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harry454

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 13, 2007
466
1
hi I have a external HDD and I want to share files between Mac and Xp these files are over 8 gbs each what file system can OSX write to and what can xp read from?
 
FAT32, which if you're formatting the drive on your Mac via Disk Utility is called MS-DOS.
 

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Doesn't FAT32 have a file size limit, that sort of kills it for use if you are looking at 8+GB files?

Unless you want to ZIP them into several pieces.

There is always http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/ or looking at some of the NTFS RW upgrades for Mac OS X. I think someone was playing with a beta here on the site.

Edit: though if you want from your Mac to any PC, it is a bit different since Mac Drive must be on each PC to read HFS+
 
FAT32 is cross platform so any OS can use it.unfortunately FAT32 has a file size limit of 4 GB.

you can format your external drive to HFS and then use MacDrive to allow read/write support in Windows or NTFS and then use Mac Fuse + NTFS3g to allow write support in Mac OS X.

simply put:

- FAT32 (MS-DOS) is cross platform but has a 4 GB file size limit.
- NTFS is read/write in Windows and only read in Mac OS X. install Mac Fuse + NTFS3g to add write support in Mac OS X
- HFS (Mac OS Extended) is only read/write in Mac OS X. use MacDrive to add read/write to Windows.
 
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