Formatting HDD for MacBook & Windows

I just bought a MacBook a few weeks ago and my wife needed to have windows to run a piece of software for her work. So I used BootCamp and installed windows. Then I bought an external hard drive to store home movies and pictures of my family on and I need to format the new drive. I want to format it so that the files can be read by both Mac and Windows. From what I am seeing the biggest problem I have is that it is a 250GB drive.

Can anyone help me out on formating the entire drive to be read on both OS's?

Happily, Mac OS will read PC formatted disks. So, simply format it on the PC for FAT32 and the Mac should be able to read it. Alternately you can use Disk Utility on the Mac to format it for the PC format, and that should work too.

Didn't you just post this in another of these forums? I answered it there.

Cross posting is generally considered to be a no-no, and a violation of forum etiquette.

Why did you post this in 3 different areas???

I wanted to make sure that I got some answers. I assume that not everyone reads out of the same forums

Will this allow me to write from both Windows and Mac?

Noob mistake. I just wanted to make sure this question gets answered so that I can get my new drive up and running.

BigDaddy said:

I wanted to make sure that I got some answers. I assume that not everyone reads out of the same forums

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Welcome to the forums. Just to let you know, cross-posting is heavily frowned upon here.
Please see the Forum Rules before you post again.
:black:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/announcement.php?f=32&announcementid=7

I will be merging your threads which is going to look mighty strange and might deter people from answering your question. As has been mentioned above.. please do not cross post it's not good on so many levels regardless of the fact that it's against the rules Thank you and welcome to the forums!

Once you read the rules and abide by them you'll have a better welcoming party then how you were received this time

If you format the drive as NTFS, you won't be able to modify the files from OS X.

Is there any way to format the drive so that I can write files from OS X and then be able to read on Windows and rewrite from Windows and be able to read and rewrite again from OS X?

FAT32 will let both OSs read/write info from the disk.

NTFS=Windows Read/Write, Mac Read
HFS+=Windows NO Read/Write, Mac Read/Write

Go with FAT32.

It's not possible for winblows to read OS X's partition. (Windows sucks.)
It is possible for OS X to read FAT32 windows partitions.

So while in OS X, you just write to the windows partition, and while in windows, you write to the windows partition too.

(Just clarifying in case the post above isn't the exact answer you're looking for)

There are three main formats you have to deal with:

1. HSF+: OS X's format
2. NTFS: Windows' new format (Windows 2000 & XP)
3. FAT32: Windows' old format

By default, Windows cannot read or write to OS X's HSF+ format. OS X can read Windows' NTFS format, but cannot write to it. FAT32 is the "universal" format - it can be read and written to by both OS X and Windows. If you want to share a hard drive between the systems, you will need to format it to FAT32. This can be done in OS X or Windows XP. In OS X, use Spotlight to find "Disk Utility". Within Disk Utility, select your spare hard drive and go to Erase. Instead of using Mac OS Extended (Journaled), which is another name for HFS+, use the MS-DOS File System, which is another name for FAT32. This will allow the drive to be used by both OS X and Windows. Hope that helps!

pájarito listo

kaidomac said:

There are three main formats you have to deal with:

1. HSF+: OS X's format
2. NTFS: Windows' new format (Windows 2000 & XP)
3. FAT32: Windows' old format

By default, Windows cannot read or write to OS X's HSF+ format. OS X can read Windows' NTFS format, but cannot write to it. FAT32 is the "universal" format - it can be read and written to by both OS X and Windows. If you want to share a hard drive between the systems, you will need to format it to FAT32. This can be done in OS X or Windows XP. In OS X, use Spotlight to find "Disk Utility". Within Disk Utility, select your spare hard drive and go to Erase. Instead of using Mac OS Extended (Journaled), which is another name for HFS+, use the MS-DOS File System, which is another name for FAT32. This will allow the drive to be used by both OS X and Windows. Hope that helps!

Click to expand...

I am also interested in the answers to this issue and found this very helpful but have a further question relating to file security. I work in a Windows XP network in a large institution but have just started using a Mac and would like to be able to back up my extensive work networked folder, work on documents on my Mac and then save back to the copy and syncronise back when next on the network (I have MacOffice). I have an external hard drive of 160 GB (Maxtor OneTouch III Mini). Now my real concern is that I would not want to compromise the security of my Mac files and have a vague idea that using a Windows compatible partition might create a vulnerability - is that so? What would be the most secure scenario to meet these needs?

Thanks for this thread! I'm learning so much from this site..I'm a noob but hopefully not for long!

Maybe this can solve your dilemma. I'm not currently using this procedure myself, but in theory, I believe it should work.

Scenario 1
Install MacDrive 7 on your windows partition.
Work on a document as you usually would in OS X, and save it in the OS X partition. When you use boot camp, and work in the windows partition - NTFS or FAT 32, you can use MacDrive 7 to retrieve this document from the OSX partition. Work on the document, then save it in the Windows partition, and/or transfer it back to the OS X partition.

Scenario 2
If you do decide to format your Windows partition NTFS (NTFS will avoid issues with file size, and actual partition size) - consider this.
When working in the OS X partition - Since Mac can read from NTFS, open the document and work on it, then save the document into the OS X partition. If you require the document later on in Windows, refer to Scenario 1.

If you use parallels or VMWare, I believe they have tools included that get around NTFS/FAT 32/HFS+ issues during a virtual session.

If anyone is doing something similar, please let us know!

Nice thread, as u might know I've just bought my iMac + 1TB external raid HDD and this thread answered my question about formatting the external HDD too.

Can you tell me what the cluster size in HSF is and a general comparison b/w HSF and NTFS?
BTW my external Drive is 1 TB ( 2 x 500GB ) RAID, will I be able to format a drive of this size in FAT 32?

Keep up the good work