Using a Fat 32 partition to share between OSX and WinXP

If I take a hard drive and partition half of it as NTFS and install Win XP on it using Bootcamp and partition half of it as FAT32 and leave it as an empty space, and have it as one of the drives in a Mac Pro running OSX, would I be able to copy files to and from the FAT32 partition when running either Win XP or OSX so that the files could be shared?
Can you create partitions on a drive of different formats such as NTFS, FAT32 and also the Mac's format (I forget the name of it)? Could they be made bootable partitions?
Thanks for any advice.

It takes an extra step to format it to NTFS from Windows, which works fine. I've done that a number of times, and have Vista on its own drive with a couple NTFS and one FAT32 partition. Just create the one to be NTFS as FAT, give it a name (NTFS_FAT) so you are sure which it will be and the size.
I never use BootCamp, no need for that but might try. I just format it with Disk Utility. I never touch my OS X boot drive at all, and in fact pull it when installing Vista.

Similar Messages

Data sharing between OSX and WinXP/Vista partition in boot camp

Due to software and external hardware issues, i need to revert back to an XP/Vista setup but would like to keep 1 computer to minimise having multiple copies/versions of data e.g. music, video, photos and office related docs.
If i perform a boot camp install, will the following scenarios work?
1) Have 1 large OSX partition which will store all my data. Will WinXP be able to read/write/delete data on the OSX partition
2) Have 1 large WinXP partition which will store all my data. Will OSX be able to read/write/delete data on the WinXP partition (Assuming i have the NTFS-3g software installed)
3) Have 1 (for arguments sake) 30GB OSX, 1 30GB WinXP and a third partition formatted as NTFS to hold my data.
Scenario 3 would appear to be the most sensible option as it keeps data away from the OSess so if i loose one, the data will be intact regardless.
Which brings me to my final question:
If i have to reinstall OSX, would i loose the WinXP partition in the process?
Many thanks!

Along with MacFUSE, take a look at MacDrive7 for Windows to read/write to HFS Extended volumes.
WinClone to backup Windows XP/Vista
Reinstall or restore? either way, and you really should never need to reinstall if you take an hour to backup (clone) or use TimeMachine (or combination of both).
I think Boot Camp Assistant is far too much of one-way only in not allowing or supporting more than one partition for OS X and one for Windows.
You can shrink OS X volume and create a partition out of free space. Or you can shrink Windows Vista (probably XP also) and partition that (but that can confuse OS X startup disk or boot manager "Option key.").
MacFUSE has had the side effect of making "Windows" volume not show up in OS X Startup Disk also.
I'd say MacDrive7 is your best bet without requiring an external drive (but do have one or two for your backups).

My Bootcamp Partition has disappear from OSX and its impossible to activate

Hello,
i`m using Bootcamp with Win XP, and now the partition has disappear from the desktop of OSX. When i use the HD-Diagnostic tool i can see the partition as unactivated. Trying to activate is not possible. But the partition seems to be working, because i can still start Win XP when i reboot and hold the "alt" Key. Then i can choose between OSX and WinXP and it goes fine. Is there a way to activate this partition in OSX? Because i want to delete WinXP from my Apple.

Hi
To remove the WinXP partition you have to run Bootcamp Assistant (Application/Utilities) again, it should give you the option to (not sure of exact words)Remove Windows and Return to one partition.
This question should have really been asked in the Boot Camp Public Beta Forum. The first thread in that forum is called Uninstalling Boot Camp but gives the same instructions as I have.
Steve

How can I get all photos from the camera roll onto the photo stream so they will share between iphone and ipad?

How can I get all photos from the camera roll, and all new pictures taken, to get on the photostream so they can share between iphone and ipad?

When turning PhotoStream on with photos available in the Camera Roll, only photos captured by the iPhone or saved on the iPhone are placed in the PhotoStream.
For all photos that were in the Camera Roll prior to turning PhotoStream on, import the photos with your computer and add the photos to your PhotoStream on your computer.

Hi - I'm trying to sync iBooks on my Macbook Pro with iBooks running on my iPad. I have some pdf's download from the net I want to share between devices and I can't work out how to sync the two devices. Any help please?

