would like the ability to switch between each as and when, whilst keeping my Docs etc available to either.

FAT32 format is out for the external as I have some large ripped movies (+4GB), so I've installed NTFS-3G onto Leopard which allows read/write access and format ability and works well.

I was wondering if anyone does this and what the problems are.
eg. Can iTunes read from the same library?

I use Gmail so email/calendars are no problem. Foxmarks works with Safari and Firefox so bookmarks can be synced across either platform. I already have my photos managed by myself so iPhoto has not crunched them into it's single library file.

VMware is an option but it's too slow compared too native performance, as is a wifi network server setup compared to USB/firewire connection.

Thanks for any advice :)
Click to expand...

I do by having a Network Attached Storage (NAS) box holding the files. My Mac accesses the files using AFP and my Windows box accesses the files using SMB. That way I didn't have to worry about what format to use on the external drive. In iTunes preferences (if that is what you will use to listen to music) be sure to uncheck Keep iTunes Music folder organized and Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library. Then the local drive will only hold the iTunes database and not the songs themselves. Then I have the different directories (music, videos, public, etc) all mountable as separate file shares on Windows or OS X.
 
My music is kept on each OS, but all the files are there, and iTunes recognized all library files regardless of OS. I have them on an External, and on DVDs. (though the DVDs could be updated).


Even if I transfered all music to a new OS, all songs are there in artist/album/song folder structure. Easy to find, and usable on almost any OS.


As for Documents, I'm not sure it's possible unless all documents are done as plain text (.txt) or rich text (.rtf) format. You may be able to use OpenOffice.Org in Windows, Mac, and Linux for all document needs, and they would be compatible across OS's.


Photos are easy, I manage them manually. I never liked iPhoto and it's events or year categories that exist randomly. I don't have a year for most photos, and I don't want them mixed together in events randomy. It's so much easier for me to use my own File/Folder structure, organize them, and edit them when I so choose to. I can view most of them in OS X through thumbnails in a folder with a black background, so it works out for me.


Lets see..Music, Photos, Documents.. I actually open word documents in Text Edit for quick editing..
 
Thanks guys.

One reason I need Windows is for Office. Despite Office 2008 on Mac sluggish (I could live with that) compared to 2007 on Windows, it's the option of a full Chinese interface that means Windows wins hands-down. Although I can easily set OSX language to Chinese and the Finder, etc change, menus in Office 2008 remain English. Office on the Windows side is just much better supported internationally compared to OSX.

I have tried Neo Office and OpenOffice which do have full Simplified Chinese language packs but I've noticed quit a few inconsistencies when opening documents created in Word which have styles, tables and advanced formatting. This creates a real problem for my coursework so it's not a viable option.

The NAS option would be good except I'm on the move so I'll likely store the independent documents on a portable USB HDD drive or partition my 250gb internal to something like 40GB per OS and 150GB for documents, music and so on.

spriter
 
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