help to access external HD from PC and Mac
 

I'm regularly a PC user but have just purchased a second computer
which is a MAC. I backup my data to a 500GB External HD with 5 NTFS
partitions of 100GB each. Each partition contains a different type of
date, ie Music, Videos, Docs, etc. I used separate partition to avoid
the risk of corrupting all my data if murphy visits. (This has
happened.)

With my new mac, my goal now is to be able to use this so I can have 1
common storage for both my PC and Mac. I want to be able to access the
data in the HD from both computers. NTFS doesn't work because it is
not supported natively by Mac.

I'm stumped. At first I had planned to do repartition and reformat
with FAT32 since it's accessible by both systems but since FAT32 has
size limits my 100GB partitions can't be formatted as Fat32. I can't
do NTFS because Mac can't access it. I can't do HFS because PC can't
access it. I need 1 HD accessible by both PC and Mac.

Help! Any suggestions? I really appreciate it because I'm stumped.
Thanks.

help to access external HD from PC and Mac
 

Gizzo wrote:
I'm regularly a PC user but have just purchased a second computer
which is a MAC. I backup my data to a 500GB External HD with 5 NTFS
partitions of 100GB each. Each partition contains a different type of
date, ie Music, Videos, Docs, etc. I used separate partition to avoid
the risk of corrupting all my data if murphy visits. (This has
happened.)

With my new mac, my goal now is to be able to use this so I can have 1
common storage for both my PC and Mac. I want to be able to access the
data in the HD from both computers. NTFS doesn't work because it is
not supported natively by Mac.

I'm stumped. At first I had planned to do repartition and reformat
with FAT32 since it's accessible by both systems but since FAT32 has
size limits my 100GB partitions can't be formatted as Fat32. I can't
do NTFS because Mac can't access it. I can't do HFS because PC can't
access it. I need 1 HD accessible by both PC and Mac.

Help! Any suggestions? I really appreciate it because I'm stumped.
Thanks.
Use a Linux tool to re-format the partitions as FAT-32, they don't have
the size limit.

I use System Rescue CD http://www.sysresccd.org, a live CD to do this
stuff. Gparted is the tool.

Cheers,
Gary B-)

--
__________________________________________________ ____________________________
Armful of chairs: Something some people would not know
whether you were up them with or not
- Barry Humphries

help to access external HD from PC and Mac
 

Backup Mac as Mac - SMB - PC - NTFS external disk.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation

http://www.storagecraft.com

"Gizzo" wrote in message
...
I'm regularly a PC user but have just purchased a second computer
which is a MAC. I backup my data to a 500GB External HD with 5 NTFS
partitions of 100GB each. Each partition contains a different type of
date, ie Music, Videos, Docs, etc. I used separate partition to avoid
the risk of corrupting all my data if murphy visits. (This has
happened.)

With my new mac, my goal now is to be able to use this so I can have 1
common storage for both my PC and Mac. I want to be able to access the
data in the HD from both computers. NTFS doesn't work because it is
not supported natively by Mac.

I'm stumped. At first I had planned to do repartition and reformat
with FAT32 since it's accessible by both systems but since FAT32 has
size limits my 100GB partitions can't be formatted as Fat32. I can't
do NTFS because Mac can't access it. I can't do HFS because PC can't
access it. I need 1 HD accessible by both PC and Mac.

Help! Any suggestions? I really appreciate it because I'm stumped.
Thanks.

help to access external HD from PC and Mac
 

Sorry but what do you mean by your text diagram below?


On Jul 20, 3:53*am, "Maxim S. Shatskih"
wrote:
* * Backup Mac as Mac - SMB - PC - NTFS external disk.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation


"Gizzo" wrote in message

...

I'm regularly a PC user but have just purchased a second computer
which is a MAC. I backup my data to a 500GB External HD with 5 NTFS
partitions of 100GB each. Each partition contains a different type of
date, ie Music, Videos, Docs, etc. I used separate partition to avoid
the risk of corrupting all my data if murphy visits. (This has
happened.)

With my new mac, my goal now is to be able to use this so I can have 1
common storage for both my PC and Mac. I want to be able to access the
data in the HD from both computers. NTFS doesn't work because it is
not supported natively by Mac.

I'm stumped. At first I had planned to do repartition and reformat
with FAT32 since it's accessible by both systems but since FAT32 has
size limits my 100GB partitions can't be formatted as Fat32. I can't
do NTFS because Mac can't access it. I can't do HFS because PC can't
access it. I need 1 HD accessible by both PC and Mac.

