I recently brought Western Digital's Passport Essential, and will be using with My MacBook (running Snow Leopard), MacBook Air (running Lion) and Windows 7 Desktop. I should be able to read-write data using each machine/OS.
More over, I need to store and move files larger than 4GB
So, what should be preferred file-system type: FAT, exFAT or NTFS? Will my portable drive support exFAT?
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
GUID and exFAT since no legacy machines and OS's are involved, however the 10.6 machine must be 10.6.5 or later.
Format the new drive on the Win 7 machine, right click on it's icon and format: exFAT.
If you ever want to connect the drive to a XP machine with exFAT installed (free from Microsoft), then your looking at MBR + exFAT.
If the XP machine can't install exFAT, like it's not verified, then MBR + FAT32 (MSDOS) and keep all files under 4GB in size.
If you want to connect the drive to consoles and other devices, then MBR + FAT32 (MSDOS)
Don't use NTFS
Agree with ds store. Definitely exFAT. You can even format it that way in OS X under Snow Leopard or later. No third party drivers necessary for either platform to both read and write data.
exFAT is built into Windows Vista and 7. Microsoft has an exFAT update for Win XP if you need it for that.
FAT or exFAT or NTFS
