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External Drive Formatting

Bigbord

Bigbord

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 8, 2010
2
0
Hi, I have a USB external hard drive in which I formatted with the Utility on my iMac to MS-DOS (FAT)

Am I correct in the understanding that this external drive can now be used by both my iMac and my Windows Vista PC? I want to be able to share the files (whether it be documents, photos or video) on the external hard drive with both my iMac and PC.

Additionally, is this type of formatting as stable as any other format? I am just concerned about losing any data long term. I will be backing up my files on two separate external drives using the same formatting. The duplication is in case one of the external hard drives crash.

I am a little paranoid about Hard Drives crashing since my iMac HD crashed after only 7 months. Glad I purchased that extended warranty!
 
I can't speak to the stability of the file system format, but FAT32 is the correct file system for the most compatibility between Macs and PCs. NTFS is readable by a Mac, but only writable by a Mac with additional 3rd party software. HFS+ is the best for Macs, but is not readable or writable by a PC without additional 3rd party software. HTH.
 
FAT32 is the best bet, but you are limited to a maximum size of 4GB per file.


GGJstudios said:
FAT32
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
  • No individual file larger than 4GB.
NTFS
HFS
  • Read/Write HFS from native Mac OS X
  • To Read/Write HFS from Windows, Install MacDrive
  • To Read HFS (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
Click to expand...
 
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