App to Backup Fat32 Drives

[tonybob]

I am looking for an OSX app which will backup an external Fat32 drive to another external Fat32 using Leopard machine.

My machine is bootcamp-ed to switch between OSX and XP for work. I keep the working files on an external Fat32 drive for maximum compatibility.

I have searched for a Mac app which will support Fat32 backup, but have not had any luck. IE -- Time Machine / Superduper do seem to properly read / write to Fat32.

Also, is there an app which can backup files from an external Mac Journalled drive to Fat32? This backup is just to make copies of files (like .mp3 and .doc) -- not a bootable backup of the applications folder. I have bootable backups of my primary OSX drive using Time Machine and Superduper on Mac drives.

I would prefer a OSX app for this. I tried mounting the backup drive to XP, but it does not see the drive. Therefore, I would prefer to not rely on a Windows app solution.

If it helps -- the backup drive (a 1TB WD MyBook) has four partitions: three Fat32 drives and one Mac Journalled (for a bootable Superduper backup). The working drive I want to back up is a 320G WD Passport. The 1TB runs through a Firewire 800 port and the 320G runs through a USB 2.0 port. Hope these items do not matter.

If the app is free, that would be a nice plus.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[chas0001]

WINCLONE allows you to image FAT32 and NTFS drives. I have used it in the past to move my Windows partition to a new disk and it worked flawlessly. Its free too...

 

[spinne1]

Another option is to first backup and then reformat the 1TB drive in the Mac format (HFS+.) Then do all backups via the Mac. You could install an HFS+ for Windows app to read the backup from Windows, such as this one:

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/

Fat32 will work, but has limitations (speed and file size.) Also, making multiple partitions is a Windows bad habit that should be unlearned when going Mac.

 

[-tWv-]

Also, making multiple partitions is a Windows bad habit that should be unlearned when going Mac.

Why is making multiple partitions a bad habit? I have multiple partitions on all three of my hard drives (2 external, 1 internal). It helps to keep data organized and also it is useful for having cross platform drives (I use NTFS w/ ntfs-3g installed on the mac) as well as a mac backup drive. I have a tri-boot setup with my internal hd, which is extremely useful to me.

It depends on what you need your drive to do. Creating multiple partitions is completely fine and many mac users such as me use it to keep data organized and also to have multiple OSs. Multiple partitions is not just used by Windows users. Most windows that do this for their internal hd just do it to keep their personal data safe from the Windows system files.