NTFS or FAT32

Use disk utility to rename it?

As for the differences, if you want to possibly read some files from OSX while on windows, you'd want FAT32 since OSX recognizes FAT32. It will not recognize NTFS though.
NTFS is supposed to have more security features available, which is only good if you actually take advantage of them. Also, NTFS tends to be less prone to fragmenting. In terms of performance, you won't notice a difference. I went with FAT32.

Nick

i tried going through disk utility, i'm not very familiar with it though and i coudln't find a way to rename the drive. I didn't think about it very hard before installing XP and i used the ntfs file format. if i re-installed windows, and used the fat32 system, that would mean that when in windows, i could access my os x files? like music and pictures? would i be able to mirror my itunes library from osx into windows? how would i go about reformating and re-installing windows on my xp partition? is that something i would do from within windows? thank you very much for any help

Ted

I am doing fat on mine also.

i tried going through disk utility, i'm not very
familiar with it though and i coudln't find a way to
rename the drive. I didn't think about it very hard
before installing XP and i used the ntfs file format.
if i re-installed windows, and used the fat32 system,
that would mean that when in windows, i could access
my os x files? like music and pictures?

No. You would be able to access your Windows files form the Mac though.

would i be
able to mirror my itunes library from osx into
windows?

Not easily.

how would i go about reformating and
re-installing windows on my xp partition?

Use The BootCamp utility to remvoe the partition, then start over from scratch, this time choosing FAT32.

is that
something i would do from within windows?

See above.

here's what i was thinking.. what if i exported my library, as an .xml file, and then used macdrive to access the itunes music folder on the mac os x partition of my harddrive and simply loaded the library file into windows itunes... would it load the library, and show the songs from the mac partition? i'm really confused as to what is technically possible... it doesn't seem so hard, if windows can see the other partition as a seperate drive, it seems like it could work right? also, are there any windows computers that offer the trackpad click funtionality whose drivers might work for the macbook? i'm really missing that when working in xp pro on my macbook... scrolling too... i find that the little things apple does so perfectly are really what make mac os x the superior system. thank you!

Ted

I have never been able to change an NTFS primary parition name while it is operating as such (command). But perhaps you could create it as FAT32 and then convert it to NTFS? Just a thought.
...
Hmm, just tried changing the boot (primary) partition volume name of on one of my xp-sp2 machines and it worked just fine... Go figure...

I just clicked on the hard drive and highlighted the name of my XP partition (currently named "NO NAME") and changed it--what's the deal?

what format did you use for your partition? do you think choosing the "quick" style of format may affect it? i choose the regular ntfs format option.

how would i go about backing up all the stuff i already did in this partition, like programs and preferences etc. before wiping it, and redoing everything in fat32? also, i can see the osx drive in xp using macdrive... will i be able to see it in xp when xp is on fat32? if not by default, would macdrive allow it?

Ted

Yes, i chose the FAT32 format--not the quick format, the long one. It makes sense that if i won't use the extra space on the XP partition I could always use it to store OSX files--I can definitely use the space in OSX. I just highlighted the partition in OSX and named it Windows XP.

By the way, I am writing this from XP, using IE. Man, I hate IE, but this is pretty friggin cool.

ugh, ie is terrible... get firefox before you get sick!

alright so i'm back in osx, and itunes is working flawlessly. and in xp, everything seems to work flawlessly after figuring a few things out. heres my set up -

xp pro sp2 on NTFS partition.
running macdrive in xp, and os x partition shows up in "my computer"

so to get my os x itunes music into xp i first opened itunes in xp, and changed it's music folder directory (under preferences) to the music folder in the osx partition (navigate to users, your name, music, itunes music) To eliminate the chance of it making copies of the music, i also made sure the "copy music to my music folder" checkbox was unchecked and then i closed out of the preferences. then i clicked file/import and navigated to the itunes folder in the osx partition and imported the library.xml.txt file. this took a while with my ~4700 song library. when it finished it told me that not every song was able to import... not sure why, i'll have to switch back to get a number to compare how many songs didnt make it. but then everything worked, even my airtunes which crashed itunes the first time i tried this. can anyone else reproduce this? please back up first, id hate for someone to lose their data on my account.

also, i'm not sure how xp on a fat32 partition works... can it see and recognize the osx partition? and does anyone know if macdrive would work from a fat32 partition the way its working from the ntfs? lots of questions, any help or recomendations would be greatly appreciated!

Ted

i have macdrive working but my partition doesn't show up, what gives?