Hard drive formats

The ultimate in compatibility is FAT32.

Mac can read NTFS but it can't write to it. I think there is software out there to do it but it is not sanctioned by Microsoft so could be dodgy. Alternatively you could shell out on Macdrive which will allow Windows to manage HFS+ drives.
 
Theres a free way to do mac writing to ntfs which I never had problems with.

Thought the bootcamp drivers opened up windows writing to HFS+? (might have to test that later).

exFAT is the one to go for now, both can read/write to that and it gets around the old FAT32 limitations, though isn't secure like ntfs or hfs+
 
With my 1TB drive ive partitioned around 820GB in NTFS and the rest in exFAT. I have all my windows stuff on the NTFS part but if i ever need to use a mac or something else i can use the FAT.

Obviously change the sizes for which you use more.
 
Well Iam not sure what to do, I intend to use various external hard drives with my new mini. All that will be on the drives is photos and music well and general data etc. oh and I will probably setup Time Machine aswell.
 
For external drives that only have 1 partition I would use exFAT (as resizing it afterwards is a complete PITA). Linux support for the filesystem is limited though.
 
uniQ said:
Yeah I've been using it for years and it's been absolutely flawless. There are some free options too but they aren't as stable. So for the sake of £6ish (at 50% off) to me it's not worth worrying about but if you want to try an alternative:

http://i.vishalagarwal.com/post/30387627819/ntfs-write-on-lion-or-mountain-lion
Click to expand...

Thanks again, £6 is fine. Will give it ago. Many thanks. My only worry is it that it won't be supported in the future. I've read a couple of different versions of different software isn't now supported in Lion, and that you can't search as quick compared to HFS+
 
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