Format External Hard Drive????

[gixxersean]

I have an external hard drive that I used with my Windows laptop, but now I have my iMac and I want to be able to write to it. The problem is I still need to write to it from my PC. I know I can format it using FAT32 and I tried it, but I got an error that said it was too large to be formatted to FAT32 (i tried formatting it in Windows). Is there a better way to format it or am I just S.O.L. on this one. Also, if you have any other suggestions that'd be cool.

 

[shfle]

FAT32 will only go up to 32GB.

You could get some software to make OSX read NTFS disks. Google it, there is definitely something out there that performs this task.

Eg.
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/11/19/ntfs-on-your-mac-two-ways/

 

[Rambaud]

IIRC, the 32Gb limit is a Microsoft one.

Have you tried formatting it with Disk Utility in OS X?

 

[skaheadpunk]

IIRC, the 32Gb limit is a Microsoft one.

Have you tried formatting it with Disk Utility in OS X?

Yup, formatting it from the Mac to FAT32 should be ok.

 

[gixxersean]

Thanks for the great advice. I think I'm gonna try to format FAT32 first using Mac disk utility. Which way do you guys think is better? I wouldn't mind buying the driver for Mac to be able to read and write to NTFS if NTFS is better than FAT32

 

[shfle]

Another solution would be to format the drive to Mac OS Extended and install MacDrive on your PC (Although it's not very cheap) which will enable your PC to read and write to a Mac formatted drive. http://www.amazon.com/CSDC-MD70-E0WR-Macdrive-7/dp/B000O39YGE

It's up to you really but I believe that FAT is the slowest and least secure of the 3.

Whichever way you go make sure you back the disk up first, as reformatting will wipe it clean.