I picked up a WD MyBook Premium I plan to use with my iBook and any future computers to backup my music library and important files and such. It comes formatted FAT32, but I was thinking about reformatting it HFS+ before using it much. I don't really have any large files, so FAT32's 4GB file-size limit isn't an issue for now, but I worry about fragmentation and any errors that could crop up if the drive loses power or is otherwise improperly removed. So, before I make it HFS, I have a few questions:
The drive comes with software that I haven't used yet, but if I want to in the future, will having the drive HFS+ cause any problems?
Though it's going to be a long time yet before I can afford an Intel Mac, and I don't plan on using the drive with Windows any other way, will I be able to RELIABLY read and write to the drive from Windows running via Boot Camp or Parallels/VMWare? I know this requires special software for Windows so what I'm really getting at here is whether that software is honestly reliable. Drivers for writing to NTFS under OS X are still not up to snuff from what I've read, and I have very bad memories using similar software under Linux way back when, so I'm skeptical about the reliability of writing to HFS from Windows.
Lastly, will reformatting in any way void the manufacturer's warranty or anything like that?
Thanks in advance.
The drive comes with software that I haven't used yet, but if I want to in the future, will having the drive HFS+ cause any problems?
Though it's going to be a long time yet before I can afford an Intel Mac, and I don't plan on using the drive with Windows any other way, will I be able to RELIABLY read and write to the drive from Windows running via Boot Camp or Parallels/VMWare? I know this requires special software for Windows so what I'm really getting at here is whether that software is honestly reliable. Drivers for writing to NTFS under OS X are still not up to snuff from what I've read, and I have very bad memories using similar software under Linux way back when, so I'm skeptical about the reliability of writing to HFS from Windows.
Lastly, will reformatting in any way void the manufacturer's warranty or anything like that?
Thanks in advance.
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