Hello, all - just bought a western digital 500gb my book premium edition external hard drive. Will be using for both pc and macbook, not necessarily to share files (though i may on occasion), but rather as a backup. Been researching the discussion boards and concluded that i should use it as pre-formatted fat32. Few questions.
1) if i do use to share files, from what i understand i will be able to read windows files with my mac but i can't read mac files with windows (unless i have macdrive installed). Is this correct?
2) since mac can read/write to fat 32, is it necessary to partition the drives and keep the files separated? I talked to a 'computer guy' earlier today and he said i should consider having two completely separate external hard drives as having files from two different operating systems on the same drive could cause major problems for both. I didn't really believe him. 3) i have seen different posts stating using fat32 format for mac limits file size to 4gb. Another post said 32gb. Which is right?
Once you have done with formatting, your external hard drive will be able to write and read files from both a PC and Mac. The resulting FAT32 file system will be compatible with all versions of Mac OS X, and Windows including Windows 10 back to 95. This is one of the most widely recognized file system formats. Question: Q: external hard drive for both windows and mac hello, all - just bought a western digital 500gb my book premium edition external hard drive. Will be using for both pc and macbook, not necessarily to share files (though i may on occasion), but rather as a backup. Been researching the discussion boards and concluded that i should use.
I have os is 10.4.7 if that makes a difference. Thanks in advance for any insight. 2 - i don't mind partitioning at all. But he strongly suggested not even partitioning but using two completely separate hard drives. Yeah, the 500gb was a bit overkill, so if i can use it for both as opposed to one and buying an additional, i'd rather.
2/3 - if i partition, is it best to divide it into ntfs and hfs+? Or should i keep the pc portion fat32? If the mac portion is hfs+, can i store any size file? I have videos that are anywhere from 10-20gb, and i'd like to get them off my computer and into the external drive. Apple Footer.
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