Copying files to a Windows formatted NTFS drive...

Question

Level 2

451 points

Copying files to a Windows formatted NTFS drive...

Good afternoon.

I'm getting a MediaGate MG-35 to store music, videos, and photos on. When I get it, I'll be installing a 300GB HDD and formatting it in NTFS.

When I plug this into my mini through a USB port, I assuming it will be recognized and show has a removable drive on the desktop. Should I then be able to just drag and drop my video files (.mp4, etc.) and photos (.jpg) and music (.mp3) to the drive without a problem or any (known) data corruption?

Thanks for the help.

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Nov 16, 2005 11:16 AM

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Answer 1

iFelix

Level 8

35,167 points

Nov 16, 2005 11:32 AM in response to wyzard

No this will not work.

A Mac can only read a NTFS formatted drive it can not write to the drive.

You will either need to format as FAT32 (do this on the Mac as Windows XP has a 32GB partition limitation which OS X doesn't). Or use HFS+ and use the third party MacDrive on the PC to allow it to read/write to a Mac formatted drive.

iFelix

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Answer 2

Nov 16, 2005 11:57 AM in response to iFelix

Or he can format it as HFS+, and install a HFS+ Partition Driver onto XP (MacDrive is a popular one).

I keep my 160GB Firewire HD formatted as HFS+ and use it on my XP laptop all the time.

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Answer 3

wyzard Author

Level 2

451 points

Nov 16, 2005 12:14 PM in response to wyzard

Thanks for the input...

What the mediagate mg-35 is going to do is allow me to store music, pictures and video on the drive inside it and connect the device (mg-35) to my tv/home theater system and navigate what is on the drive through a menu on my TV and either view picture/watch video on my TV or listen to music through my home theater receiver. Not sure if formatting in HFS+ will work on this unit.

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Answer 4

AndyO

Level 6

17,064 points

Nov 16, 2005 12:18 PM in response to wyzard

Formatting FAT32 from the Mac as per iFelix's suggestion should prove a workable and simple solution.

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Answer 5

Nov 16, 2005 12:19 PM in response to wyzard

If it's a set top box, it will most likely require FAT 32, as already said.

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Answer 6

Nov 16, 2005 12:20 PM in response to AndyO

And to add to this, Mac don't call it FAT32 like it should, it calls it MS-DOS File System.

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Answer 7

wyzard Author

Level 2

451 points

Nov 16, 2005 12:43 PM in response to Transgenic X5-655

One more question...

After formatting in FAT32 (or MS-DOS....whatever) on the Mac will I be able to set up directories on the drive from my Mac?

Thanks again!

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Answer 8

Nov 16, 2005 12:51 PM in response to wyzard

You can do anything you want to it as like any drive on the Mac.

however, files tend to get stored as uppercase if i remember correctly, and some files with certain characters you can't do on a normal windows computer, won't work either on a mac..

FAT32 implementation on Mac OS X and Linux isn't 100% complete, but it is very good compared to NTFS.

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Answer 9

iFelix

Level 8

35,167 points

Nov 16, 2005 1:51 PM in response to wyzard

After formatting in FAT32 (or MS-DOS....whatever) on
the Mac will I be able to set up directories on the
drive from my Mac?

Yes you will be able to create folders (or directories) on your drive.

A couple of things to note though:

On the PC you will see the resource forks for the Mac files which will look like an identical file name with the exception of a full stop (period) in front

eg

movie.mpg
.movie.mpg

Also with FAT32 is a 4GB file limit which doesn't affect most people unless you are using large video files.

iFelix

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Answer 10

wyzard Author

Level 2

451 points

Nov 17, 2005 4:50 AM in response to wyzard

Good morning.

OK... here's a question/observation.

I have my computers networked together in my home. I ripped a DVD onto my mini using Mac the Ripper. I then converted it to an MP4 file using Handbrake. I then went to my Windows machine and copied the file over my network from my mini to my Windows machine (formatted in NTFS). I received no errors and the file seemed to copy OK. I then double click on the file on my Windows machine, Quicktime opened and I was able to view the movie.

I'm confused by this as I thought my understanding was that I shouldn't be able to copy files from my mini to a NTFS drive? Any thoughts....

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Answer 11

iFelix

Level 8

35,167 points

Nov 17, 2005 5:02 AM in response to wyzard

You can copy files over to a network, as it is the Windows PC which is doing the writing and not the Mac.

When you copy over a file you tell the Windows PC please write this file to your hard drive, which the Windows PC does, even though the Mac asked.

A Mac can not directly write to an NTFS drive as in an external portable drive connected directly to the Mac.

iFelix

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Answer 12

AndyO

Level 6

17,064 points

Nov 17, 2005 5:05 AM in response to wyzard

If I understand what you're saying, you copied the file that was on your mini to your NTFS drive by using your PC.

In that case, the mini is acting like a shared drive on the PC, so there's no problem moving a file from it to an NTFS drive. It's when you try and move a file to an NTFS drive from within MacOS that you'll have the problem.

ON EDIT: Ah, I see iFelix beat me to it!

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Answer 13

wyzard Author

Level 2

451 points

Nov 17, 2005 5:32 AM in response to iFelix

Thanks. That explains it... Appreciated all the help.

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Answer 14

RGWK

Level 1

0 points

Nov 17, 2005 8:16 AM in response to wyzard

Hi,

I'm trying to work out how best to format an external hard disc so it is compatible with both mac and pc via a partion.

I noticed that iFelix mentioned the mac is not limited to the 32GB volume limit of FAT 32.

I wondered though how a Windows PC would react to a FAT 32 volume that exceeded the 32gig limit? Would it be able to access only 32gig of say a mac formatted FAT 32 60gig volume? Or would it recognise the full 60 gig? Or nothing at all (defeating the object)?

Would appreciate any guidance. Thanks!

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Answer 15

Nov 17, 2005 9:17 AM in response to RGWK

Windows can "see" FAT32 partitions that are larger than 32GB - it just won't let you create one with disk administrator.

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