Most suitable external drive format for pc/mac

hope i've posted this in the correct forum.
i've formated an external OWC mercury 500GB drive to use with my desktop asus P4 and my macbook pro 17"
i formated in fat 32 in order to be able to read/write data files from both systems... so far things work ok with the exceptions being the trashes and ds files that the apple OS X litters the drive with... only the pc (explorer can see them) i've not yet had time to install and try and configure blueharvest (an apple program to fix it's mess).
moreover, i find i'm unable to copy large files like movies etc. because of a file size limit engendered by fat 32
i've just purchased another 500GB external drive and would like some advice on a 'POSSIBLE' better way to format this drive so the two systems can read/write data files.
any help would be appreciated... perhaps a link to a more detailed thread on this vexing problem of getting drives to pair (GLITCH FREE)...
thanks,
O

The easiest way is to format the external drive in either HFS (Mac) or NTFS (Windows)---connect the drive to the compatible computer (Mac for HFS; PC for NTFS) and then access the drive through your home network (assuming that you are networking your computers).
The reason this is the easiest is because across a network, the file system makes no difference--the network protocol and the built-in SMB file sharing protocol automatically do the necessary translations to allow you to read and write to any computer on the network as long as sharing and permissions are correct. This all happens in the background--you won't notice it---and the result is that your Mac computer can read and write to any PC drive, and your PC can read and write to any Mac drive.
I do this all the time on an eight computer home network of mixed Macs and PCs. I format the external drives in HFS (Mac) because I like using Spotlight (although Vista search is quite good)---and then transfer files from the PCs onto the external Mac drives.

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Music Server Can't See External Drive Formatted for WIN with Disk Utility.

Is there any reason an external drive formatted for WIN (MS-DOS(FAT)/FAT32 or NTFS w/ NTFS-3G/MacFUSE) with Disk Utility would not work for intended purpose? I have a music server (Bryston BDP-1) that uses an attached USB drive for storage/playback of music and can only read FAT32 or NTFS formatted drives. I've tried both and neither is readable by the BDP-1, yet I have no problem reading/writing to the supplied 2GB Thumb Drive (FAT32), as well as another 2GB Thumb Drive (FAT32). Get Info shows; "FAT32" for all drives formatted as such.
Note: From what I'm told the BDP-1 uses a scaled down version of Linux for it's OS. Isn't that UNIX? Shouldn't it be compatible (Read/Write) with other platforms (i.e, Mac)? Bryston says the reason they use it because it's Open-Source. Does Linux only work FAT32 or NTFS?
I do have Fusion/XP, also access to WIN PC's, but I just hate to use it when I shouldn't have to. It makes no sense why the drive can't be read by the BDP-1 when formatted for WIN under OS X.
And there was one other issue, after the third try to format fro WIN the external drive suddenly began making faint clicking sounds instead of a spinning drive sound only when plugged into BDP-1 USB port. But it works fine when connected to iMac FW.
HW Specs:
Drive: G-Drive Mobile USB/FW 750GB

Exchanged drive. Works now.

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Bottlerocket wrote:
Thank you so much! I had my doubts that a definitive solution to this problem existed. I am very grateful.
Just thought I would also throw this out as an option: "IronKey The World's Most Secure Flash Drive" (https://store.ironkey.com/personal) works on PC, MAC, and Linux (see specs for details). But at a price range of $79.00 (IronKey Personal S200 1GB Secure Drive - FIPS) to $299.00 (IronKey Personal D200 32GB Secure Drive - FIPS) this seems like a hefty price to pay, but also no need to have something like PGP on each machine.
Three reviews I found helpful were:
http://www.net-security.org/review.php?id=216
http://www.rohos.com/2010/04/ironkey-security-review-part-2/
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewId=112356
What I don't like about what have read is the self-destruct feature. I understand it offers protection from data theft from tampering attempts or brute-force attacks, but as the PC Advisor reviewer noted "10 consecutive failed logins will leave you with an ornamental keyring" so that is actually an open door to a denial of service / denial of data attack - your data is secure but could cost you $299.00 and your data if someone had access to it in your absence and just wanted to be prankish. Yea, I know they could also disable more expensive equipment in like manner, so guess this is just more in line with a valid argument for protecting physical access to systems as part of overall security plan. In this case, maybe handcuff the thing to yourself.
Also the product does offer more of it feature set to PCs, and I would rather have equality here for the price. And although interesting, I am not immediately sold on it added features such as seemingly anonymous surfing with hardened version of Mozilla Firefox and IronKey's servers (similar in concept to using Tor network) - it may be neat and advantages in some situations but it is not a panacea of speed and complete privacy if you delve into such things.
All that being said, think it would be nice to play with and see how it works; and other manufactures are also putting out efforts in this direction so it is kind of interesting to at least be aware of it and how it might be useful and look towards its evolution. Depending on the environment, you might be better off getting a 64GB encrypted SSD, set it up on your PC and then access from your Mac via something like a virtual windows machine using Parallels for Mac (http://www.parallels.com/).
Also, may want to look at True Crypt (Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux) at http://www.truecrypt.org/. Much reading there, but also think there would be a solution that would just cost you your time; have read varying reports, google and you will have much to read for the next few days but may be just the ticket to meet your needs.
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HELP! Urgent need of info on External Drive format for iPhoto!!!!!