Hi - I'm trying to sync iBooks on my Macbook Pro with iBooks running on my iPad. I have some pdf's download from the net I want to share between devices and I can't work out how to sync the two devices. Any help please? I'm running Mavericks

Thanks for your help Brij011 - much appreciated. Apologies as I'm a newbie but I've looked at the info for synching and I appear to have all the switches flicked on my iPad. Does the iPad and iBooks only sync in iCloud for purchases as I appear to be doing something wrong. I could sync ok when books was in iTunes but since migrating to Mavericks I think I'm doing something wrong!!

Share iTunes Library between OSX and Win7 Bootcamp

I've done quite a bit of research on this but I still haven't found a solution that does what I require.
Basically my setup is a SSD & HDD in my MBP. I have OSX and Win7 (Bootcamp) on the SSD and the NTFS HDD is a shared file storage drive for both Windows and OS. I have my iTunes library located on this drive and I want to be able to share the library between the OSs. I also want changes e.g. additions deletions made in windows to be reflected in OSX and vice versa.
Technically this is possible and does in fact work if I point iTunes to the .itl file but the problem is that when I open iTunes after switching OSs it must go through a very lengthy library update which can take 30-60mins in some cases before I can use it. Obviously this is not a good solution so I'm wondering if there are any workarounds to accomplishing this?
For example can I duplicate the .itl file and have one for win and one for OSX and still have the libraries stay in sync?

Just for your info, Vista ***** whatever you try to do. I'm stuck with Vista on a pre-installed laptop. All experience I have from Vista is bad, don't buy Vista or a computer with preinstalled Vista if you can avoid it.
We have three computers in a home network, one Macbook Pro, one PC with Windows XP, and the Vista laptop. All are using iTunes-8, downloaded and installed last week.
Sharing iTunes libraries using the option to share libraries on a local network works fine between Mac and Windows-XP. The sharing also works fine between the XP and the Vista PC.
But the Vista PC can't access the Mac iTunes library. When trying to open the Mac library, iTunes on the Vista computer says something like "Fetching library info from...". It's the same problem when trying to access the Vista library from the Mac.
We had a similar problem when trying to access shared folders on the local network. Thanks to a tip on this forum how to tweak the Vista registry, the shared folder problem was solved.
I'm think some registry setting in Vista might solve iTunes shared library problems. Maybe some Windows freak knows how to patch the registry to solve this issue.
Otherwise the solution is to trash Vista, and install Windows-XP.

