What format does Apple recommend for HardDisks? Is NTFS compatible with Mac

Question

Level 1

22 points

What format does Apple recommend for HardDisks? Is NTFS compatible with Mac

I am trying to copy a 5GB file on to an external hard disk (80GB capacity which has 23GB of free space) from vista. The file is intended to be transfered on to a MacBook running Tiger.

Now the problem is that the file will not copy. It says "File is too large to transfer". I asked around, apparently the problem is that the hard disk is formated to FAT32, and they recommended i format the Hard Drive to NTFS.

My concern is that if i format the drive to NTFS (since the external hard disk is primarily used on a mac), will it be 100% compatible with Mac (Tiger, Leopard) with no draw backs?

What format does apple recommend external hard disks to be (with dealing with large files being backed up and transfered)?

Saeid.

iPod Touch + PC: Intel 630 3.0Ghz, 1024MB DDR2 533Mhz, ATi X800 256MB, 80GB, Windows XP Pro

Posted on Feb 5, 2008 11:52 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Feb 5, 2008 12:19 PM in response to Saeid

*"What format does apple recommend external hard disks"*

Naturally, they'd want you to use their own default format...Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus)

NTFS is read-only on a Mac.

Reply

Answer 2

Saeid Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 5, 2008 12:41 PM in response to Templeton Peck

If i format to the HFS Plus, will I be able to read and write on the disk from Windows?

Reply

Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Feb 5, 2008 12:58 PM in response to Saeid

No. Windows does not read or write Mac drives. You can purchase MacDrive for Windows which will enable Windows to read and write a Mac formatted drive. NTFS is not compatible with Macs. A Mac can read an NTFS formatted drive but cannot write to one without third-party software.

Reply

Answer 4

Saeid Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 5, 2008 9:09 PM in response to Kappy

So what you guys are saying is that there is no mutual format for both Mac and PC that is able to transfer files larger than 4 to 5 GB? Makes you wonder how the "Time Capsule" works, if u configure it with a Mac will it only backup all the Mac's in your place or will it also backup PC's as well on the same drive (perhaps different partition).

Ok so my new question is: if i format the drive to NTFS (through Windows) transfer the file to Mac, how will i be able to format it again to HFS Plus through OS X (If so how)? Or should i format it back to FAT32 via windows again?

Thanks in advance.

Reply

Answer 5

Feb 5, 2008 9:17 PM in response to Saeid

Hi! There is a software solution but I have not used it. You will be able to format the drive back to fat32(dos) using the disk utility. Tom

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/13831

Reply

Answer 6

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Feb 5, 2008 9:19 PM in response to Saeid

Time Machine (and Time Capsule) only backs up Mac OS Extended hard drives. It does not backup Windows drives.

Any drive can be formatted Mac or MS-DOS by simply partitioning the drive using the GUID partition scheme. It can then be formatted for the Mac or MS-DOS or can have Mac and Windows separate partitions. Perhaps you should spend a little time reading the Disk Utility Help - select it from the DU Help menu.

Reply

Answer 7

Feb 6, 2008 5:13 AM in response to Saeid

Apple would probably tell you to use Journaled HFS+ with case-sensitivity turned off. This is really the best bet from the standpoint of compatibility with Mac applications and utilities.

You mention NTFS, which, by default is read-only on a Mac. NTFS is perhaps the best Windows filesystem out there, but it's overall a mediocre one (no journaling, fragments, etc.) and its features are divergent of UNIX/POSIX ones filesystems (no symbolic links until Vista, standard file mode flags, uids and gids, etc.). However, if you're comfortable with getting you hands dirty in Terminal.app, you can download the [Mac port of Linux' FUSE|http://code.google.com/p/macfuse> (a kernel extension that permits loading of user-space filesystem drivers) and the [NTFS-3G|http://www.ntfs-3g.org> driver for it, which provide a fully read-write NTFS filesystem for your Mac (never tried the Mac version, personally, but the Linux version works famously).

You can similarly obtain a kernel extension that permits the Mac to [read and write Linux EXT2 and EXT3 (as EXT2) filesystems|http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsx]. Generally speaking EXT3 is a more reliable and better performing than Mac's HFS+, but it's always case-sensitive, and the Mac implementation might have some issues. The Mac driver, however, doesn't support journaling. You can download [EXT2/3 support for Windows|http://www.fs-driver.org> too.

Ideally, everyone would use [ZFS|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zfs] -- but it's not likely that Windows will have any ZFS support any time soon. It's basically only available for UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems (e.g., basically everything except for Windows).

Reply