External Hard Drives for Macs

[fstigre]

Hi,

I was thinking to buy a new external HD to use it with my two macs and was wondering if any hard drive would work on macs or it needs to be one that is already formated for the mac.

Can I format it my self? if yes, how hard would that be?

Can I use the same HD for Windows and Macs or they need to be formated for each specific system?

 

[GGJstudios]

Yes, any external HD can be used for PCs and Macs.
Formatting is a simple process.
For both Windows and Mac to access, the format should be FAT32 or NTFS (which requires 3rd party software for the Mac to write to NTFS).

 

[ChazUK]

Just as GGJstudios said above but you could also purchase Macdrive to let Windows access your HFS formatted drives if you wished.

 

[fstigre]

So as long as I format it and use FAT32 any HD should be good, right?

 

[GGJstudios]

So as long as I format it and use FAT32 any HD should be good, right?

The hardware is compatible with any computer, as long as the connectors are there (Firewire, USB, etc.) The format can be done by you to accommodate whatever you need. FAT32 works fine, as long as you know there's a limitation: no individual files larger than 4GB.

 

[benlangdon]

Yes, any external HD can be used for PCs and Macs.
Formatting is a simple process.
For both Windows and Mac to access, the format should be FAT32 or NTFS (which requires 3rd party software for the Mac to write to NTFS).

actually if you have snow leopard you can write to ntfs with this terminal command from this thread.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/785376/
haven't done it my self yet though

 

[fstigre]

Thank you all very much for your comments!