Using iPod as a hard drive between Mac and PC

I'd like to use my Mac-formatted iPod to back up some personal files om my work PC laptop, and then transfer them to my Mac at home. I need to repeat this process every month or so.
I've enabled my iPod for disk use, but the PC wants to reformat in order to allow me to use it as a hard drive on the PC. However, all of my iTunes and photos and videos are on my Mac at home, and I'd like to keep the iPod Mac-formatted.
There appears to be some 3rd-party software trials out there, but I'm reluctant to download anything that is potentially sketchy.
Advice will be greatly appreciated.
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.5) Also a PC user (at work)

Probably the easiest way to use an iPod on both Mac and Windows computers is to format the iPod (using iPod Updater) using the PC. This will force your iPod to use the Windows file system (FAT32) which both the Mac and PC can read from and write to without the help of additional software. Of course then all your software updates for the iPod will have to be done on Windows.
If you need to use a Mac (HFS+) formatted iPod on a Windows PC, you'll need to install some 3rd party software such as XPlay 2.0 (which you can get from MediaFour Software). This will enable your Windows PC to read a Mac-formatted iPod.

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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

IPod as a hard drive on Mac and PC

Hi,
I'm going to be helping someone switch from PC to Mac this weekend. I was planning to use my iPod as a hard drive to move their files between the two machines, but I just want to verify something.
If I re-format my iPod to use FAT32 using Disk Utility, it will work as an external hard drive for both Mac and PC--right??
Thanks,
SS
iMac Core Duo 17", iBook G4 12" Mac OS X (10.4.7) 40 GB iPod Photo, Airport Express

Great thank you...
One more question... I'm on a PC at work right now and I don't see any place that I can "turn on sharing" on the hard drive. I googled it and found something that makes me think there should be a "sharing" tab in the properties window when I right click.
Is it possible that because I'm on an IT regulated machine (can't install/delete programs, etc.), this option is disabled? Or am I missing something?
thanks again for the help!
-SS

Using iPod as a flash drive between PC and Mac help!

Hey guys,
I have no idea how can I make my iPod a flash drive. Well, it was fine when my school used G4 iMacs last week. But now it's all HP pcs. And I cannot transfer my files to those computers anymore. When I plug my iPod via USB to one of them computer, it says that I will need to format the disk drive (iPod) because it cannot read the file system.
I guess it is because of my iPod is always connected to Macs (including mine) so that the file format on the iPod is unreadable to PCs. So I have no idea what to do because I am scared of that PC is going to ruin my iPod hard drive and its OS. I tried plugging it to a PC at my house, same thing happened. I am too scared to try.
Do you guys have any idea?
Thank you in advance,
Ton

Probably the easiest way to use an iPod on both Mac and Windows computers is to format the iPod (using iPod Updater) using the PC. This will force your iPod to use the Windows file system (FAT32) which both the Mac and PC can read from and write to without the help of additional software. Of course then all your software updates for the iPod will have to be done on Windows.
If you need to use a Mac (HFS+) formatted iPod on a Windows PC, you'll need to install some 3rd party software such as XPlay 2.0 (which you can get from MediaFour Software). This will enable your Windows PC to read a Mac-formatted iPod.

External hard drive between mac and pc

i got a "my passport" external hard drive to load all my stuff onto it from my mac, to be used on our pc. i have to reformat the hard drive for a mac before i can even copy my items on it. but my stupid question is, will it all open up fine on the pc? and i had to search for how to even reformat the external hard drive and found this answer, http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3865/p/228/session/L3RpbWUvMTMxN jMxNjgwNC9zaWQvUi0zeURtRWs%3D, but it is completely over my head. is it even the right thing?

With the drive plugged in, open Disk Utility. It's in the Utililities folder in your Applications folder. You should see the new drive in the left hand column along with your other drives. Click on the external drive and select the Erase tab. Set the format value to MS-DOS (FAT) and click on the Erase button. After that has finished select the Partition tab. Type in a Name for your hard drive and select how many partitions you want from the Volume Scheme. The usual settingis one partition. Click on the Options button after you've selected a partition to make sure it's set for Master Boot Record. Then click the Apply button and after the Partitioning is done quit Disk Utility. Your external drive should now appear on your desktop and be readable on a PC.

