What to do with windows hard drive?

[Honey Bee]

Hi
Would it be worth gutting my old (working) Dell windows xp and using the 80 gb hard drive in an external enclosure ?
Would it be possible to do this for use with OS X ?
And can any hard drive cassette use fire wire as long as you have a fire wire port on your external enclosure ?
I know I have a 500gb in my mac so it would not be large enough for time machine but I am just wondering all the same.
Thanks for your time.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Hi

1. Would it be worth gutting my old (working) Dell windows xp and using the 80 gb hard drive in an external enclosure ?
2. Would it be possible to do this for use with OS X ?
3. And can any hard drive cassette use fire wire as long as you have a fire wire port on your external enclosure ?

I know I have a 500gb in my mac so it would not be large enough for time machine but I am just wondering all the same.
Thanks for your time.

1. That is up to you, if you need an additional 80GB, but it is possible. Just make sure you identify the correct interface - IDE/PATA or SATA.
2. Yes. See below:

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

Format Your Hard Drive Using Disk Utility
Partition Your Hard Drive With Disk Utility


3. You can either use a Firewire or USB enclosure for that external HDD, but if you go with a Firewire enclosure, you might be better off just getting an external HDD with 500GB, as that might be cheaper.