Help! Any suggestions? I really appreciate it because I'm stumped.
Thanks.

help to access external HD from PC and Mac
 

Hi Gizzo!

Don't know what Shatskih really meant, but to use a external network
storage (with some of the common network filesystem protocols like CIFS
(aka SMB), NFS, HTTP) is a good approach to solve the problem.

There are some (at least one) tools (eg. MacDrive) to learn windows to
use HFS. Don't know how stable these tools work.

Another approach - at one's own risk - is the free NTFS driver for
linux/mac/bsd ... http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
btw. i use the 3g driver with linux and never had problems with it.

--
With best regards
Dieter Stumpner

PS: sorry 4 tofu posting

Gizzo wrote:
Sorry but what do you mean by your text diagram below?


On Jul 20, 3:53 am, "Maxim S. Shatskih"
wrote:
Backup Mac as Mac - SMB - PC - NTFS external disk.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation


"Gizzo" wrote in message

...

I'm regularly a PC user but have just purchased a second computer
which is a MAC. I backup my data to a 500GB External HD with 5 NTFS
partitions of 100GB each. Each partition contains a different type of
date, ie Music, Videos, Docs, etc. I used separate partition to avoid
the risk of corrupting all my data if murphy visits. (This has
happened.)
With my new mac, my goal now is to be able to use this so I can have 1
common storage for both my PC and Mac. I want to be able to access the
data in the HD from both computers. NTFS doesn't work because it is
not supported natively by Mac.
I'm stumped. At first I had planned to do repartition and reformat
with FAT32 since it's accessible by both systems but since FAT32 has
size limits my 100GB partitions can't be formatted as Fat32. I can't
do NTFS because Mac can't access it. I can't do HFS because PC can't
access it. I need 1 HD accessible by both PC and Mac.
Help! Any suggestions? I really appreciate it because I'm stumped.
Thanks.

help to access external HD from PC and Mac
 

Gizzo wrote:

....

I had planned to do repartition and reformat
with FAT32 since it's accessible by both systems but since FAT32 has
size limits my 100GB partitions can't be formatted as Fat32.

I believe that's incorrect. While Win98SE and earlier Scandisks have
problems with partitions larger than 120 GB or so, and the original
Win98SE and earlier fdisks report sizes incorrectly above 64 GB, my
impression is that (aside from such issues with old utilities) all
systems that can handle FAT32 at all can handle partitions up to at
least 2 TB in size.

Perhaps you're being misled by the fact that in its infinite wisdom
Microsoft decided that WinXP (and its predecessor Win2K) should not be
able to *create* FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GB, thus 'encouraging'
people to use NTFS for larger partitions (for their own good, of course
- the idea that they might have actually have had a reason to want to
use FAT32 for such partitions apparently not having been considered).
So just consider that a deficiency of XP and use something else to
create the partitions (Wikipedia says you can even use XP's format.exe
command-line utility), after which any Windows system that supports
FAT32 (and presumably Mac) should access them just fine (and most of the
reasons that Microsoft likely had for attempting to discourage such use
don't apply to the kind of backup use that you're planning).

- bill

help to access external HD from PC and Mac
 

Perhaps you're being misled by the fact that in its infinite wisdom
Microsoft decided that WinXP (and its predecessor Win2K) should not be
able to *create* FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GB,

Correct. A bad decision.

BTW - Vista/2008 can format 128GB to exFAT.

create the partitions (Wikipedia says you can even use XP's format.exe
command-line utility),

No. Creating a partition using Windows Setup booted off Windows CD can probably
work, but not command-line FORMAT which also has the artificial limitation.

after which any Windows system that supports
FAT32 (and presumably Mac) should access them just fine

Yes. There are plenty of laptops where Windows is installed on a 40-100GB FAT32
partition.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation

http://www.storagecraft.com

help to access external HD from PC and Mac
 

You guys are right. After research, the 32GB is indeed an artificial
limit. Now, I'm still back to my problem. What is the optimal option
(each got its tradeoffs):

1. format it in fat32. access from PC and Mac thru USB/Firewire. Pro:
easy. Con: performance issues?
2. format it in HFS. install macdrive in PC. access thru USB/Fireware.
Pro: whatever benefits of formating with HFS (I'm not very familiar
since I'm a mac newbie and initial research indicates there are
inherent benefits as there are with NTFS over Fat32. Con: I have no
experience with HFS nor Macdrive to judge their reliability. and $50
on Macdrive.
3. no need to reformat or repartition. Share the drive using native
network tools in both PC and Mac. Pros: no reformating. Con: I don't
know how to do it in a home environment of 1 pc, 1 mac and 1 wireless
router.
4. Other options?

