How can I format a Windows and Mac Drive?????

[Mikchek]

I just purchased an external 120GB FW/USB drive for my personal use and I'm wondering what is the best way to format it. I found that as FAT 32 it works on both platforms.....I work on a g4 733 with about a gig of ram and usually work on windows computers.....on the

windows end I just want to use the drive for storage......computer programs, beats, and audio....etc......

on the mac side I want to be able to use it as a PT audio drive and work on music from it.....

Can you guys please help me on how I should format this drive....should I leave it as 1 FAT32 partition or should I break it up into smaller partiations with one being for Windows and one being for MAC? and if so which formats should I format each partition as?

[Chris Cavell]

make partitions less than ~30 gigs for FAT32 for the greatest compatibility, and make any size HFS+ partition for use with the mac

Perhaps you should instead of worrying about the partitioning look into a program called MacDrive5 which will allow a macintosh volume to work on a PC as well.

[Mikchek]

I actually do have Mac Drive 5 but I don't wanna have to carry the program everywhere with me.....I love the program and it works wonders for me.....maybe that would be a better option to just configure it for mac, but what I am trying to do is put a lot of PC data on the drive as well as use it for recording....so I want the drive to be able to perform well in the recording atmosphere...

[brinaddison]

Yes Chris is right. MacDrive is a Windose app that lets windose read HFS+ mac drives. It seems to work flawlessly. I used it on a full length feature that was cut on an Avid in windose and transfered to my FCP3 station on the mac. This was the only way I could do it without any problems what so ever. It's great! Highly recommended*****

Good luck!

[Chris Cavell]

Just put all the pc data in a folder labeled something like "PC stuff"...or split up the partitions...it's all up to you.

But, macdrive ROCKS...that program is pretty much the most flawless well engineered piece of software to ever hit the shelves. It's solid as can be, and I've never run into a single bug.

[brinaddison]

Sorry you got in there befor me. If you format your disc with FAT32 you'll have a 2 Gig limit...Not fun at all. And I found it to corrupt files when opening them on a mac.

My 2 cents

[where02190]

Sorry you got in there befor me. If you format your disc with FAT32 you'll have a 2 Gig limit...Not fun at all. And I found it to corrupt files when opening them on a mac.

My 2 cents

THis is 100% false. We use FAT32 drives across Mac and PC daily, and have no problems with either platform. we have drives as large as 120gb with no partitionas and both platforms see all 120gb.

[Chris Cavell]

Where, it is not 100% false, just 50% unclear. With FAT32, you have an individual file size limitation of around 2 gigs...not a partition limitation. The ability to get around the 32 gig limit of FAT32 partition size limit is really just a workaround that hasn't seemed to cause any problems for anyone...but keeping the partition sizes under 32 gigs has yielded the best results for having both macs and pc's recognize the partition without error...but, these errors are rare and usually fixable.

[tele_player]

Now that I'm a Mac user also, I find Macdrive 5 interesting. Question: can a Mac drive mounted on XP with Macdrive be used as a record/playback drive for PTLE on Windows? Or would it just be for transfer?

[Mikchek]

Wow this is getting deep......I know both platforms are recognizing all 120 Gbs (well actually about 111) but I'm still confused as to what would be my best option....originally I was thinking I could just format half NTFS (or maybe even FAT32) and just us it on Windows...maybe pull sudio files over for mac sometimes......but format the other half Mac OS Extended.....would this be a problem?....