Partition Table Looks Different Between OSX and Windows 7

Hey all,
I recently replaced the hard drive on my 2007 iMac, going from the 320GB drive to a 1 TB drive. It actually worked! The previous drive was failing in very odd ways, though booting into the Windows side (more on dual boot later) always seemed to work, and S.M.A.R.T. always reported that the physical drive seemed OK.
The previous drive (320 GB) had around 200GB devoted to OSX and 100GB partitioned off for a working Windows 7 installation (custom installed x64 Win7 Ultimate). I had the Windows system image backed up to my NAS, and had a Windows system bootable disc to restore that image.
After replacing the drive (and almost crying that I had actually done it right), I first restored OSX from a Time Machine backup, and let it take the full 1TB of space as Journalled HFS+. Then, I used Disk Utility to shrink OSX down to 500GB, and created a second partition (formatted to NTFS) with the remaining 500GB.
Now, restoring a Windows system image is an odd thing, as it tries to do a lot of partition work as opposed to simply restoring the Windows install to a partition. I tried Macrium Reflect first (made a backup in that, too), and it looked like it was going to let me restore to the second partition. It completed the restore...and the entire hard drive was hosed. Partitions had been moved, renamed, resized, and nothing was bootable. I had to use Recovery from an external USB thumb drive to go back to the single, full-drive install of OSX.
Then I tried again. Made the second NTFS partition and used the basic Windows System Restore disk to restore from the standard system image I had on the NAS. I was not expecting this to work. But it did. Windows started showing up in Startup Manager when "option" was pressed on bootup, and both OSX and Windows booted properly and ran fine. This is where I (finally) get to the supreme oddities:
OSX Disk Utility still reports two 500GB partitions, one for OSX and one for Windows.
In OSX the Windows partition shows as having NO DATA on it. Not sure what would happen if I tried to write a file to it when mounted, but there is no data on it when viewed from OSX (I was always able to see the Windows files when I mounted that partition on the previous drive).
The Windows partition does not show up as a valid bootable system in System Prefs --> Startup Disk (naturally, I suppose, since OSX doesn't think there is anything there).
From the WINDOWS side, Windows still sees the old partition table: 200GB for the "unknown" HFS partition, and then the rest of the space can be devoted to Windows (started as 100GB, but I was ablt to expand it to use the remaining ~750GB!). Windows thinks it can have 750GB of space even though I know its partition is only 500GB in size!
Windows cannot see the OSX HFS partition data using HFSExplorer. It CAN see the HFS partition on the attached backup drive (the drive I use for Time Machine).
GParted (a partition program on a Linux bootabld CD-ROM) shows the same partitions as OSX Disk Utility (2x500GB), and also thinks the Windows NTFS partition is empty (all space reports as "unused").
Did I mention both OSX and Windows work fine???
There are, of course, two other partitions on the drive: the first partition is the 200MB one I always see (EFI/GUID portion?), and then between the HFS and NTFS partitions is the 600MB recovery partition (which also shows at option-pressed boot time). OSX, GParted, and Windows see all four partitions, and in the same order. It is just that Windows sees the wrong sizes, and OSX cannot see any data in the Windows partition.
Surely this is all going to break spectacularly at some point, isn't it? What if I ever did write a file to the Windows side from OSX, or what if OSX starts taking more space than the 200GB Windows thinks is the max for that partition? What if I try to make Windows use more than 500GB because it thinks it has almost 800GB to use? What if I defrag the Windows drive?
I had no idea a partition table could look this goofy and yet still have everything be bootable and workable. Is there something I can do to get everything in sync? Basically, I am assuming I need to get Windows to do some low-level kung fu in Disk Manager in order to properly get everything lined up with the "right" partitions as reported by both GParted and OSX Disk Utility. But how do I do that?
By the way, any ideas that totally nuke the drive and start from scratch are completely fine (if it seems like they are doing something different enough that I'd give it a try). I have good backups of both OSX and Windows and have restored them about a half dozen times already as I dealt with the previous failing hard drive and with trying to get dual-boot working again. Not to mention, this iMac is now my secondary machine to the new Mac Mini I got a couple weeks back when I wasn't sure how much more life I was going to get from this 6+ year old iMac.
Thanks for listening to me ramble about this very odd issue, and a huge THANK YOU in advance to anyone who has ideas to help.
Thanks,
sutekh138

Update:
I am pretty sure the issue is a simple GPT/MBR discrepancy.
I installed rEFIt and used it's partitioning tool (gptsync built in) upon bootup. It was able to show the GPT table and the MBR table, but it thinks the second partition of the drive (the Mac OSX bootable partition) is "extended" in the MBR table and says "will not touch this disk."
However, it does look like an MBR sync should be straightforward, as there four partitions in the GPT table and four in the MBR (and MBR allows a max of four, AFAIK). I just need gptsync to relax some rules. I found a link to a supposedly newer version of gptsync compiled for OSX, so I will try that later.
First, I will try Partition Wizard, a free tool I found for the Windows side. It has a "Repair MBR" option that I would have tried last night if I weren't running a new Windows Image Backup in case all of this goes haywire. *smile* The PW tool also has an option to change the MBR over to GPT entirely. That might work, but then I am not sure Windows 7 will boot (from what I read, x64 Win7 running on EFI-enabled hardware should work, but who knows).
Anyway, I will try the following things, in order, until something works, when I get home tonight:
From Windows, run Partition Wizard and try "Repair MBR".
From OSX, download recent gptsync and try to run it.
From Windows, use Partition Wizard to do a full MBR --> GPT conversion.
Nuke the Windows partition in OSX Disk Utility, expand the HFS partition to take up the whole drive, and then add a Windows-bootable partition via Boot Camp-ish command line commands (diskutil). Because if nothing else works, I have to assume I just created the partitions wrong in the first place such that a Windows restore miraculously works, but the partition weirdness is just a timebomb waiting to happen.
Finally, if none of the above work, I'll just get things back to the way they now work and wait for the timebomb to (possibly never) go off. *smile*
I'll update this thread if I get something figured out, in case anyone else stumbles upon it...
Thanks,
sutekh138

