New MAC user. I have a couple of easy questions.

BKSinAZ · 07-24-2008, 07:19 PM

Thinking of buying an external WD hard drive.

If I format it as NTFS, will the MAC be able to see it and write to it?
What about FAT32...will the MAC be able to see the hard drive and write to it?

You probably wonder why I do not format it to a MAC partition, but I need to backup data on both a MAC and a separate XP machine.

I guess I am asking how to format the new external drive to be seen by BOTH types of computers?

macthorough · 07-25-2008, 04:59 AM

What version of Mac OS X do you have?

Mac OS X can "read" NTFS.

I would partition the external drive in half then format half as NTFS and the other half Max OS X extended journaled.

I've seen a programs called MacFuse and Paragon that can make Mac OS X write to NTFS volumes. I have not used these programs but they look worth checking out esp Paragon.

sinclair_tm · 07-25-2008, 01:11 PM

Format the drive as FAT32, then both OS X and XP will be able to read and write to the disk. Connect the disk to the Mac, then open Disk Utiltity in the Utilities folder. You will see all the disk drives connected to the Mac in the left pane. The icons will be grouped together. The top one of each group is the disk, and the ones under it will be the volumes, aka the formatted part of the disk. Select the disk icon for the external disk and then click on the erase tab in the right pane. There will be a drop down menu for format and you should be able to select MS DOS. Then format the disk. When it is done, it should mount on the desktop. To eject it from the Mac, drag the disk's icon to the trash can and it will dissapear. Now you can unplug it from the Mac. Plug it into the XP PC to make sure it's good to go.

**shuuhen** · 07-25-2008, 07:05 PM

How big will the external drive be? How much data will you be backing up from each OS?

Mac OS X cannot read NTFS drives. You can try third party applications, but for anything important I recommend against it. I've screwed up partition maps before and the last place I'd want to repeat that is on a drive holding backups.

If you only want one partition, I'd say FAT32 for that. However, you will not be able to use that for Time Machine backups from the Mac.

If you want to use that drive for Time Machine, I'd recommend making a partition for Time Machine backups formatted as HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). I used Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for my Time Machine drive.

Then you could do FAT32 for the rest or do an NTFS partition and a FAT32 partition. FAT32 is generally good when you want multiple operating systems to read the drive. I'm not a fan of the filesystem, but pretty much every operating system has good support for it.

Metuas · 07-26-2008, 11:51 PM

There are a few programs that allow NTFS-write for Mac, but I have had much more success with MacDrive for Windows. If you're willing to pay a little bit, it provides flawless HFS+ support for Windows and reads and writes almost as quickly as FAT32 or NTFS.

However, if you don't want to pay (it's something like $50), you may want to just format it as FAT32. Its only limitation is files over 4GB are prohibited, and I believe it has a partition cap of 2TB.

macthorough · 07-27-2008, 04:18 AM

Wow, it seems like you should probably get a separate ext hard drive and use one for mac and one for windows. Why buy software and go thru all that partitioning and formatting then still not be safe. It's rumored that mac will support writing to NTFS in the future. I wonder if Windows can read MAC OS X Extended Journaled?

**shuuhen** · 07-27-2008, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macthorough

Wow, it seems like you should probably get a separate ext hard drive and use one for mac and one for windows. Why buy software and go thru all that partitioning and formatting then still not be safe. It's rumored that mac will support writing to NTFS in the future. I wonder if Windows can read MAC OS X Extended Journaled?

The point of partitioning would be first not needing to have new software. Also, it's best to assume Time Machine will use all of a partition. FAT32 will not work for Time Machine, due to not supporting all of the features of HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). Obviously that doesn't matter if the OP doesn't go with Time Machine, but it's a good and easy way to back up a Mac.

Mac OS X most likely will support writing to NTFS eventually, but it's not the easiest filesystem to support. Microsoft's operating systems don't support filesystems that are mainly used by other operating systems, so no ext2/3, JFS, HFS+, etc in Windows.

macthorough · 07-27-2008, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuuhen

Also, it's best to assume Time Machine will use all of a partition.

Thanks but, do you think he would be better off with getting another hard drive as I proposed... if the OP does go with Time Machine or not?

**shuuhen** · 07-28-2008, 08:39 PM

Depends on how the user will use the drive. Backups only would be fairly safe. The more the user experiments with the drive, the more chance for something to go wrong. Personally I have one drive dedicated to backing up my MacBook Pro, but the drive is the exact same size, so it works out great.

Having separate drives is generally a good idea when multiple operating systems are involved, especially since Windows tends to only support what it uses. However, if the OP had two drives for backup, both could be partitioned and the data would be in two places.

For example. My tower I built a while ago has two 320 GB hard drives in. Now for about what I paid for the two drives, I could get a drive that could back up both (internal though, haven't looked for cases). If one was Windows and the other Linux (only Gentoo's on the machine at the moment, but for illustration purposes) I could parition the drive and easily back up both drives.

macthorough · 07-29-2008, 05:47 AM

Right on, every thing on a different spindle... It's good to know a lot about backing up data. Far too often do people lose data over hard drives going bad, someone's laptop gets stolen, etc... And data recovery companies make a killing on data recovery....

My Motto for data is:

"burn it, copy it, move it, print it, lose it"

burn - back up to CD or DVD
copy - multiple copies on the same drive
move - move to different hard drive, flash drive, email account,
print - used this for documents, print them multiple times (and shred and recycle too)
lose - unfortunately expect to lose data, erase data (intentionally or unintentionally), but the other steps help when this happens. I think people get lazy when backing up or forgetful so expect to lose data. Most of the time this only happens once then people learn their lesson.