Partitioning Internal Hard Drive between Mac and Windows

So I receently ordered a new MacBook to replace my old PC and my old Mac. With 2 GB of Video Ram (With the Nvidia 750M), I was hoping to be able to run my Steam Games decently (I understand that a Mac isn't going to run on max graphics or anything, but I figure it will do alright) using Boot Camp.
My question is how would you guys recommend partitioning the 1 TB internal drive? I was hoping for a Mac and a PC System Partition with the majority of the storage space left as "shared" between them (I use Paragon NTFS for Mac, and MacDrive for PC, so I'm not sure what format would be most stable for the shared storage). What do you guys recommend?

Well, let me start by saying that with the default Boot Camp tools, you probably won't be able to setup more than the 2 OS partitions on the internal drive of your notebook. Not that it can't be done with other tools, but it is not a quick and easy setup to do, so if you are going to undertake it, please be prepared for issues, and do it from the beginning. There is a decent thread on this forum about "repairing after you change your partitions" which has plenty of information about the problems you will be facing and how to work around most of them.
Having said that, when I was using Boot Camp on my MBP with a 750GB drive, I gave 500GB to MacOS, and 250GB to Windows 7. I also used Paragon's NTFS for MacOS driver, and Paragon's HFS+ for Windows driver (after having use MacDrive for several years). This combination allowed both OSes full access to the entire 750GB drive, and I put my Thunderbird and FireFox profiles on the MacOS partition, but could access them from either OS that was booted. That solution worked great for me for years (until I upgraded my MBP and opted to eliminate Boot Camp and only run VMs for Windows).
With the proper drivers, either OS would be able to utilize your external drives, but keep in mind there are still some Mac utilities/apps which will only work with an HFS+ formatted partition, just like there are some Windows programs that do the same with NTFS. Personally I found that I would have to "share" my external drives with other Windows users more than Mac users, so I formatted most of mine NTFS, and just took the minor performance hit when accessing them under MacOS.

Share External Hard Drive between Mac and PC

I have over 200Gb of HD wedding videos I captured with FCE to an external hard drive. I would like to mail the hard drive to the groom but he uses a PC.
Any ideas on how I can make this work so he can view the clips?
I know I can format the external hard drive to FAT 32 but that will take me forever to transfer over.
Is there an easier way?

He will also not be able to view the codec in which your material is written. You would need to convert everything to files using something like H.264.
If he installed Mac Drive 7 on his computer he could read a Mac formatted drive, but that wouldn't solve the codec issue.

What format should I made a shared external hard drive between Mac and bootcamp?

We have a small office running both macs and windows 7 on macs in bootcamp.
Currently we have 1 "master computer" which is a mac that stores all the data formatted in mac os extended (journaled). But we are always having rights issues with that and if that users machine is off, or having network problems we loose access.
The proposal is to get a new router with USB port and have a networked disk on where all the shared files are stored. The question is, what should the disk be formatted to?
As I have said the mac machines run bootcamp with 1 employee perminantly on windows 7. His hard drive is NTSC. As a side note I don't understand How can he open the networked shared files from the master mac!?
Ideally we want to search the folder for its contents from both mac and PC and I think this won't be possible if it is FAT32 formatted.
1 machine is the master mac
another is runs both mac and boot camp occasionaly.
3rd machine runs bootcamp constantly.
all macs are Lion 10.7.5
all bootcamp is windows 7.
we are in the uk
router is also our internet connection
we don't want an expensive server if we can help it.
Suggestions?

Fat32
Extfat or fat16bit is just poor Mans fat32 where you get more then 8 chars filenames but not support for large volumens
And msdos is fat8 which is useles

How do I de register Photoshop from 2 computers that I no longer use? Both computers hard drives have died and I need to use Photoshop CS4 on another machine

How do I de register Photoshop from 2 computers that I no longer use? Both computers hard drives have died and I need to use Photoshop CS4 on another machine

You will need to contact Activation Support:
http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-deactivat ion-products.html
Click the Chat Now button at the end of the page and talk with a live agent who would resolve it ASAP.
Regards,
Ashutosh

Using ipod as a hard drive to transfer data from PC to Mac

hey, Is is possible to use the ipod as a hard drive to transfer data from/to Mac and windows PCs?
I see no problem transfering data from/to my mac to the ipod. But I cannot see the ipod on the PC. When I plug the USB cable to my windows PC, it shows a popup message "external disk is not formated. Do you want to format it?".
thanks,
Martin

Windows cannot read a Mac formatted iPod.
Macs can read Windows fomratted iPods.
You need to run iTunes for Windows, then Restore the iPod.
It will now work on both Mac and PC.

How can i use external hard drive with mac and pc!

I've been using a Lacie external hard drive with my mac to keep the itunes library and other things since day one. Since i have a dvd with files for windows and an old pc without a dvd drive, i decided to copy and paste the content of the dvd to the external hard drive. The only problem now is that when i plug the external hard drive to pc, it won't open. I know it has to be formatted in a different way, but i need to find out the best solution!
Any idea?

You can format the external drive in Fat32 (which I don't recommend but is the most compatible between both platforms), or NTFS (which requires some work to get your Mac to recognize), or HFS+ (which requires special software on your PC so your PC can use it).
If you use this drive mostly with your Mac, get MacDrive for your PC:
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive
If you use this drive mostly with your PC, here's some software for you Mac. I haven't tried this myself, but the professional reviews have been good:
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Using iPod as external hard drive?

So when I bought my ipod classic a month ago, the guy in the store told me I could use it as an external hard drive and store files on it for whatever reason. My friend connected the ipod to his computer, which is a pc, and stored a LOT of .jpeg files of pictures in a specific folder. Now, when I plug my ipod into my mac, I can't find them ANYWHERE. I don't even know how to access the hard drive or do anything he did on the pc. Help please.

Okay, the only helpful knowledge I know on this is that you need to set the iPod on disk mode which is done on the iPod's screen when you sync it with iTunes.
Message was edited by: LunarKnight

Need help using iPod as external hard drive

Hi. Will soon be receiving a new iMac to replace my old Dell PC and had a question about how to get all of the contents of the Dell hard drive onto my new iMac using my 60GB iPod. I am a complete computer novice.
1. How do I do it?
2. The iPod is currently formatted for my Dell PC. Once I have transferred all of my files (including music) over to the iMac, do I need to reformat the iPod? How do I do this?
3. Will all my playlists in iTunes be saved when I do the transfer?
Any advice or direction to links would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
iMac G5

"how to get all of the contents of the Dell hard drive onto my new iMac using my 60GB iPod"
If everything you've got will fit then enable your iPod for disk use and drag what you want onto it, or do it a bit at a time: Using your iPod as a hard disk
There is a good general guide to switching from Windows to Mac at the following link that touches on moving music as well How to Move to a Mac - Get your stuff from your PC to your new Mac
"1. How do I do it?"
Have a look at this guide specifically on moving iTunes: How to use your iPod to move your music to a new computer
"2. The iPod is currently formatted for my Dell PC. Once I have transferred all of my files (including music) over to the iMac, do I need to reformat the iPod? How do I do this?"
If you don't intend using your iPod on Windows again the you can reformat it by restoring it on the Mac: Restoring iPod to Factory Settings
"3. Will all my playlists in iTunes be saved when I do the transfer?"
If you follow the instructions in the guide you should have your whole library just as it was.

Using ipod as a hard drive problems...

My emachine is being weird so I am just trying to move all my itunes to the compaq I have. I read the how-to guide and it did transfur some music, but not everything and not the playlists and all that like it said it would...its not that I don't have enough space on the ipod because I have like 21 open gigs...so thats not it. But I think itunes isnt saving itself to the itunes file like it should. I have no idea....if anyone could help me that would be great!! Thanks
Jillian

Thank you for your reply. It cleared up a lot of confusion for me. But I have one more question.
See, I looked both of those software applications up, and it seems those are to be installed on the windows operating system. My plan is to eventually stop using my PC and give it away to goodwill, however, for work purposes- which is freelance- I'd need to use the ipod as a nice small portable hard drive- I'm a photographer, and work with big files, so I need the larger space that a flash drive can't give me.
So, is there any type of mac formatting on the ipod that can also be read by the pc? Or is there a 3rd party software that can be installed on the ipod that will enable it to be read on the pc and mac while retaining its mac formatting?
If not I guess I'll just have to go back to the old and extremely inconvenient way of doing things. I really wish mac would have mentioned these things before in all their descriptions.

Use ipod as a hard drive

I have a PC running 7 and want to use my ipod classic as a hard drive, or get my music off it to my PC. I tunes won't let me but I can access my ipod just can't pull my music. HELP!!!

In case your iPod has been used initially on your Mac:
If you want to use your Mac formatted iPod as ext HD on a Mac as well as on a Windows PC you will loose all your iPod content once, as your iPod has to be re-formatted on a Windows PC using the latest Windows-Ipod-Updater.
Having done so - although not supported by Apple - your Windows formatted iPod will work on a Mac as well as on a Windows PC.

Using iPod as a hard drive between Mac and PC

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