iPod iPod HD Format

[dukebound85]

I was just reading that if your ipod is formatted for pc, it can work on both macs and pcs but not the other way around. My question is should I reformat mine to pc since I would like to use it as an external hd between multiple computers that are both mac and pc?

If so how does one go about reformatting their hard drive on ipod?

Is there any advantage of leaving it mac formatted besides having the ipod updates be done on my main computer which is a mac?

Or....Which would be the easiest and most convienient solution,

Is there any way to have windows recognize my ipod the way it is (being mac formatted)?


Thanks for any clearing up my confusion with this

 

[AppleAce]

What you want to do is use Disk Utility to format your iPod as MS-DOS FAT32. This format is readable and writeable by both Windows and Mac OS. This will allow you to manage your library/update your songs from your mac, while also being able to mount it as an external drive on your pc.

 

[dukebound85]

If I were to do that, would my iPod be erased and I would have to reput everything onto it?

 

[dukebound85]

Does anyone know why theres even an option for mac formatting? Why wouldnt all iPods just come preformatted with FAT32 Hard drives. I am kinda dissapointed that I used my mac initially and now I can't use a pc with my ipod, whereas if I used a pc initially, both my mac and pc would be able to read it. Is there any advatages for a mac formatted drive?

PS: I could reformat my iPod, but I am not really looking forward to upgrading all 32gigs over usb 1.1 at the moment again.