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afterdawn.com > forums > software, operating systems and more > mac - general discussion > external hard drive on mac and pc
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External Hard Drive on MAC AND PC
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funxion
Newbie
_ 		23. July 2006 @ 07:55 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
okay so i've got my brand new hard drive, put it in an enclosure and got it working with my Macbook Pro just fine. I plugged it into my PC and it won't show up.

I know that I have to initialize the drive on the PC to be able to use it but I was just wondering if a) initializing means formatting in which case it would erase all the data and b) if I initialize it with the PC will it still work with my Mac?

so basically I just want to be able to use this hard drive with my MAC AND my PC

any help is greatly appreciated
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natony
Suspended due to non-functional email address
_ 		23. July 2006 @ 18:21 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
The only format that will work with both OSX and Windows is Fat32. OSX can read but not write to NTFS formatted drives (the Windows format), but Windows won't even recognise HFS (the Mac Format).

Option A: Format the whole drive in Fat32. There are limitations on max file sizes and maybe some other stuff. I'm not exactly sure, but someone else may be able to enlighten you.

Is there a limitation on the max partition size for Fat32 or did I just imagine it?

Option B: There are some programs which allow Windows to read and write to HFS drives. MacDrive is one such application http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/ but you have to pay for anything more than the trial version :(

I'm sure someone else can suggest some good programs which will do this for free.

Option C: Partition the drive into a few partitions using disk utility. This is what I do- I have a HFS and a Fat32 partition. Anything that I need on both OS's goes into the Fat32 volume, and everything else on the HFS, as I use OSX mostly.
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Feeling stupid? I know I am!
funxion
Newbie
_ 		23. July 2006 @ 20:20 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
hey thanks, i just got macdrive and tested it out and it works fine!

thanks alot!
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johnodd4
Suspended permanently
_ 		23. July 2006 @ 22:36 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
ok the only way to work with the drive on both platforms is to format the drive in fat 32 not in mac osx to do this just go into disk utility under mac os x and select the drive and select erase or format what ever it says to erase the drive then select for a partition ms dos and it will format in fat 32

and even better when you download dmgs in windows you can transfer them into mac os x
with the hard drive in fat32
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