Multiple platform external hard drive?

azmills · Post by **azmills** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:10 am

I plan to purchase a large external hard drive (200gig) & I want to use it with my Mac desktop running OSX.3 or OSX.4 & a future purchased PC laptop running XP.

Can I do this? I need to know how to format it.

Thanks

simon · Post by **simon** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 8:27 am

If you get a case like this,

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 336&depa=0

then you can save a bunch on the HD, plus, you can easily upgrade the drive alone, AND it's USB and firewire so you can move it around among all sorts of computers.

azmills · Post by **azmills** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:25 am

Thanks for the tip Simon, I'll definitely consider that one. Is it as durable as going with a LaCie or Maxtor?

I still have questions about formatting though. I want to use this new drive with both a PC and a Mac.

For example working with Live on my Mac desktop at home & then taking the drive & what I was working on out with a PC laptop (haven't bought it yet) to do more programming with Live & maybe DJing / live performance.

How do I format the drive so both computers can use it?

robin · Post by **robin** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:33 am

Use FAT32 formatting. both systems can read and write to this reliably enough.

i do that with my 80GB external drive.

re: the fat32 32GB limit on partition size, i think this only applies if you use the MS formatter. ican't remember what i used but it was a free demo and did the job well enough.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:34 am

Format it as FAT32, and do it from a windows computer.

thats the one format that both windows and osx can read & write.

as far as limitations, i've formatted my 120GB HD as FAT32 from windows.

azmills · Post by **azmills** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:45 am

Thanks guys.

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:53 am

From MSDN:

NTFS

Recommended minimum volume size is approximately 10 megabytes (MB).
Volumes much larger than 2 terabytes (TB) are possible.
File size limited only by size of volume.

FAT32

Volumes from 512 MB to 2 TB.
In Windows XP, you can format a FAT32 volume up to 32 GB only.
Maximum file size is 4 GB.

From elsewhere:

I read the reason for this limit is that the file table gets too large, which is
why NTFS is so much faster on large drives. It seems that although XP
won't let you create a new volume over 32GB, it will allow you to use one
that's already been created.

Been a long time since I was an MCP

Things aren't quite the same as on NT4.... but NTFS still rocks it seems....

Is there a driver you can use to get NTFS on OSX?
I know I used to use a 3rd party driver to run NTFS on Win95.

That 4Gig file limit on FAT32 and the 2Gig file limit in OSX really make
NTFS look good.

-Ben

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:57 am

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ntfsosx/

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operati ... 82511.html

MacOS 10.3.9, possibly the last major revision before Tiger attacks, has
implemented support for NTFS read/write, an upgrade to the previous
read only support.

-Ben

robin · Post by **robin** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:59 am

i think adam experienced some probs with ntfs on macosx recently so i'm sure he'll pipe up.

in short i wouldn't trust it. there's similar support in linux but i'm not sure i'd trust that (for writing at least, read seems ok).

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 12:21 pm

robin wrote:i think adam experienced some probs with ntfs on macosx recently so i'm sure he'll pipe up.

yea, in short
FUCK OSX READING NTFS

hehe, did i make it blunt enough?

10.3.7 and above supposedly has good support for reading NTFS in OSX.

when i moved audio files (16 and 24 bit .wav and .aif's) from the NTFS disk to my Powerbooks internal HD... they ALL corrupted.
and it wasn't the kind of obvious corruption that doesn't allow you to even open them. No, they still opened in Live - and they dragged Live to a screeching and frustrating halt. Trouble shooting was a pain in the ass.

i don't care if 10.3.7 to 10.3.9 or Tiger and above say they can read NTFS, i'll never trust it as long as i live because OSX+NTFS combined to make one of the worst weeks in my computer using life.

i'd rather have syphilis than deal with that again.

robin · Post by **robin** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 12:32 pm

blimey...

shame that MS couldn't be more open about NTFS so support across platforms is possible (macosx/bsd, linux etc)

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 1:01 pm

i use a lan drive in my studio , 5 pc on a network & the master file HD is on the lan as well & can be accessed by all computers at anytime .
i don't know if you can plug a mac on a lan but it works very well for pc .
here is the one i use .
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/produc ... t=Products

azmills · Post by **azmills** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:13 pm

Wow !

This is getting interesting. Since Adam has recently used both a PC laptop & a Mac laptop, which is similar to my objective, I'm leaning toward his philosophy on this.

All of your opinions & suggestions are welcome.

I've got some time before I have to decide how I want to do this. It will be a little while before I get the PC laptop (2 months?)

I'll keep watching, Thanks.