Which do you think is the most optimal?

On Jul 20, 9:45*pm, "Maxim S. Shatskih"
wrote:
Perhaps you're being misled by the fact that in its infinite wisdom
Microsoft decided that WinXP (and its predecessor Win2K) should not be
able to *create* FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GB,

Correct. A bad decision.

BTW - Vista/2008 can format 128GB to exFAT.

create the partitions (Wikipedia says you can even use XP's format.exe
command-line utility),

No. Creating a partition using Windows Setup booted off Windows CD can probably
work, but not command-line FORMAT which also has the artificial limitation.

help to access external HD from PC and Mac
 

Gizzo wrote:

....

1. format it in fat32. access from PC and Mac thru USB/Firewire. Pro:
easy.

Another pro is that you needn't leave it connected much of the time,
thus both reducing potential exposure to corruption by errant or
malicious software and allowing you to keep it physically separate from
the primary material that you're backing up.

Con: performance issues?

Probably not serious ones (though you might want to defragment it once
in a while if performance deteriorates over time - depends on how you're
using it): while USB 2 can't stream data to/from a contemporary drive
as fast as the drive can handle it (typically 40 - 80 MB/sec), it should
be able to handle around 30 MB/sec.

2. format it in HFS. install macdrive in PC. access thru USB/Fireware.
Pro: whatever benefits of formating with HFS (I'm not very familiar
since I'm a mac newbie and initial research indicates there are
inherent benefits as there are with NTFS over Fat32.

Exactly which of these do you think would be significant to your planned
use of this drive?

Con: I have no
experience with HFS nor Macdrive to judge their reliability. and $50
on Macdrive.
3. no need to reformat or repartition. Share the drive using native
network tools in both PC and Mac. Pros: no reformating. Con: I don't
know how to do it in a home environment of 1 pc, 1 mac and 1 wireless
router.

If you're using wireless don't plan on getting too much bandwidth
through it from the machine to which the backup drive isn't connected
directly. For that matter, even wired Ethernet would be the main
bottleneck unless it was Gigabit.

- bill

help to access external HD from PC and Mac
 

Can I partition the drive so that those that I primarily use in the
mac, ie videos, music, photos are formatted in HFS and those I
primarily use in the PC, ie docs, pst files are formatted in NTFS. I
will lose the ability of cross platform access but I can have my
computers do specialized tasks: mac for media. pc for work. Has
someone tried this before? What are the pros and cons? Thanks


On Jul 21, 6:12*am, Bill Todd wrote:
Gizzo wrote:

...

1. format it in fat32. access from PC and Mac thru USB/Firewire. Pro:
easy.

Another pro is that you needn't leave it connected much of the time,
thus both reducing potential exposure to corruption by errant or
malicious software and allowing you to keep it physically separate from
the primary material that you're backing up.

Con: performance issues?

Probably not serious ones (though you might want to defragment it once
in a while if performance deteriorates over time - depends on how you're
using it): *while USB 2 can't stream data to/from a contemporary drive
as fast as the drive can handle it (typically 40 - 80 MB/sec), it should
be able to handle around 30 MB/sec.

2. format it in HFS. install macdrive in PC. access thru USB/Fireware.
Pro: whatever benefits of formating with HFS (I'm not very familiar
since I'm a mac newbie and initial research indicates there are
inherent benefits as there are with NTFS over Fat32.

Exactly which of these do you think would be significant to your planned
use of this drive?

* Con: I have no

experience with HFS nor Macdrive to judge their reliability. and $50
on Macdrive.
3. no need to reformat or repartition. Share the drive using native
network tools in both PC and Mac. Pros: no reformating. Con: I don't
know how to do it in a home environment of 1 pc, 1 mac and 1 wireless
router.

If you're using wireless don't plan on getting too much bandwidth
through it from the machine to which the backup drive isn't connected
directly. *For that matter, even wired Ethernet would be the main
bottleneck unless it was Gigabit.

- bill