External Hard Drive Question

[TheSaint91]

I recently purchased a Western Digital 1TB Studio edition external hard drive(formatted in HFS+) and I have a couple of questions I would like to ask. Currently, my drive is unpartitioned and contains only a full back up of my system (around 30GB) that I made using Carbon Copy Cloner. On my windows machine, I have a collection of around 100GB of music files that I would like to transfer onto my external hard drive, however, I'm not sure what path I should choose. Should I create a separate partition in FAT32, and if so, how big should the partition be? Or should I install MacDrive on my windows machine and just keep my hard drive in one partition?

Also, on an unrelated note, would you recommend I use Time Machine, or is Carbon Copy Cloner suitable by itself?

Thanks

 

[miles01110]

On my windows machine, I have a collection of around 100GB of music files that I would like to transfer onto my external hard drive, however, I'm not sure what path I should choose. Should I create a separate partition in FAT32, and if so, how big should the partition be? Or should I install MacDrive on my windows machine and just keep my hard drive in one partition?

If you partition, the music partition should probably be about 100 GB. It really depends if you are using the drive for just backup or if you want your Mac to be able to access the files regularly.

Also, on an unrelated note, would you recommend I use Time Machine, or is Carbon Copy Cloner suitable by itself?

They do different things. Time Machine is slightly more useful if you want to recover a single file, CCC is more useful if you want insurance against a major system failure. It's kind of up to you.

 

[TheSaint91]

If you partition, the music partition should probably be about 100 GB. It really depends if you are using the drive for just backup or if you want your Mac to be able to access the files regularly.

Actually, I will be using it for both. I plan on using my external hard drive to access all of my music, as well as some videos, while keeping a separate partition for my backup. Is that a wise idea?

 

[miles01110]

It's not a "bad" idea, but I don't really understand the logic of non-dedicated backups.

 

[TheSaint91]

I have encountered an error with my hard drive. I created two partitions, one 900GB in HFS+ and 100GB in FAT32. When I plug it into my windows machine-with windows vista-it detects that the drive is plugged in; however, I cannot access it. Upon clicking on my computer, it doesn't show it to be connected; apparently it didn't assign it a drive letter. How can this problem be resolved?

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Actually, I plan on using my external hard drive to access all of my music, as well as some videos, while keeping a separate partition for my backup. Is that a wise idea?

Not if you wish to backup your music (and/or videos).

 

[skarocks47]

If you really want/need 2 partitions. I would make 2 FAT32 partitions so its readable by both just in case.

 

[mscriv]

If you are going to be storing video then remember that FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit.