Can an external hard-drive be formatted for mac and pc at the same time? (1 Viewer)

[coast to coast]

Its not mine I'm trying to do a music move for my friend who's going away travelling and wants to put tunes on his iPod - however he got some music from another guy from a PC and it wiped mine and I can't put anything onto the hard-drive from my mac.

Is this a common problem? I woulda thought it was just a blank canvas to work with. Is drivers I can install it works with both? Its a big Seagate yoke.

Hmmmmmm.

 

[zebra heart attack]

It depends how it's formatted. If you want to read on mac/pc, the file system should be FAT32.

NTFS only works on windows and HFS only on mac. The one you have must be NTFS. There are some drivers out there, but they can be a bit iffy.

 

[HMD]

format it ntfs and install ntfs 4 mac. i had to do it with my multimedia HD and it's grand now

 

[Umfufu]

I've had this problem with some hard drives too.

But then I got one of these:

It has an 80gB hard drive & can be used with Mac & PC.
I'd still like to be able to figure out a way to use my other 4 external hard drives with both.
Preferably for free...

 

[ratmonkey]

I'd still like to be able to figure out a way to use my other 4 external hard drives with both.
Preferably for free...

It depends how it's formatted. If you want to read on mac/pc, the file system should be FAT32.

That should work.

 

[CitySickness]

I've had this problem with some hard drives too.

But then I got one of these:

It has an 80gB hard drive & can be used with Mac & PC.
I'd still like to be able to figure out a way to use my other 4 external hard drives with both.
Preferably for free...

Do you have to carry around that bit of rubble on the bottom too? It doesn't seem very portable.

 

[the departed]

generally warning with FAT32 drives...
they dont let you copy off more than 4GB off them at a time.
ive had people bring me jobs on em before and its a pain.in.the.arse.

 

[ratmonkey]

generally warning with FAT32 drives...
they dont let you copy off more than 4GB off them at a time.
ive had people bring me jobs on em before and its a pain.in.the.arse.

What's that about? I thought that was only a restriction on the file size you could have?

 

[coast to coast]

Cheers for the help - mucho appreciated!

Glad also it wasn't a stupid question - I had presumed it was.

 

[the departed]

What's that about? I thought that was only a restriction on the file size you could have?

ehhmm. well im not sure. maybe you can transfer more than 4GB if the files themselves are less than that.
i just know that you cant transfer a file if its bigger than 4GB.