Question about using HFS+ & FAT partitioned hard drive with Windows

Theoretically, if I have a [mobile] hard drive with one partition being "HFS+" and the other partition "FAT," What would happen if I used it on a PC? Would it only mount the "FAT" partition or both the "FAT" Partition and the "HFS+" Partition?
Apple Mac mini (2005) Mac OS X (10.4.7) PowerMac10,2: 1.5GHz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, BT/AE...

Unfortunately, you cannot have drive partitioned partly as Mac OS Extended and FAT32 that can be used on both a PC and a Mac. To use the drive on both you need to format the entire drive FAT32 as a single partition. Alternatively, you can format the drive Mac OS Extended and partition the drive, but to use the drive on a Windows PC you would need Windows software for reading and writing Mac disks, such as MediaFour's MacDrive.
That said there is a technique for doing what you want, and it's described here.

Hard disk partition as a neutral "go-in-between" MacOS and WinXP?

Hi gurus,
I have a MacBook with a 500GB hard drive partitioned between Mac (400GB) and bootcamp (NTFS, 100GB, running Windows XP). Unfortunately I am using old software which does not exist for a Mac, written under Win 95 and operating an external controller unit. I then analyze the incoming data with MatLab and ArcGIS, but need to do further data processing under Mac environment (further statistical analyses, image editing and writing up the results).
I was advised to use bootcamp to speed up the PC performance with GIS and MatLab because the data is quite "heavy" (memory and time consuming operations on rasters some of which are 100's of MB).
I find myself switching frequently between operating systems, accessing my data on a flash or an external backup drive. Last week when my backup disk crashed logically after an improper ejection, I realized that I eject and re-eject it too often now. So basically I would like to have an "internal" go-in-between partition, where I can save and read data from both systems exactly as I do from a flash stick.
Is that possible in any way? I tried to resize the mac partition and add a FAT one, but this doesn't seem to work at all (googled the error, followed recommendations, no good). I have been told there is software which lets Win read Mac partition and vice versa, but I don't want the systems to interfere with each other. I just want a neutral piece of land where I can place some neutral data...
Thanks,
Benny

Hi Benny and welcome to Discussions,
have a look here http://davidseah.com/wikilab/Creating-2-Windows-Partitions-with-Boot-Camp/
Hope it helps
Stefan

Why doesn't air drop work between osx and iOS?

Air drop doesn't work between my MacBook and my ipad.

It is not designed to work that way. AirDrop in iOS only works with other iOS devices, not Macs.
Note: AirDrop for iOS supports only iOS 7 devices. You cannot use AirDrop on iOS to share with OS X, and OS X users can't use AirDrop to share with iOS devices.
copied from here.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5887

Codec for HDV to share between apple and pc??

our boss got us 2 G5s and a PC workstation, we can now only share movie files in uncompressed format between different platforms which costs a lot of disk space
is there a CODEC which can be used in both APPLE and PC that encodes HDV in relatively smaller file?
G5 Dual 2.7GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7) FCP 5.04

i'm sure there's codec that use RLE could be
lossless: ]
but this is not what i want.
i just need the codec that could be shared between
mac and windows and keep most of the quality of HDV
and compression ratio is close to HDV codec itself,
When analog signals are converted into HDV digital data inside the HDV camera, your video is no longer lossless. It's not lossless because HDV is based on MPEG-2, which is not lossless. So, I don't mean to insult you, but your comment is self-contradictory.
or may i ask is there a HDV codec which could be use
both in mac and windows?
HDV is a codec, so the answer is HDV. Or... As I said before, H.264 may be used to further recompress high-definition video.

How do you file share between mac and pc?

i need to know how one can share files between a mac and a pc. my MBP is running os x 10.5.2 and my PC is running vista.
thanks!

