Can I read and write to a windows FAT32 HDD using a Powerbook G4 and Airport Express?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
First Post!



I'm extremly interested in purchasing a Powerbook G4, and an Airport Express. I am planning on using the Powerbook as my main computer, and of course, everything will be wireless. However, as photography is one of my hobbies, I have a rather large collection of images, and music collection residing on a FAT32 hard drive as a part of my Windows XP box. I'm planning on making the PC the media server of the household, and so, I want to download images to my Powerbook, and then transfer the images to the XP box over the 802.11g network created by Airport Express, as well as grab images off the PC and transfer them to my Powerbook.



Is this possible? (The XP box will have a 802.11g PCI card, of course)



Also, is it worth waiting for OS X 10.4? What's the ETA on it?



Thanks so much in advance from a Mac beginner.



Cheers,

Jonathan

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    It will work, and doesn't really have anything to do with the filesystem (FAT, NTFS, whatever), as you will use a higher level protocol to transfer files (ftp, smb, http, ssh, etc).



    I find ftp to be most compatible when doing mac/pc transfers, so just run an ftp server on both computers to transfer files among them. Though ssh/scp will be more flexible. I've had bad experiences with smb shares with Macs...
  • Reply 2 of 2
    It will work just fine.



    If you are well versed in XP, setting up the wireless and file-sharing prefs there shouldn't be a problem (in OSX, it's just a matter of turning file-sharing "On" and selecting "windows sharing"). Getting XP configured was a chore for me, but I'd never used windows before.



    Don't wait for 10.4 (Tiger) ... Everyone's best guess seems to be next year - spring or maybe even summer. If you want to pony up the $129 when it arrives, it'll be worth it, but it won't be necessary if cash is a concern
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