share storage with Macbook and PC?

[twdi]

Today I've bought a new rMBP 15 inch because a large shop in my town offers a nice discount which saved me 300 euro on the list price.

I have the 2.4 ghz, 8 gb and 256 ssd and till now it runs great.

I always worked with pc's before so my data is on my windows machine. For normal data it's ok but my pictures and movies are also on the windows machine. Because I like the retina screen more, I want to edit the movie and pictures on the new macbook.

What would be the best practice in such a situation? Should I buy a for ex an external storage device and put the photos and movie files on it which I can connect to both machines? It had to be USB then.

Or should I use the windows machine only for backup and add a thunderbolt storage device to the machine for the performance and only edit on the mac?

Whats your solution in such a situation?

 

[rrm998]

Depending on what version of Windows you are using you can share your files over the network to your Mac. I'd recommend doing your editing locally on the Mac and back up to the PC. You will get much better performance on the SSD versus files over the network. There are a number of file sync programs (I use GoodSync) to keep the two machines updated. You can also get a NAS external drive that both machines can access -- but syncing in two directions can be tricky.

I ultimately decided to give up my desktop. I didn't want to maintain two sets of software licenses, two environments, etc. For things I can't run on the Mac, I use Parallels to run Windows 7. In my case that basically means Quicken. I converted all my Adobe licenses to OS X versions.

 

[willcapellaro]

I use Sharemouse to share a mouse, and cursor between two computers (Mac, pc, linux). It also lets you drag files from one to another, which would solve your problem. Works if theyre both talking to the same network. Try it out!

 

[alphaod]

Use USB 3.0; that's the best for compatibility.

For drive formatting, to use between OS X and Windows, I would pick up a piece of software called Paragon NTFS. This let's your read and write to Window's NTFS partitions. I would then format your drives as NTFS for compatibility.

The alternative is to use HFS+ and get MacDrive for Windows, but I find most instances, using a NTFS drive in OS X is faster than using a HFS+ drive in Windows. I think it's because the Paragon software and drivers are written better than the MacDrive ones.

The other solution is to use a NAS or Network Attached Storage. Basically it requires you to buy a hard drive enclosure that supports networking. There are many affordable ones on the market. A good one I've picked up recently is the WD MyBook Live; you don't have to install any drives on your computers. You don't have to worry about partitioning schemes (NTFS vs. HFS+). The only drawback is some solution are unstable and the throughput (that's overall speed) is slower compared to a locally attached solution.

 

[twdi]

I think copying the files locally on the mac, do the edit and put them back as backup seems like the best option but what about my current work?

For example, I've started a premiere elements 11 project of my holidaymovies and also the same for my picture which are in a lightroom catalog.

Could it be possible to continue the work on those projects from the mac?

 

[KevinC867]

Use USB 3.0; that's the best for compatibility.
For drive formatting, to use between OS X and Windows, I would pick up a piece of software called Paragon NTFS. This let's your read and write to Window's NTFS partitions. I would then format your drives as NTFS for compatibility.

The alternative is to use HFS+ and get MacDrive for Windows, but I find most instances, using a NTFS drive in OS X is faster than using a HFS+ drive in Windows. I think it's because the Paragon software and drivers are written better than the MacDrive ones.

Paragon also provides an HFS+ solution for PCs: www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/

I'm using both of their products so it's very easy for me to move any of my external drives from one system to the other.

 

[xAgustinx]

If I use paragon ntfs for Mac, could I use a ntfs drive for backup the MacBook' harddisk?

 

[KevinC867]

If I use paragon ntfs for Mac, could I use a ntfs drive for backup the MacBook' harddisk?

I'm pretty sure Time Machine needs an HFS+ volume. However, you could use Disk Utility to partition the drive and create an HFS+ volume for backups and an NTFS volume for PC transfers.

 

[leman]

No need for paragon if you use an external drive. Just format it as exFAT - it can be used by both OS.