OK, I am running out of space on my MacBook's internal 80GB drive (funny, when I started I thought that was huge, lol). I got an external 500GB GForce, and love it. When I got it set up I found that the FAT32 works with the Mac OS X, and I should still be able to access those files from a Windows system. Turns out I am going to need that because I am going to need to ship my MacBook to Apple for repair (unrelated issue), and the only other system I have to be able to access any of my business's mission-critical data will be a Dell with either Windows or Linux on it. I have found a few discussions here, tho, that mention that the drive needs to ve formatted in a Mac format "or else". WHY???? Is this really an issue, or no longer with the Intel Mac & OS X? I have copied files to the External drive, and seem to be able to access them OK. Oh, in case it matters, they are jpg.
Please HELP!!!!! My panic is that one of my businesses is photography, and I can't afford to loose any of these pix! Apple tech supp told me he can't find any documentation that says what the drive format must be, but then they can't figure out why my system keep shutting itself down without me having to ship it back to them, so I don't have a warm fuzzy about that, lol.
THANKS!
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breathe joy:
There's a way to have your photos on the external drive but have a library on your Mac using iPhoto 6's alias mode. That keeps the bulk of the file size off your Mac. I have 17,600 images (27G in size) on an external HD and my library is only 1.6G in size. Check out these Tutorials on how to go about setting it up. The caveat is that the PC user, as JMEH pointed out, should not work on the actual files but save any edited versions to another locations. Those files should be read only for all users.
Do you Twango?

Reading MP3 music files from an external hard drive formatted for PC

I have 60 Gigabytes of MP3 files (my whole CD collection, mostly saved in high quality format) on a 120 GB external hard drive that was attached to my IBM Thinkpad. They are arranged in folders and subfolders, e.g. folder "Great pianists of the XXth Century" subfolder "Sviatoslav Richter" subfolder "Sviatoslav Richter CD1" files "(01) Bach English Suites 1", "(02) Bach English Suites 2".
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In Finder's Menu, select Go menu>Go to Folder, and go to "/volumes". (no quotes)
Volumes is where an alias to your hard drive ("/" at boot) is placed at startup, and where all the "mount points" for auxiliary drives are created for you to access them. This folder is normally hidden from view.
Drives with an extra 1 on the end have a side-effect of mounting a drive with the same name as the system already think exists. Try trashing the duplicates with a 1 or 2 if there are no real files in them, and reboot.
If it does contain data...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2474

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Easiest way to transfer iTunes library on an external drive to a new Mac?

Hello,
I currently have my entire iTunes Library (Music, Movies, TV Shows, etc.) on an external hard drive.
I have a new Mac arriving tomorrow, to replace my current one. What is the easiest way to get my entire Library into iTunes on my new Mac?
I know Migration Assistant is normally supposed to help with this, but I assume that's only if the Library has been stored internally. Can I simply plug the external drive into the new Mac, authorize the computer, and Import my entire Library from the File menu?
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mattfromallston wrote:
I have a new Mac arriving tomorrow, to replace my current one. What is the easiest way to get my entire Library into iTunes on my new Mac?
From your OLD computer...
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Full Details Here > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
An Added Bonus is that you will have a Backup of iTunes.
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http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-library.html
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-media-to-an-external-drive.html
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Most suitable external drive format for pc/mac

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