Their response is a little stilted, and they are referring to Panther (Mac OS X v10.3.x) which is out of date by at least a year and a half. Certainly written by someone much more familiar with Windows than with Mac OS X in my estimation.
The facts: - Mac OS X can read and write FAT32 file systems, and can format a volume to either the Apple's Mac OS Extended or to FAT32 (and a couple of others besides). It can also read NTFS file system volumes, but not write to them. - Windows XP will read and write both NTFS and FAT32 file system volumes of arbitrary size. It will format drives to both system models as well, but will not allow creating a FAT32 partition larger than 32Gbytes. Windows My standard operating procedure when I buy an external hard drive, either FireWire 400/800 or USB 2.0, is to attach it my Apple PowerMac G5 or PowerBook G4. I open Disk Utility, select the drive, and go to the Erase tab. If I want the drive to be useable for read and write from both Mac OS X and Windows, I set the format option to "MS-DOS File System", press the Erase button, and confirm it. That erases and reformats the drive to FAT32 volume format. At this point the drive can be connected to either Mac OS X or Windows computers and you'll have full access to share files with it. Having done this a hundred times (at least!), I've yet to find any issues arising from using drives formatted this way with both Mac OS X and Windows XP systems. It also erases all the stuff that might be on the drive as delivered. I've never found any use for all the junk software they put on these drives as perks anyway. The only issue that very infrequently comes up are file name specifics: FAT32 and Mac OS Extended formats have slightly different file name length and reserved character sets. If you use normal file names of up to 32 characters and don't use diacritical marks or non- English characters, you won't have any problems at all. Godfrey On Jul 16, 2007, at 12:01 PM, David J Brooks wrote: > HI all. > > I recently bout on eof the above, as i need more external storage. I > was trying to get the WD pocket one that could swap between Mac and PC > but the companies supplier was on back order and i got this. > > I sent a email to Maxtor to see if i could swap between Mac and PC(XP > Home) and i have pasted the reply below. > > This things comes wioth preloaded software for Mac/PC plug and play. > How do i know if its FAT 32 or NTFS. They say if ist FAt 32 the mac > will read it but not visa versa. I'm more concerned about backing up > on the PC but would like the Mac to read it sometimes if possible. > > Any comments here, I dont want to lose files if i take it from the pc > to the mac. > > Dave(see below) > > Dear Valued Maxtor Customer, > > Thank you for your E-mail enquiry, which is important to us. > > As long as you format the drive as FAT32, > You have no problem to swapping between PC and Mac. > > http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/knowledge_base/ > Answer ID > 908 > > Can I swap my Maxtor External Device between a Mac and PC? > > Problem: > > Sharing an external hard drive between Windows and Macintosh systems > has been an issue that has caused much difficulty in the past. > End-Users that delve into both the Windows and Macintosh system see > this problem on a daily basis; they cannot share files between their > Windows PCs and Mac Computers. > > > > > Cause: > > The problem stems from the fact that the file systems used by Windows > Based PCs (FAT, FAT32, NTFS) differ from those used by Macintosh > Computers (Mac OS Extended, HFS+). These differences make it a > difficult task to share files between Mac and PC users. > > > > > Resolution: > > Click here for ways to use Windows formatted external drives with Mac > Systems. It is worth mentioning that Mac OS X (Panther 10.3.x) can now > read NTFS Volumes; this means that you can copy files from an external > drive (formatted with NTFS) to a Mac running Panther. However, you > cannot write files from the Mac to the NTFS Volume. > > > Should you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to > contact us. > In order to allow us to deal with all enquiries as efficiently and > accurately as possible > We would ask that you include any previous emails when replying to us. > > Kind Regards, > > Isaac Young > For & On Behalf of > APAC Technical Support Team > Maxtor Branded Products Group APAC > Seagate Technologies Republic of Ireland Ltd. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
