networking mac and windows

jmkennedy54 · jmkennedy54 #1 (**permalink**)

06-20-2009, 02:04 PM

Hi everyone

Sure this question has been raised before but head is spinning from information over load

I have a mac book, mac mini and a laptop using windows

Am wanting to network all three of them and use the mini as a media center fo tv and and music

So am looking to purchase an airport extreme base station and an external hard drive. All my music and films etc i would put on to the external hard drive then all three computers could sync with this.

What i have questions about is

1. Will the above work and will windows work with mac
2. I have read about different formats of hard drive ms dos and fat 32 what does it mean and what format will i need
3 Can any one recommend an external hard drive easy to use 1 - 2tb

Thanks for all your help and any other tips i would be very grateful

cheers

James

todd51 · todd51 #2 (**permalink**)

06-20-2009, 03:00 PM

1) Yes, it should be pretty easy to network all of these devices. I can easily access my parent's computer and external hard drive wirelessly through my MBP.

2) FAT32 is a format that will allow both Mac and PC to read/write. However, this format will only be able to handle single files to be less than 4Gb. So if you do have movies on there as a single file then I would probably not recommend this format. NTFS is the file format for Windows to which it can also read/write. Your Mac will only be able to READ from this type of format. HFS+ is the file format native to Mac computers. If you format the drive to this, your Mac will be able to read/write, however Windows will not. I would recommend using NTFS and getting other software on your Mac that will allow it to write to it. Here is something really quickly that I pulled from Google:

Lifehacker - Read/write to NTFS drives on your Mac - File Transfer

3) My parents use a 1TB Western Digital. I believe it's a part of the MyBook series or something like that. You can check them out on their website. I do know that my parent's drive can use an Ethernet cable to connect to the router, which makes it EASY to network and share out among other computers.

Good luck!

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jmkennedy54 #1 (permalink)
Member Since: Apr 30, 2009 Posts: 5	06-20-2009, 02:04 PM Hi everyone Sure this question has been raised before but head is spinning from information over load I have a mac book, mac mini and a laptop using windows Am wanting to network all three of them and use the mini as a media center fo tv and and music So am looking to purchase an airport extreme base station and an external hard drive. All my music and films etc i would put on to the external hard drive then all three computers could sync with this. What i have questions about is 1. Will the above work and will windows work with mac 2. I have read about different formats of hard drive ms dos and fat 32 what does it mean and what format will i need 3 Can any one recommend an external hard drive easy to use 1 - 2tb Thanks for all your help and any other tips i would be very grateful cheers James
	QUOTE Thanks

todd51 #2 (permalink)
Guest Posts: n/a	06-20-2009, 03:00 PM 1) Yes, it should be pretty easy to network all of these devices. I can easily access my parent's computer and external hard drive wirelessly through my MBP. 2) FAT32 is a format that will allow both Mac and PC to read/write. However, this format will only be able to handle single files to be less than 4Gb. So if you do have movies on there as a single file then I would probably not recommend this format. NTFS is the file format for Windows to which it can also read/write. Your Mac will only be able to READ from this type of format. HFS+ is the file format native to Mac computers. If you format the drive to this, your Mac will be able to read/write, however Windows will not. I would recommend using NTFS and getting other software on your Mac that will allow it to write to it. Here is something really quickly that I pulled from Google: Lifehacker - Read/write to NTFS drives on your Mac - File Transfer 3) My parents use a 1TB Western Digital. I believe it's a part of the MyBook series or something like that. You can check them out on their website. I do know that my parent's drive can use an Ethernet cable to connect to the router, which makes it EASY to network and share out among other computers. Good luck!
	QUOTE Thanks

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