External HD Problems

Hey everone. Well I've got access to a Maxtor external HD that my parents bought, but since my sister who uses it most of the time has Windows XP, there is some problems. My sister reformatted the HD to NTFS since she said that in FAT, you can't transfer files larger than 4 gigs (she does video work for school). Since Macs can't write on NTFS, anyone have an idea on how to fix this problem? My other concern is that I am planning to buy an external HD for myself, but would the HD be formatted to FAT, thus restricting me to transfer large files onto it? What can I do? Thanks! :biohazard

Yes, Infact Macs can be formated in NTFS. However, you must be running os X. The older macs formated in Mac OS Extended.

macEfan said:

Yes, Infact Macs can be formated in NTFS. However, you must be running os X. The older macs formated in Mac OS Extended.

Click to expand...

While it is possible to use IDE PC hard drives with Macintosh computers, it is only possible to read FAT and FAT32 formatted drives in a Macintosh. Do not use NTFS formatted drives in a Macintosh computer.
Only Mac OS X 10.3 Panther works with local NTFS-formatted volumes. The volume will be read-only.
NTFS formatted drives cannot be used in a Macintosh except as read-only with Mac OS X 10.3 as noted above.

So back around the corner to the original question... The most direct solution if you need both large file support and the ability to transfer files between Mac and Windows is to partition the drive.

Create a 30GB FAT32 partition for transfering files and use the rest for either a NTFS (If the drive is mostly for Windows) or HFS+ (if the drive is mostly for Mac) partition. If you really need to, you could use MacDisk for Windows to read and write to the HFS volume.

So you mean if I buy an external HD for example, I can transfer large files onto it if it is formatted to FAT32?

Large is relative, but FAT32 has a limit of 4GB as you stated. You can store larger files in your NTFS or HFS partition though. I am not sure why you would need to move 4+ GB files between Mac and Windows, but in cases where you do, create a Windows share on either the Mac or the XP box to move the files across.

Sorry if I stated my question wrong, but I was wondering what would an external HD need to be formatted to so that a Mac can transfer files larger than 4 gigs (movie files for classes)? Thanks! :biohazard

What the heck are you editing that you are using 4+ GB clips? In High School? Cross Platform for editing? This seems a bit of a stretch but regardless, transfer it using a share rather than the FW drive or use something like MacDrive so that the Mac and Windows can use the same drive format.

I agree with with Kokopelli, use Macdrive. Format the drive for the Mac and use the program Macdrive on the Xp machine. That will let the windows machine read and write the Mac drive. Works very nice, i use it for my external Lacie drive formatted in Mac format to transfer files back and forth from my Amd64 pc.

Okay, forget what I said about sharing files between a Mac and PS. I was wondering what would an external HD need to be formatted to for me to be able to transfer big files. Yes, 4+ gig movies of us acting for Honors History.

I don't want to sound repititious but use HFS+ and MacDisk or copy onto an NTFS partition from Windows and if you need to edit on a Mac copy it to local then use a share to copy back to Windows.

Alternatiively archive it to multiple files and reassemble it on your target platform. There are a number of programs that can do this, though I can not name any that work on the Mac off the top of my head.

If you want to get "radical" you could format the external drive using EXT2 and use applications in both Windows and Mac to read it. You could even make a small FAT32 partition to store the installers. I would not recommend it though unless you know what you are doing.

I would still reccomend breaking the video up into chapters. It seems unweildly and impractical to work with a single file larger than 4GB.