07-24-2008, 07:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
BKSinAZ Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 93 OS: XP Pro	New MAC user. I have a couple of easy questions. Thinking of buying an external WD hard drive. If I format it as NTFS, will the MAC be able to see it and write to it? What about FAT32...will the MAC be able to see the hard drive and write to it? You probably wonder why I do not format it to a MAC partition, but I need to backup data on both a MAC and a separate XP machine. I guess I am asking how to format the new external drive to be seen by BOTH types of computers? Last edited by BKSinAZ : 07-24-2008 at 07:32 PM.

07-25-2008, 04:59 AM	#2 (permalink)
macthorough Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 203 OS: WIN XP PRO	Re: New MAC user. I have a couple of easy questions. What version of Mac OS X do you have? Mac OS X can "read" NTFS. I would partition the external drive in half then format half as NTFS and the other half Max OS X extended journaled. I've seen a programs called MacFuse and Paragon that can make Mac OS X write to NTFS volumes. I have not used these programs but they look worth checking out esp Paragon.

07-25-2008, 07:05 PM	#4 (permalink)
shuuhen Moderator Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Colorado Posts: 700 OS: Mac OS 9.1, Mac OS X 10.5.4, WinXP Pro, FreeBSD 6.0, Gentoo Linux	Re: New MAC user. I have a couple of easy questions. How big will the external drive be? How much data will you be backing up from each OS? Mac OS X cannot read NTFS drives. You can try third party applications, but for anything important I recommend against it. I've screwed up partition maps before and the last place I'd want to repeat that is on a drive holding backups. If you only want one partition, I'd say FAT32 for that. However, you will not be able to use that for Time Machine backups from the Mac. If you want to use that drive for Time Machine, I'd recommend making a partition for Time Machine backups formatted as HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). I used Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for my Time Machine drive. Then you could do FAT32 for the rest or do an NTFS partition and a FAT32 partition. FAT32 is generally good when you want multiple operating systems to read the drive. I'm not a fan of the filesystem, but pretty much every operating system has good support for it. __________________ Has it been a few days since I replied to your thread? Don't panic! I'm a busy college student and may forget a post if I'm extra busy (or it might just take me a while to be able to do a decent reply). If you still need help and are awaiting my reply after a few days, PM me about it. When posting what errors you get, please give the full message. It makes helping you much easier.

07-26-2008, 11:51 PM	#5 (permalink)
Metuas Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 11 OS: Mac OS X 10.5.3 / 10.4.11 / 10.3.9; Windows XP Pro SP2	Re: New MAC user. I have a couple of easy questions. There are a few programs that allow NTFS-write for Mac, but I have had much more success with MacDrive for Windows. If you're willing to pay a little bit, it provides flawless HFS+ support for Windows and reads and writes almost as quickly as FAT32 or NTFS. However, if you don't want to pay (it's something like $50), you may want to just format it as FAT32. Its only limitation is files over 4GB are prohibited, and I believe it has a partition cap of 2TB.

07-27-2008, 04:18 AM	#6 (permalink)
macthorough Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 203 OS: WIN XP PRO	Re: New MAC user. I have a couple of easy questions. Wow, it seems like you should probably get a separate ext hard drive and use one for mac and one for windows. Why buy software and go thru all that partitioning and formatting then still not be safe. It's rumored that mac will support writing to NTFS in the future. I wonder if Windows can read MAC OS X Extended Journaled?

07-28-2008, 08:39 PM	#9 (permalink)
shuuhen Moderator Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Colorado Posts: 700 OS: Mac OS 9.1, Mac OS X 10.5.4, WinXP Pro, FreeBSD 6.0, Gentoo Linux	Re: New MAC user. I have a couple of easy questions. Depends on how the user will use the drive. Backups only would be fairly safe. The more the user experiments with the drive, the more chance for something to go wrong. Personally I have one drive dedicated to backing up my MacBook Pro, but the drive is the exact same size, so it works out great. Having separate drives is generally a good idea when multiple operating systems are involved, especially since Windows tends to only support what it uses. However, if the OP had two drives for backup, both could be partitioned and the data would be in two places. For example. My tower I built a while ago has two 320 GB hard drives in. Now for about what I paid for the two drives, I could get a drive that could back up both (internal though, haven't looked for cases). If one was Windows and the other Linux (only Gentoo's on the machine at the moment, but for illustration purposes) I could parition the drive and easily back up both drives. __________________ Has it been a few days since I replied to your thread? Don't panic! I'm a busy college student and may forget a post if I'm extra busy (or it might just take me a while to be able to do a decent reply). If you still need help and are awaiting my reply after a few days, PM me about it. When posting what errors you get, please give the full message. It makes helping you much easier.

07-29-2008, 05:47 AM	#10 (permalink)
macthorough Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 203 OS: WIN XP PRO	Re: New MAC user. I have a couple of easy questions. Right on, every thing on a different spindle... It's good to know a lot about backing up data. Far too often do people lose data over hard drives going bad, someone's laptop gets stolen, etc... And data recovery companies make a killing on data recovery.... My Motto for data is: "burn it, copy it, move it, print it, lose it" burn - back up to CD or DVD copy - multiple copies on the same drive move - move to different hard drive, flash drive, email account, print - used this for documents, print them multiple times (and shred and recycle too) lose - unfortunately expect to lose data, erase data (intentionally or unintentionally), but the other steps help when this happens. I think people get lazy when backing up or forgetful so expect to lose data. Most of the time this only happens once then people learn their lesson.