I know I saw this a few months ago but did a search and can’t find it. I have a PC running XP and an Apple running OS-X. I have a 60 gig portable hard drive. I know when I got it I had to have an Apple person format it so I could transfer files between the two computers. Yesterday for some reason Bill Gate’s software (gotta love that guy) decided to do something to the drive. When I went home Apple would not open the files. So the Apple reformatted it. I though ok no problem but I brought it to work to read on my PC no luck. What is the format FAT 35 or something
FAT 32.
Right. FAT32 is probably the most readable format (Windows, Apple and Linux can all work with it, unless I’m mistaken).
Windows XP will much prefer you to use NTFS, and it is better, but you can forget about Apple and Linux being able to (easily) work with that format.
So if, as I mentioned to you earlier, I were to get a portable drive to use as a Traveler, and some of my friends were going to be using it with a Mac, won’t I have problems if its FAT 32?
As far as I know, FAT32 is going to be your most flexible option. Perhaps some Apple expert could comment, cos I’m not an Apple guy.
As far as I know, FAT32 is going to be your most flexible option. Perhaps some Apple expert could comment, cos I’m not an Apple guy.[/quote]
I know it’s necessary for the Apple hookup, but didn’t you tell me before that there’s a cap on how big a drive can use it?
As far as I know, FAT32 is going to be your most flexible option. Perhaps some Apple expert could comment, cos I’m not an Apple guy.[/quote]
I know it’s necessary for the Apple hookup, but didn’t you tell me before that there’s a cap on how big a drive can use it?[/quote]
I have a 60GB external harddrive with a FAT 32 partition…XP can create large FAT 32 partitions…I think 32GB is the largest…but they are slow…
As far as I know, FAT32 is going to be your most flexible option. Perhaps some Apple expert could comment, cos I’m not an Apple guy.[/quote]
I know it’s necessary for the Apple hookup, but didn’t you tell me before that there’s a cap on how big a drive can use it?[/quote]
That’s right.
Max individual FILE size is 4GB (Shouldn’t be a problem)
Max drive size is about 32GB, but you can always partition it. Actually, Windows 2000/XP can only FORMAT a drive up to that size, but it can read one that has a bigger partition than that, if you can find a way to do it. When I format a large drive with FAT32, I usually just partition it into 20GB chunks.
Makes defragging alot easier. 
MAC’s dont recognize NTFS filesytem.
Thanks guys
It worked for three or four months no problem. I have no idea what changed other than the constant harrassment on a PC to upgrade this and that. So maybe something happened while I had it plugged in and was updating Java or something…
I am sure I will let Apple do it. Then I will be tempted to buy a new I-pod of one sort or another at the same time. And no this is not an I-Pod drive just a 60gig Samsung.
From my understanding, they have full NTFS read ability and newer versions of OSX have limited write ability. That said, I believe it’s best to reformat the drive as FAT32 despite its partition limits. NTFS is a proprietary format and as such I don’t think Macs’ implementation of it is very reliable, with a real possibility of damaging all the files on the drive.