MAC/PC Back-up and storage on external drive

[lucky20lw]

Is it possible? I am seeking a solution for my household computing needs. We have a laptop (Mac) and a desktop (Dell). I would like to have one external drive to backup both the laptop and PC and also for storage for both. Is this possible? Would it be a four way partition? The only thing I would ever see a need to cross between partitions would be music from our individual itunes libraries.
I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks

 

[Hellhammer]

Two partitions should be fine. NTFS for Windows and HFS+ for OS X. Install NTFS-3G for Mac so you can read and write NTFS volumes under OS X.

 

[lucky20lw]

Two partitions should be fine. NTFS for Windows and HFS+ for OS X. Install NTFS-3G for Mac so you can read and write NTFS volumes under OS X.

Thanks for the feedback in both of my posts....do you have any recommendations for an external drive? I was looking at this http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-FireWire-Desktop-External-Drive/dp/B003HIXOOG/ref=tag_stp_s2f_edpp_url

Thanks again.

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks for the feedback in both of my posts....do you have any recommendations for an external drive? I was looking at this http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-FireWire-Desktop-External-Drive/dp/B003HIXOOG/ref=tag_stp_s2f_edpp_url

Thanks again.

If you want one with FireWire 800, then Iomega is a good choice. Their design suits well with Macs.

 

[Bill Gates]

What OS is the PC running? If it's Windows XP, make sure you format the disk with an MBR partitioning scheme. See here for details: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/gpt_faq.mspx

 

[chinhiphone]

Two partitions should be fine. NTFS for Windows and HFS+ for OS X. Install NTFS-3G for Mac so you can read and write NTFS volumes under OS X.

if u use nfts 3g... why not just format the entire drive to nfts and use nfts-3g to read/write to the same drive... why even bother with hfs+?

 

[Hellhammer]

if u use nfts 3g... why not just format the entire drive to nfts and use nfts-3g to read/write to the same drive... why even bother with hfs+?

E.g. Time Machine does not work with NTFS, it must be HFS+. What I've heard, NTFS-3G's performance isn't that great either so if you can, use HFS+ or FAT32.

 

[chinhiphone]

E.g. Time Machine does not work with NTFS, it must be HFS+. What I've heard, NTFS-3G's performance isn't that great either so if you can, use HFS+ or FAT32.

Thanks. Will windows be able to read hfs+?

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks. Will windows be able to read hfs+?

Not natively but via 3rd party apps it will. HFSExplorer gives you read rights but for total access, you need MacDrive. If you need to use the external with both OSs, think about using FAT32 as both can read and write it natively. Individual files just cannot be more than 4GB.

 

[chinhiphone]

Not natively but via 3rd party apps it will. HFSExplorer gives you read rights but for total access, you need MacDrive. If you need to use the external with both OSs, think about using FAT32 as both can read and write it natively. Individual files just cannot be more than 4GB.

So fat32 format can't Write files over 4gb but can it read files over 4gb? Is there a program to split the files up... Transfer over to fat32 and join them again?

 

[Hellhammer]

So fat32 format can't Write files over 4gb but can it read files over 4gb? Is there a program to split the files up... Transfer over to fat32 and join them again?

You can't have a bigger than 4GB file in FAT32 volume. You can't even read them because you must first write it to the hard drive. Most archiving apps have options for splitting (e.g. Ez7z) but I doubt you really want to start splitting them if you have a lot big files.

 

[dimme]

Or

Or you could...
1- get a NAS which will work or both platforms with one partishion.
2_ connect the external drive to the desktop and share it so the mac will read it.