Formatting external hard drive for ibook and pc?

Hi,

Welcome to the Discussions.

Most external hard drives come formatted FAT32 which Macs can read and write to. If it's NTFS you'll need to reformat is FAT32 with Disk Utility (located in Applications>Utilities). With the drive connected launch Disk Utility. Highlight the drive on the left and info for it will be displayed. If its file system is FAT32 you're good to go, if not you need to reformat. Be aware that reformatting will erase all data on the drive so backup what you want to keep.

With the drive mounted and Disk Utility running highlight the drive, click on the Erase tab, choose FAT 32 (MS-DOS) as the file type and click the Erase button. Once it's done it's ready to use.

John

Of course a FAT32 format will be the only way to have read/write ability between PC and Mac. The one limitation is a maximum 4GB file size for FAT32 discs. This could be an issue if you've got a large zip archive or a single DVD image file.

y pw wrote:
Of course a FAT32 format will be the only way to have read/write ability between PC and Mac. The one limitation is a maximum 4GB file size for FAT32 discs. This could be an issue if you've got a large zip archive or a single DVD image file.

I meant the only way to have read/write ability on both platforms without some sort of third party software.

I'm in a similar situation. I just received a Mac laptop and I'm transitioning from a Dell laptop. I just got a 750GB external hard drive and I'd like to connect it to my Dell to store some old files that I'd like to be able to access from my new computer (I'm planning on pretty much junking my old computer). What should I do as far as formatting? I'm not planning on using the drive for both, just extracting stuff from my old computer then using it for my new Mac.
Any suggestions?

Thanks!

amhodina, Welcome to the discussion area!

Read the posts above they have all the information that you need.

Please clarify. OS X functions with FAT32 or NTFS? I'm wanting to format an external for use now with a PC, but with a new Mac laptop in the future (about 6 months). I would like both computers to be able to store files on it. Do I set it up with FAT32 or NTFS?

Hi,

Welcome to the Discussions.

NTFS volumes are read only on Macs running OS X so you want to format it FAT32. The partition will have to be 32GB or less.

John

"read only" in NTFS as in the mac can see it but not create it?

The external is 500GB. It has to be partitioned into 32GB chunks since I need to use FAT32, right? Is the partition size due to the Mac's capabilities, or because of having to use the FAT32 format? If it is due to the mac's capabilities, is it possible to have like one partition maybe 180GB, then break the other 320 into 10 chunks?

Sorry for all the questions on this; I have this habit of needing to understand why I'm doing something before I do it.

Read only means the files can be seen and read but nothing can be saved (written) to the drive.

I may have been mistaken about the 32GB limit on FAT32 volumes. If you purchased it new, chances are it's already formatted FAT32. Connect it to your iBook and launch System Profiler. The file system should be under either USB or firewire (however it's connected).

John