I've got a 250 GB Hp pocket drive and I don't know what format it needs to be in. I need to be able to read and write to it on my mac. But I only need to read it on a PC. What is the best format for this situation?
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Hard Drive Format: Mac and PC?
- Thread starter FunkyMonkey
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Found this on a Google search.
http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/1-external-hard-drive-for-your-mac-and-pc
http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/1-external-hard-drive-for-your-mac-and-pc
Whuh? AFAIK Windows can't read HFS+ formatted drives. The OP would NEED to format it FAT32. Use Disk Utility to format it with the FAT setting and you'll be fine.
Thanks guys for the info and I think I will reformat to FAT32. One more thing, I need to use this drive with iTunes. Can iTunes read and write with FAT32?
Should be able to but I think you might be limited to 4GB for file size. I haven't tried this myself but it's just a known limitation of the FAT32 file system.
Edit: That link that FunkyMonkey provided has a great summary table of the advantages/disadvantages of each file system.
to tell u the truth i dont remember what mine was formated to i have a WD My book studio 1tb thats for time machine but a 100GB pocket drive that i dont remember what i set it too but it works on both
If you feel like stumping up the $40 for Paragon, then you can format in NTFS - which is on balance the best format for data interchange.
There are HFS utilities for Windows like Transmac, but there are good reasons to pick NTFS as an exchange disk format than HFS. Personally, I prefer to burden my less-used Macs with potential problemware instead of my more frequently used Windows machines
Having said that, I haven't have any deal-killer problems at all with either Transmac or Paragon. While I have little need for Transmac on a regular basis, I use Paragon all the time.
There are HFS utilities for Windows like Transmac, but there are good reasons to pick NTFS as an exchange disk format than HFS. Personally, I prefer to burden my less-used Macs with potential problemware instead of my more frequently used Windows machines
Having said that, I haven't have any deal-killer problems at all with either Transmac or Paragon. While I have little need for Transmac on a regular basis, I use Paragon all the time.
If you do go the Mac format route, you can get a program called MacDrive:
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive
Basically it will show your external Mac-formatted drive in Windows Explorer just like any other HD. I've used it and it seems to work great.
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive
Basically it will show your external Mac-formatted drive in Windows Explorer just like any other HD. I've used it and it seems to work great.
If you want to access it from both the Mac and Windows sides, I strongly recommend formatting it as NTFS, then installing MacFUSE and NTFS-3g for Mac so Leopard will be able to access it. No cost whatsoever.
It will be a bit slower on the Mac side to read/write from/to it, since NTFS is not the Mac's native format. If you want it to be as fast as possible, you will need to format it as HFS+ (Mac format), and purchase a program like MacDrive for Windows to allow you to access the partition from Windows.
It will be a bit slower on the Mac side to read/write from/to it, since NTFS is not the Mac's native format. If you want it to be as fast as possible, you will need to format it as HFS+ (Mac format), and purchase a program like MacDrive for Windows to allow you to access the partition from Windows.
Yes, iTunes can do all of that. But just be wary about the 4GB limit. If you ever have an uncompressed video that you need to store there, you're screwed.
Thanks everyone for the help.
@LTX: I was using that before and had the program you were talking about. But when I would try to write on it with iTunes, it said blah blah blah cannot be written to. That is why I reformatted in the first place.
The drive is now in FAT32 and things are running very smoothly. Thanks again for the help.
@LTX: I was using that before and had the program you were talking about. But when I would try to write on it with iTunes, it said blah blah blah cannot be written to. That is why I reformatted in the first place.
The drive is now in FAT32 and things are running very smoothly. Thanks again for the help.