Format that will read by a PC and a Mac

[crazycat]

I have a 1.5TB external 3.5 hard drive that has no enclosure, i am using it with a dock similar to the picture linked at the bottom of the thread. I have a Mac in my main house and a PC in my second house, what format should i format the hard drive to in order to allow me to read and write both from a pc and a mac?

Thanks

http://www.slipperybrick.com/wp-con...ogitec-cradle-sata-hard-drive-stage-rack1.jpg

 

[BigHungry04]

FAT 32 will work with both without extra software needed. However, there are software programs for both mac and pc that will allow NTFS and Mac OS Extended Journaled. I don't remember the names of the software though.

 

[Sky Blue]

FAT32 will only allow files up to 4gb.

 

[crazycat]

FAT 32 will work with both without extra software needed. However, there are software programs for both mac and pc that will allow NTFS and Mac OS Extended Journaled. I don't remember the names of the software though.

I will look for these softwares, thanks.

Can a PC read "Mac OS Extended Journaled"? If so i might be able to use it the way i would like since i dont download much stuff from my PC.

 

[BigHungry04]

I will look for these softwares, thanks.

Can a PC read "Mac OS Extended Journaled"? If so i might be able to use it the way i would like since i dont download much stuff from my PC.

Yes a PC can read Mac OS Extended Journaled with help from software. I think it is MacDrive, but not certain.

 

[pyrodex]

MacDrive will let you format,mount,read, and write to a HFS+ filesystem in windows vista. I've tested this in Vista without issues and honestly well worth the money for the investment into MacDrive.

 

[velocityg4]

Alternatively you can use Macfuse with NTFS-3G in OS X, you need both, to read/write NTFS. This works great and is free.

 

[sickmacdoc]

I'll toss my vote in for just using FAT32, since no additional software is needed on either side to work fine and I would doubt that you would run into the only limitation of FAT32 that was mentioned above (having any single file larger than 4Gb).

 

[mac4drew]

FAT32 is very slow on disks with capacities greater than 32 GiB. NTFS or HFS+ would be much better options. Not to mention they are both newer filesystems that will protect your data better. There is free NTFS for mac with a program called FUSE and a plugin called ntfs-3g but I've had no luck in setting it up without using the command line. There are pay NTFS programs that will do the job, but I can't vouch for them.

I would suggest running MacDrive on your windows machine. I've used it before and it's great. Mounts up HFS+ (that's the standard mac format) drives and works with them as if they were Windows native. They even have a free trial which, I believe, is fully functional for 30 days.

Side note: if you ever plan to use the disk with Linux, I advise you format the disk HFS+ without Journaling because as far as I know Linux doesn't have write support for HFS+ with Journaling enabled.