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How to make my new maxtor one touch II 500 GB external HD compatible for XP and Mac

T

tkjazzer

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 30, 2004
252
0
Hello,

I am trying to figure out how to make my new Maxtor One Touch 2 500 GB external HD compatible for both Windows XP PC and MacBook Pro (intel chip). I know that the NFTS (or something) format it comes in is read only on the mac. If possible I would like to write also on the mac and on the PC. I think i need FAT32 format right?

1) How do I reformat the drive to be FAT32? I've heard some people say I should do it on windows since windows is "pickier" than Macs. However, I cannot figure out how to do this.
2) Why does the Maxtor help page say that you should only have a limited number of gigs in FAT32 format? Has anyone had a problem with this? What are they referring to? http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/knowledge_base/
"

External Storage devices are shipped with the FAT32 Windows file system installed. The drive will mount as a Windows-formatted disk on the Macintosh desktop; however, the Macintosh disk repair/recovery tools cannot repair or recover data from Windows-formatted drives.

For the highest performance and compatibility, we recommend you reformat the drive using the Mac OS Extended format. However, if you will be transferring files between a Windows system and a Macintosh, leave the drive in the FAT32 format, you will have to either:

*
Limit the FAT32 Volume sizes to no more than 32GB in capacity."

Also, mine was not shipped in FAT32.

How should I go about doing this?

Thanks for your help.

T
 
Format it to MS-DOS format using Disk Utility in OS X. Failing that most manufacturers also provide a FAT32 formatting utility for Windows as well. My 120 GB WD Passport came with one.
 
i heard the file size is limited

I heard the file size is limited to 4gigs. is this true if you format FAT32?
 
aaronw1986 said:
Not exactly sure where they were going with this...but yes, FAT32 files are limited to 4GB. Sucks for ISO's.
Click to expand...

Is there a workaround in FAT32 for this that isn't making the file smaller than 4GB?

Or will I have to use Partition Manager to create a small NTFS partition on my PC as a special place for 4GB files to transfer through?

I'd forgotten about goddang FAT32 limits :eek:
 
I'm going to be dealing with this same situation (don't yet have the mac so I have no personal experience to share) and have been researching this question.

Another easy solution that was recommended to me was to connect the external drive using NTFS to the Windows machine and share the drive with the Mac. Supposedly, since you are writing through the Windows machine the Mac can read and write to the external drive.

As I said, I'm not yet able to test this suggestion, but if it works, that seems to be the easiest work around.
 
mwp98223 said:
I'm going to be dealing with this same situation (don't yet have the mac so I have no personal experience to share) and have been researching this question.

Another easy solution that was recommended to me was to connect the external drive using NTFS to the Windows machine and share the drive with the Mac. Supposedly, since you are writing through the Windows machine the Mac can read and write to the external drive.

As I said, I'm not yet able to test this suggestion, but if it works, that seems to be the easiest work around.
Click to expand...

I am interested in this. Is it some type of network? Can I somehow set it up over my wireless router? It would be great to be able to transfer files to my External HD on my pc wireless through the router - but I do not know how to set it up. Also, my maxtor is password protected. Will this hinder the sharing?
 
I also heard about a macFUSE option but I do not know much about this and it is a little over my head when I try to research it. If anyone knows about the macFUSE option and can explain it, that would be great.

From what I gather, you download 2 things to your mac and somehow it becomes able to write on NTFS. Unfortunately, I don't think a stable version has been made for Intel Based macs.

If anyone else researches this and discovers anything it would be great. Thanks!
 
tkjazzer said:
I am interested in this. Is it some type of network? Can I somehow set it up over my wireless router? It would be great to be able to transfer files to my External HD on my pc wireless through the router - but I do not know how to set it up. Also, my maxtor is password protected. Will this hinder the sharing?
Click to expand...

It was my understanding that the external drive would have to be connected directly to the Windows machine and "shared" with the other computers on the network (like the Mac). In this set up, the Mac is writing to the external drive through the Windows machine. I don't know, but don't think this would be true if the external drive was connected directly to the network through the router. Again, I'm not postive on this, I'M REALLY MORE ASKING FOR CONFIRMATION of my understanding of advise someone else gave me.
 
cool. I'm really looking for a list of solutions for this problem since I would like to start using my drive in the way that would be best. Does anyone have some other areas where I could look for options?

Thanks!
 
Any shared network drive (from a PC or from a router with USB drive capability) will be shared as an SMB shared volume, so the formatting of the drive is immaterial. The Mac over the network will be dealing with a SMB volume and not a drive. There are some restrictions on SMB filenaming and sizes as well, google for info.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Any shared network drive (from a PC or from a router with USB drive capability) will be shared as an SMB shared volume, so the formatting of the drive is immaterial. The Mac over the network will be dealing with a SMB volume and not a drive. There are some restrictions on SMB filenaming and sizes as well, google for info.
Click to expand...

Since my last posting I have set up the network and can confirm that this works. The external drive is connected to a Windows machine and uses NTSF. The iMac is on the network and has the ability to read and write to the drive. I'm no expert, but apparently the above explanation confirms why this is a solution.
 
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