How to set up an external hard drive.

[mwp98223]

We currently have windows PCs networked in our home and sharing a Maxtor External Harddrive. This drive is connected via USB to my computer and shared over the network. It uses NTSF drive.

I plan on replacing my compter with an iMac and the others will stay windows based.

I want to keep sharing the External drive for backups, music, photos, etc. Will I need to make a change to the hard drive for that to work? Do I need to reformat the drive? If so, what is the process to do this, and still save the data currently on the drive?

 

[PlaceofDis]

if you want your Macs to be able to read and write as well as your Windows based machines, you'll have to reformat the drive to FAT32. however, you will lose anything thats on the drive as it is right now when you reformat. so back what you need to first. (CDs/DVDs, etc)

 

[Fearless Leader]

Well, OS X cannot write to NTFS that it is connected directly to. If it is over a network im not sure, let me check, but my guess is also no.

If it is in fat32 you'll be good.

 

[FJ218700]

you're going to have to reformat the drive for the Macs to have read/write access in OS X.

edit : too late

 

[CanadaRAM]

The easiest solution is to move the drive to one of the Windows machines, and keep sharing it as you are now.

 

[Fearless Leader]

ok if you connect the drive to a PC and share it over windows file sharing, you can read and write to it, even if it is NTFS.

 

[PlaceofDis]

ok if you connect the drive to a PC and share it over windows file sharing, you can read and write to it, even if it is NTFS.

did not know that. learn something new every day.

 

[mwp98223]

Wow...quick answers. Honestly, this is the answer I thought I might hear and not one I wanted to hear. Luckily we don't have tons of data on the external drive yet so I think I'll be able to move it and reformat with out a huge hassle.

Thanks.

Edit: I wrote the reply before the above two posts. Sounds to me like the easiest thing to do will be to move the external drive to one of the Windows based machines.