Mac/Windows Networking in Leopard
The following articles outline how to set up networking between Macs using Leopard and Windows PCs:
Setting up a Windows computer to share files with Mac users
Setting up a Mac computer to share files with Windows users
Sharing with Windows computers
If you can’t connect to your Mac from a Windows computer
Sharing your computer with others on your network
More information is also available by selecting Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and searching for the relevant terms such as "windows", "networking", "sharing", etc.
Also read:
Simple guide to Leopard/Windows Home Networking
Written by Intercepter121 and originally posted on the Apple Discussions here.
If your network complies to the minimum requirements described below you should be able to share resources without any need to enter commands in the terminal to modify configuration files in your mac.
Requirements
1. A decent router
2. Mac Os x 10.5.1 installed on your macs
3. Windows XP or Vista
4. Number of network devices <10
5. Some network printers or drives (NAS)
6. A decent ISP offering a good DNS service
<u>General Settings
If your router offers DHCP and any of the device has power saving features there is a risk that the IP addresses are renewed. This can be problematic as the devices keep changing IP addresses. As this is your network is strongly recommended to reserve IP addresses to the MAC (Machine Address Code) of the various devices so that they can power on and off and still keep the same IP.This simple suggestion will greatly improve the browsing of the local network.
Accessing Windows Resources from Leopard with no authentication
Windows
1. Check the settings of the PC and ensure the IP addresses on the local LAN are trusted
2. Activate sharing on the desired devices ensuring the shares are read and write. If you use Vista ensure password protected sharing is disabled.
3. Try to access the windows share from another windows computer if available to confirm no authentication is required
MAC
1. Go into system preferences->security-Firewall check that the setting is not on allow only essential services. Recommended settings is allow access to specific
2. Go back into system preferences network. On the tab location click edit locations. Duplicate Automatic and call the new location Home. Now select the Home location and go into Advanced-WINS. In the workgroup field enter the same value that is on the other windows computers for example HOME. Now press enter then go back to the main screen. Select Edit locations and delete the location automatic. Now edit your location Home and rename it Automatic. This workaround is a leopard bug described here.
3. Give 5 minutes to allow all the other machines to broadcast their IP address and the other computers should appear on the left side of your finder window. You can now select the shares you want to connect. As no authentication is active if you are prompted with a user name just press OK.
The procedure to access a NAS is the same as above, just ensure permissions are set to files are read/write for anyone to avoid confusion.
NOTE: There is no need to activate SMB sharing if you don't want to allow the PC to read folders on your MAC
Troubleshooting
After you have followed all the steps you don't see any windows PC.
Identify the IP address of the machine you want to connect. In finder select Option+K and enter SMB://IPADDRESS. If you can connect you have a name resolution problem. Go into your router configuration and ensure that the option DNS assigned by ISP is selected and you don't have services like Open DNS in use and fixed IP addresses in that field. Apply the changes and reboot the router. You should start seeing windows PC in finder shortly after.
Your ISP DNS service is poor and you must use Open DNS or similar
If you are forced to use services like open dns you have the risk that the router propagates the DNS servers to your machines. As the implementation of SAMBA in Leopard effectively blocks the MAC to be a master browser for performance reasons you end in a situation in which tiger machines connect and leopard ones don't see a single share. Let's fix it.
1. Go into System Preferences->Network then advanced DNS if you see here the IP addresses of the open dns servers this is the case. Unfortunately you will be forced to change the hosts file.
2.Ensure you have reserved IP addresses to all your machines so that they always get the same IP.
3. Now login into your mac as administrator and go into utilities=>terminal.
4. Issue the following command sudo pico /etc/hosts
5. Now scroll down and enter all the IP addresses and computer names of any device you want to browse
6. Reboot your MAC
The windows devices will now appear in finder and you will be able to connect with Option+K.
You cannot access shares even entering the IP address
You have not reserved IP addresses to each machine. Go into your router LAN set up and make sure that is the case.
Accessing Leopard resources from Windows
1. Go into system preferences->security-Firewall check that the setting is not on allow only essential services. Recommended settings is allow access to specific
2. Go into System preferences->accounts and click on Guest flag the option Enable guest account to access shared folders
3. Now into System preferences->sharing select file sharing and then options here flag SMB and select the user that has to be logged into the computer when the share has to be accessed. Ensure that the folder you want to share has read/write or whatever permissions you like it to have set for Everyone
You should now be able to see your MAC in the windows network resources and access the shared folder with a double click without any password request.
Troubleshooting
You don't see any MACs from Windows
Check the firewall settings at the start of this post. Then go back to the Network configuration hit advanced and then TCPIP check is using DHCP and not a fixed address. Then check the sharing is set as above with SMB clicked. If SMB is not set you won't even see your mac from windows.
You see the MAC and the shared folders but you can't read or write on it
Ensure you have set the guest account to access shared folders. Then check on the sharing preferences that there is at least one folder with read permission for everyone. The classic case here is Dropbox that leopard sets as read and write for the user of the MAC but no access for other users. You try to click on drop box and receive an error but when you actually try to write a file you can do it. Check the permissions on the subfolders of the share as those permissions will prevail on the home shared folders
FAQ
You may want to do more complicated things, but first ensure you can actually share files without security in place so you can identify the root cause of your possible problems
I want to password protect my windows shares: once you have done the relative set up in windows vista and ensured you can connect from another windows machine you will need to use user name and password of the Vista user to connect.
I want to password protect my MAC shared folders: Go into user account and disable guest access to shared folders is no shared folder has to be accessed without password otherwise leave it checked. Create a new user for sharing (better than giving away your password) so that this user only accesses the folders you want to share. In System preferences network select file sharing SMB and flag only the new user you have defined. Then go back to the folder section and set the permissions you like on the folder you want to share for this newly defined user.
Good Luck

