external movie storage

[kclark]

I am looking at buying a seagate external hd to store my home videos and pull them off onto my mbp as I work on them.
I have seen a seagate goflex for mac and seen one that is for win/mac/linux and win/mac. The one that is mac only seems to cost a whole lot more than the others. What is the differences?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You don't need a Mac OS X specific HDD, just buy the one you want (even when there is no "sign" of Mac OS X compatibility) and use Disk utility to format the HDD accordingly.

Format Your Hard Drive Using Disk Utility
Partition Your Hard Drive With Disk Utility

Using Disk Utility - Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks
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FAT32 (File Allocation Table)

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
• Maximum file size: 4GB.
• Maximum volume size: 2TB

NTFS (Windows NT File System)

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
  [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X: Install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free)
  
• Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx 33USD).
• Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard, but is not advisable, due to instability.
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
• Maximum file size: 16 TB
• Maximum volume size: 256TB

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended)

• Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
• Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner backups of Mac internal hard drive.
• To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
• To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
• Maximum file size: 8EiB
• Maximum volume size: 8EiB

exFAT (FAT64)

• Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
• Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
• exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
• Maximum file size: 16 EiB
• Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB