PC & Mac-friendly hard drive format?
hey all,
i've been given an external HD by a friend, and currently it's in some windows format and locked (the two issues are separate). This means it's read-only. Apparently i can only uncheck the read-only option with a PC (havent got one).
So as im running outta time, i was thinking i'd just reformat at but my pal uses a PC.
So my question: which format is PC-friendly?
Thank you.
i've been given an external HD by a friend, and currently it's in some windows format and locked (the two issues are separate). This means it's read-only. Apparently i can only uncheck the read-only option with a PC (havent got one).
So as im running outta time, i was thinking i'd just reformat at but my pal uses a PC.
So my question: which format is PC-friendly?
Thank you.
Comments
Originally posted by spiers69
hey all,
i've been given an external HD by a friend, and currently it's in some windows format and locked (the two issues are separate). This means it's read-only. Apparently i can only uncheck the read-only option with a PC (havent got one).
So as im running outta time, i was thinking i'd just reformat at but my pal uses a PC.
So my question: which format is PC-friendly?
Thank you.
FAT32 is cross-platform compliant, as in both windows and mac can read/write. The only limitation is that the partition cannot be larger than 32 GB.
If you only need the mac to be able to write, you can format NTFS. This fixes the size limitation.
If you want both to read/write and have a partition larger than 32GB, you can format it HFS+, but you'll need a program to be able to use it in windows.
Noah
If you only need the mac to be able to READ, you can format NTFS
t,ftfy
Originally posted by noah93
If you only need the mac to be able to write, you can format NTFS. This fixes the size limitation.
If you want both to read/write and have a partition larger than 32GB, you can format it HFS+, but you'll need a program to be able to use it in windows.
Noah
I believe NTFS is read-only for mac, not write-able. FAT is read/write for both mac/pc.
If you choose another format from disk utility, it will not work with the pc without some playing around with.
Ext2 or Ext3 is another option, where free drivers are available for Win/Mac (I know for Win there are, should be for Mac), and Ext3 is actually modern, so it has journaling and large file support, like HFS+ and NTFS (but not FAT32).
HFS+ is great. The one thing I wish it had is a free IFS (installable file system) driver for Windows. MacDrive is commercial and still not very bullet-proof.
I believe NTFS is read-only for mac, not write-able. FAT is read/write for both mac/pc.
Sorry about that, meant to say read-only. I was quite tired from studying for final exams.
Noah
Thanks all the same.