LaCie Drive Needs to be Used By Mac and PC

[steiney]

Hello All,

I just bought a LaCie 1TB Rikiki. Doing the initial formatting on a Mac, I can only format it for a Mac, but I want to be able to use it on both Mac and Windows computers. I suppose I could do the initial formatting on a Windows computer, and format it for Windows, because Mac can read Windows-formatted drives, but I would like to just do it on my Mac.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could accomplish this?

Thanks in advance!

steiney

 

[GGJstudios]

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
• Maximum file size: 4GB.
• Maximum volume size: 2TB

NTFS (Windows NT File System)

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
• To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X: Install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free)
• Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx 33USD).
• Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard, but is not advisable, due to instability.
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
• Maximum file size: 16 TB
• Maximum volume size: 256TB

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended)

• Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
• Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner backups of Mac internal hard drive.
• To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
• To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
• Maximum file size: 8EiB
• Maximum volume size: 8EiB

exFAT (FAT64)

• Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
• exFAT partitions created with OS X 10.6.5 are inaccessible from Windows 7
• Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
• exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
• Maximum file size: 16 EiB
• Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB

 

[steiney]

Thank you. I know about the different formatting types. The problem is that I can't format the drive for NTFS in OS X 10.6. In disk utility, the only options are different types of Mac OS formatting. And the setup assistant on the drive, will only let me format a 32 GB maximum NTFS partition, instead of making the whole drive NTFS.

I can format the drive on a Windows computer, and get it in NTFS, which will be usable on a Windows or Mac computer, but I'm trying to figure out a way to format a drive with NTFS using my Mac.

 

[GGJstudios]

Thank you. I know about the different formatting types. The problem is that I can't format the drive for NTFS in OS X 10.6. In disk utility, the only options are different types of Mac OS formatting. And the setup assistant on the drive, will only let me format a 32 GB maximum NTFS partition, instead of making the whole drive NTFS.

I can format the drive on a Windows computer, and get it in NTFS, which will be usable on a Windows or Mac computer, but I'm trying to figure out a way to format a drive with NTFS using my Mac.

Read the 3rd bullet point I posted under NTFS.

 

[altecXP]

I use exFAT.

 

[steiney]

My bad. I just read the headers of each section and assumed there was nothing there. I feel bad because I came on here to ask for help, and then didn't even read your full response. I apologize.

I'm going to grab that program and hopefully everything will work. Thanks for your help!

 

[GGJstudios]

My bad. I just read the headers of each section and assumed there was nothing there. I feel bad because I came on here to ask for help, and then didn't even read your full response. I apologize.

I'm going to grab that program and hopefully everything will work. Thanks for your help!

No problem. Glad you figured it out. For future reference, I didn't just copy and paste that from some site. It took time and several revisions to make sure the information was useful.

 

[steiney]

You just made me feel way worse. I'm really sorry. I would be pretty annoyed if the situation was reversed. Thanks again for your help.

 

[GGJstudios]

You just made me feel way worse. I'm really sorry. I would be pretty annoyed if the situation was reversed. Thanks again for your help.

Like I said, no problem. I only mentioned that so you'd take the time to read through it when you have time, in case there's something else you find helpful.

 

[steiney]

I ended up making three partitions, one large one for general stuff, a 200 GB for Time Machine backups, and a 40 GB for my unfortunate Windows-using friends, which I formatted with NTFS 3G.

Thanks again for your help!