External Hard Drive (Compatible with Windows & Mac)

One of the things I'd noticed with external USB drives, flash thumb drives, & etc

is a default format (drive maker default) which works with both IBM/PC and Mac.

MS-DOS (FAT32) is an older and do-able format; it's not most efficient for use with

Mac files. But can read-write both. I've a few USB flash and rotational storage drive

with this format. Unless there are system files on the drive, that may require native

format for specific systems, no point in adapting to special format.

A new multiple purpose hard drive for more than archive uses, can be a different type.

OWC site has some good mac-centric products; example given are storage drives.

For things like Time Machine, you'd use separate HFS+ USB external drive (2-TB)

and have nothing else stored on there. (T.M. for backups; included in your macOS.)

Since your concern primarily is accessing files from the PC, and use of those in Mac;

this may be best for initial use. Simple. Other ideas may surface; this will do the task.

You should contact OWC (toll free # and or use their email) and tell them your needs

and what your expectations are -in the present and future- and ask for their best advice;

They have good customer service/knowledge and support for what they have.. Even

if not actually making a sale. Part of their service. And why that's usually very good.

My reference for 'the format' only is based on a standard that works for older PC windows

and Mac OS X. Whether (or not) a slightly newer format that does both, is included on their

product without additional formatting, is within information they can provide. ~ And More.

Contact Support - OWC

1-800-275-4576 U.S.A.

+1-815-338-8685 INTL

Mon–Fri 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM CT

They also have self-powered quality multiple storage devices; those can be used with clones

and/or external systems to run your Mac from them; at suitably fast speeds. External upgrades.

Ask their support experts for details; they also have good before / after-sale support and warranties.

Hi, diverblammermaid, maybe I can help you. Yes, it’s quite possible. I’ll go for the short answer as I’m replying on an iPhone. You’d plug the drive into your Mac and using disk utility, create 2 partitions on it. One would be Mac formatted( macosjournaled, GUID on) and the other would be pc formatted( ExFat). The easiest way to back up your IBM laptop would be to install migration assistant to your pc, and point it to the stuff you wanna back up, then plug in the external hard drive, it should ‘see’ the 2nd partition ( the pc formatted one) and then transfer to that partition. Alternatively, you can network your IBM laptop and your Mac together via Ethernet cable, with migration assistant installed on the pc ( the IBM laptop) and the external hard drive plugged into the Mac and partition 2 chosen. That’s about it. I don’t know exactly what version of Windows you have on your IBM laptop, but you might run into NTFS on the pc side, which macs can’t read+ write to without special software, most of which have a free trial period then to keep using it after that, you pay. Paragon NTFS is one such maker of that. There are others I’m sure.

well, I’m done

john b

Not really...depends what connections are on the ibm laptop., I’m guessing USB 2.0. You could get an SSD external drive which would be faster than a conventional drive but is more expensive.

exFAT should be a better choice than FAT32.