External hdd to Read & Write in OSX & Win 7

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hi everyone, im new here, so apologies if this topic has already been posted.

my son has an iMac and a new MBP both with a 1tb hdd, and both running Win 7,

he has an 880gb west digital portable hdd for backing up his files, and it is formatted in the windows NTFS file system, but when it is connected to his Mac's on the OSX system, the hdd can be read, and he can copy stuff from the hdd to his Mac partition, but he cant copy stuff to the portable hdd from OSX

i was sure at some time that i installed MacDrive on his iMac but he claims he has never been able to copy stuff to that hdd in OSX.

i want to keep the portable hdd formatted in NTFS is so it can be read in our other win 7 machines in our home, howerver i will aske the following 2 questions and see what options are available.

1. is there a file system i can format the portable hdd to that actually reads & writes in OSX and Windows 7 without having to install any other software.

2. if there isnt any file system that reads & writes in OSX & Windows 7, what is the best program to install on the OSX systems to allow him to read & write onto an NTFS formatted portable drive.

cheers
 

chscag

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The file system which is compatible with both the Mac and Windows machines is FAT-32 and for later model Macs and Win machines, ExFat. However, I do not recommend using FAT because it's a non journaling file system which means it's prone to errors and has limits. (FAT-32 file size limit of 4 GB)

I recommend that you continue to use NTFS on the external drives and install a driver on your Mac that will offer read and write capability. We recommend Paragon NTFS ($19.95) from Paragon Software. Here is the LINK.
 
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hi, i know all about Fat32 and exFat so they are not an option, and just after i posted this thread i googled the topic and found the paragon trial, and its running on his iMac ok with that hdd, but its a shame that we need to buy software to do this.

cheers, guess i will buy him 2 licences for both his machines as it is important to keep the backup drive in NTFS so he can use it to access other windows machines when he is using them.

cheers
 

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