Mac and Windows Capatable HD Needed

I am looking for a ready to go HD that I can switch between MBP and PC. I edit my photographs on my MBP and my PC, depending on the need. I would like to carry my photos between the two?
Thanks

myvinyl333 said:

I am looking for a ready to go HD that I can switch between MBP and PC. I edit my photographs on my MBP and my PC, depending on the need. I would like to carry my photos between the two?
Thanks

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Numerous threads on this question here on the forum. Do a quick search and you will have tons to read.

Bottomline:
1) Any HDD is Mac or Windows compatible
2) Formatting is the only issue (this is your choice and done through Disk Utility)
a) FAT32 (file size limitations-4GB max I believe) but both Mac and Windows can read/write to drive
b) HFS (Mac OS extended (and extended journaled) Windows can't access this without 3rd Party software
c) NTFS (Windows latest format) your Mac can read from NTFS, but can't write to it without (you guessed it) 3rd party software
3) Firewire drives are faster, but USB drives are cheaper and more widely available

HtH
Razormac

You could look for a networking drive such as a WD MyBook Live which will be compatible with both.

Thanks for the information, I have read some threads. I have found that a Seagate® FreeAgent® GoFlex™ 1TB Ultra-Portable Hard Drive-USB 2.0, is supposed to be interchangeable out of the box?

myvinyl333 said:

Thanks for the information, I have read some threads. I have found that a Seagate® FreeAgent® GoFlex™ 1TB Ultra-Portable Hard Drive-USB 2.0, is supposed to be interchangeable out of the box?

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Any HDD is interchangeable out of the box. The issue is formatting.
If it comes preformatted NTFS you will not be able to write to it with your Mac unless you pick up 3rd party package (not reccomending one, because I personally don't use any of them)
The same is true if it comes preformatted to HFS, but now the windows machine has the problem.

EDIT: I see why they are pitching it that way. They include with the drive 3rd party software to install NTFS driver on you Mac. FWIW, I have a number of Seagate External HDs (six or seven, I've lost count), and they work well.

Free your Files
With the included NTFS driver for Mac, you can now interchangeably store and access files from PC and Mac computers without reformatting. The NTFS driver is simply installed once on your Mac computer, allowing it to access and store files in a PC compatible format. (Reformatting to HFS+ required to use backup software for Mac or Time Machine software.)

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Basically, if its a networked storage device then formatting isn't such an issue - since the in built linux server handles file sharing.

If its a drive directly connected via USB then the best ploy would be to format it as NTFS (which it should come as as a default). The pc will be fine with that but the mac would need drivers to write to NTFS. You have 2 choices on the Mac driver side. Parragon NTFS (commercial software) or MacFuse (an open source Google project that allows macs to write to NTFS drives)

Razormac said:

Any HDD is interchangeable out of the box. The issue is formatting.
If it comes preformatted NTFS you will not be able to write to it with your Mac unless you pick up 3rd party package (not reccomending one, because I personally don't use any of them)
The same is true if it comes preformatted to HFS, but now the windows machine has the problem.

EDIT: I see why they are pitching it that way. They include with the drive 3rd party software to install NTFS driver on you Mac. FWIW, I have a number of Seagate External HDs (six or seven, I've lost count), and they work well.

Click to expand...

I am looking @ Parragon NTFS software as one alternative for the Mac. The wireless route is also appealing. Currently I am transferring via a 16 GB USB stick.

myvinyl333 said:

Currently I am transferring via a 16 GB USB stick.

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Ouch!!

I like the wireless route too. Have the D-Link DNS 323 NAS with 2ea 1TB drives and while I don't currently have any Windows PCs, it works really well for transferring files between my Macs.