Formatting a Ext. Hard drive for Pc and Mac?

[guysy]

I've got an external hard drive that i would ideally like to be able to use on both PC and Mac for file transfer

I was originally reading that i just backup my external and then format it as MS DOS... this was on one site...

Now on further reading im confused and because i cant be arsed to trundle through endless threads can anyone guide me?

Is it possible to format it so it works on both?

Running windows atm, do i need to get mac drive? info please!

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Just do it FAT32 or NTFS for Windows... OS X isn't bothered by that IIRC.

Windows will however have no idea at all what to do with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format !

 

[Lozza-p]

i think if you format it to fat 32 windows and mac can both read and write to it

 

[Lozza-p]

just beaten to it

 

[guysy]

Its 1tb though... im reading its a bit of a crap format for a big drive? and might corrupt?

 

[guysy]

I was going to leave the 1tb external NTFS meaning the mac could only write to it..

Then format my small external hard drive on the mac... what format would that be? and i wouldnt be able to add stuff to it on windows would i?

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Throw the Windows machine out of the... er.... window. Problem solved

Or split the 1TB into one or two partitions if you're worried...?

I think you're over thinking this TBH dude...

 

[sbridgey]

fat32 has a maximum file size of 4GB, use NTFS but its not writable on macs unless you do this: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/li...write-ntfs-windows-partition-on-mac-os-x.html

 

[guysy]

I wish i was over thinking it haha and i cant chuck the windows pc out the window im afraid...

I just needed a way of using the external on both pc and mac...

I think ill leave the 1tb NTFS so the mac can read it only and format the small external to the mac.

 

[olliewebbuk]

Why don't you create two partitions. One for the Mac and one for the PC?

 

[Munson]

Format it NTFS and install Paragon NTFS on the Mac to gain write access. Close.

 

[Heez]

You can get around the Fat32 size limit by downloading some software, not sure if theres any good freeware out there though. You can format the entire drive in Fat32 if needed. But just partition it half NTFS and half Fat32.