External Storage Needed

[gazfocus]

I currently use a PC for my university work (as I do an IT degree) but my preferred system is my Mac.

I'm looking for a storage solution that I can use on both my Mac and my PC. Would a Network Hard Drive be suitable?

I know you can use USB memory sticks on both Mac and PC but every time I've used an external hard drive, you either have to format it as a PC or as a Mac drive and one can't be read on the other.

Does anyone know of any solution?

Thanks for any suggestions/advice

 

[Jasonbot]

You're using the wrong format.

By default Mac format is HFS+ which cant be read/written by a PC by default.
By default PC format is NTFS which can be read by Mac but not written.

The solution is to use the slightly archaic FAT 32 format which can be read and written by both PC and Mac. Network storage isn't that suitable.

 

[gazfocus]

The first hard drive I tried this with was already Mac Formatted when I purchased it from Apple. I copied some files onto it but then Windows XP wouldn't read it.

I have since been given a Western Digital portable USB hard drive for work, had some files on it, and the drive couldn't be read on my mac.

The only problem with Fat32 is that it's limited in size and I'm looking for something in the region of 500GB.

Is it possible that the mac formatted drive was wrongly formatted? If I format my work hard drive to HFS+, will I still be able to use it on my work PC?

 

[wallaby]

Jasonbot speaks the truth. Best solution would be a portable 2.5" Hard drive formatted to FAT32 (or at least with one FAT32 partition) or an external 3.5" hard drive (bigger, less portable) with the same setup. FAT32 can be both read/written from a PC or a Mac.

A caution, though. FAT32 really was designed for partitions no larger than 32GB. I had a large 200GB FAT32 partition on my external, and when I tried to erase the volume, it destroyed all the data on the entire external (outside the partition). So a good rule of thumb would be to have a 32GB FAT32 partition, and then partition the rest as either HFS+ (for Mac) or NTSF (for Windows). Then you can safely transfer everything off the FAT32 volume.

 

[wallaby]

The first hard drive I tried this with was already Mac Formatted when I purchased it from Apple. I copied some files onto it but then Windows XP wouldn't read it.

This is because Windows is incapable of reading HFS (Mac-formatted).

I have since been given a Western Digital portable USB hard drive for work, had some files on it, and the drive couldn't be read on my mac.

That's strange, since even if the drive is NTFS, it should be able to be read in OS X. Does it work on a PC? Perhaps it needs to be formatted.

The only problem with Fat32 is that it's limited in size and I'm looking for something in the region of 500GB.

Not really, you could format 500GB under FAT32 if you want to. Stability of the files on the drive would be questionable though. 2.5" portable drives currently don't exceed 250GB anyway (ones that don't require external power). I suggested a solution in my last post (a FAT32 partition with the rest as your preference).

Is it possible that the mac formatted drive was wrongly formatted? If I format my work hard drive to HFS+, will I still be able to use it on my work PC?

No to the second part, unless you get some outside programs to help you. There's one that allows Windows to read/write HFS, and another that allows Macs to write to NTFS...I forget their names (MacFuse?), but someone around here ought to know.

 

[gazfocus]

Thanks for all your advice. If anyone knows of any software than can enable Windows to read/write a mac partition, please let me know. (obviously would prefer free software but would be happy to pay if necessary).

I am hoping to some day move over to Mac completely so would prefer it this way round.