Direct Connection Between OSX and Ubuntu (Jaunty)

Hello:
I Bought my MacBook a few weeks ago and i want to transfer some information from my pc, which runs Ubuntu Jaunty. What should i do?
Thank you

Jarojasag wrote:
Hello:
I Bought my MacBook a few weeks ago and i want to transfer some information from my pc, which runs Ubuntu Jaunty. What should i do?
yo can do it via an external drive formatted FAT so both systems can read and write to it. or yo can use file sharing and connect the computers via smb or afp.
they need to be on the same local network. don't know how file sharing works in Ubuntu but on a Mac you need to go to system preferences->sharing and enable file sharing.
Thank you

Using ipod as external hard disk between macbook and PC

Hello
I have formatted my ipod mini to the mac, but I also have a PC at home which I want to transfer files to and from. Can the ipod still be used as an external hard disk between the macbook and the PC or is that not possible?
Thanks

If your iPod is formatted for Mac it won't run natively on a PC because the Windows OS does not support the HFS Plus file system and therefore will not see the drive. XPlay for instance gets good reviews and has the added functionality to let you copy your songs back to iTunes. MacDrive from the same company is not iPod specific it's for connecting any Mac formatted drives, if you want to use your iPod as a removable storage device it will work for that. You can get XPlay and MacDrive at these links:
XPlay 2
MacDrive
You can read another user's experience of using XPlay at this link: iPod on Mac and Windows

JPG exchange between OSX and Windows

I have to set up an efficient way to allow my clients to browse through hundreds (and more) fotos on their computer (some on Mac, more often on Windows) and rate them with 1 to 5 stars. What’s the best software to let me set up the fotos on my side, give the fotos a first rating, let the customer do their choices and send it back to me with their markings?
I am on OSX Lion, I have Adobe Bridge as my main organizing tool, I have iPhoto, too, but already between Bridge and iPhoto the recognition of stars doesn’t work. I cannot expect my client to buy the Adobe Creative Suite and I am not sure if Bridge exists as a stand-alone.
Thank you for your help
cheers
Goso

> FreeHand files are cross-platform, which means that the
same files can be
> opened by both platforms.
Windows version recognizes the version by the file name
extension. FHMX (v.11) file for example is .fh11.
Usually this works fine - just a few days ago I opend Mac
FHMX files in PC.
Note that Windows version may have problems in printing
(linked) mac binary eps files.
Jukka

Using a Fat 32 partition to share between OSX and WinXP

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