external hard drive for both pc & mac?

bimmerboii · 13 Mar 2008 at 14:24

Which hard drive should I get to transfer my data (pics/mp3s/videos) to my mac? I was looking at the Western Digital My Book Studio but I read a few threads that it is formatted for mac only? But can be formatted for windows.. but if I reformat it for windows to transfer my data, then the mac will not be able to read it. Im confused :confused:

Is there a hard drive that I can plug to my windows pc, transfer files, then plug to my mac and read the files?

mattyj1085 · 13 Mar 2008 at 14:34

You can get MacDrive for windows that reads all mac formatted drives. Maybe there is something available for mac to read windows drive

bimmerboii · 13 Mar 2008 at 14:45

So if I have this MacDrive, I can transfer my media to the Western Digital My Book Studio (remember this comes formated for mac out of the box)?

I really want to get the MyBook Studio since I will be converting to mac permanently after back-up my media stored in my pc.

mattyj1085 · 13 Mar 2008 at 14:55

Buy a Mac portable hard drive
Transfer files from mac to the drive
Get the trial version for MacDrive (lasts 12 days i think)
Install it on windows
Plug the mac formatted drive into computer with windows
See all the content on the drive in windows

Monkey_Boy1211 · 15 Mar 2008 at 00:00

Get any drive and format it FAT32, both OS's will play nicely with that.

Rambaud · 17 Mar 2008 at 08:47

FAT 32 is the easiest compromise.

Or NTFS, and use the MacFuse driver (freeware) on the Mac.

rpstewart · 17 Mar 2008 at 09:06

Rambaud said:
FAT 32 is the easiest compromise.

It is indeed but be aware that you can't put files bigger than 4Gb on a FAT32 volume.