Intro and New Mac user external HD question

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Imac G5(Mine) and Wife's Imac intel,(new)
I just got big time in to Mac after my lady got her new one, I gave up my beloved laptop PC but needed a change, I inherited a Imac G5, I know already it will not do all I want but will change that if I like Mac's better. Still learning Mac vocabulary.

HD Question. My Lady needed a portable HD so I found a WD one today and it is formated fat 32 for both use on Pc and Mac. Since it will be used to hold relatively large amounts of video footage or large quantity of pics, should I reformat it to mac extended journal and if so how many partitions or just one big one.

Thank in advance for help with for a newly registered user.
 
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iMac 20" 2.4 GHz Dual Core 3GB Ram 320GB Hard Drive 10.6.2 :: Ipod Touch 8 GB :: Beastly Gaming PC
It really depends on what you want. If you are going to use it exclusively with her mac, you can format it to mac extended journal if you want, but it isn't necessary. My back up drive is in this format, but only because I know it will never leave my Imac's side and I never use it for anything else. Remember, you won't be able to use the drive with a PC once you do this without reformatting it again. If you are going to be using the drive too, a partition might be handy, but again, it is not necessary.
 
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Since you mentioned large files, you should know Fat32 has a 4gb limit as far as a single file is concerned. Meaning if you have, let's say a video file, larger than 4gb you won't be able to back it up to a Fat32 formatted external HDD.
As danc.coulthard mentioned, extended journaled would be best if you aren't planning on accessing any of the data from a Windows machine. That format also enables you to use Time Machine to do your backups. But I'm not sure about your iMac G5 if it has T.M. or not because I have not owned or used that specific machine. It depends on your OS. If I'm not mistaken, T.M. is fairly new and only works with Leopard or SL. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. I'm too lazy to go to apple.com at this moment and research it. Feel free to look into it more on your own. ;)
 
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Thanks for the quick replies, I though I could get by with 4-gig files and allow it to used on my PC, but after looking at some of the video files my lady has, some were archived file, , they were as large as 13 gigs, so the Apple extended journaled is a must. This HD is not for any other purpose but to temporarily hold files, before putting them on the other hard drives, does not make sense unless you are in this house. I also had heard some where that the Fat 32 format was faster, ?????how much faster I do not know but it was a thought.
 
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I'm not too sure, but if you're dealing with 13 gig files, there isn't much of a choice. The extended journaled is plenty fast though, it will do the job just fine
 

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