• Apple OS X

  format hard drive for Mac & PC

  Posted by Josh Snider on April 9, 2007 at 7:50 pm

  Hi, I’d like to be able to pass files back and forth between me and the people I work with. They all work on Adobe Premiere on PC’s, and I’m on FCP on a Mac.
  I’ve heard that if I format my external hard drive to FAT-32,then I can upload PC files to the hard drive, then download them onto the Mac, and vice-versa…however, I’ve also been told that the Mac will only be able to read files that are 2GB or less if they come from a hard drive formatted to FAT-32. Is this true? Are there other down-sides to my plan?
  Are there any external firewire hard drives that will not have this quirk involved?

  Josh

  Brad Pemberton replied 19 years, 4 months ago 5 Members · 5 Replies
• 5 Replies

• 

  Curtis Thompson

  April 9, 2007 at 8:26 pm

  hello…

  this is a common topic here – also try searching the archives for comments, but this is generally what you would want to do:

  https://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sharefwdrive.html

  any reason to not just network boxes? much easier than hauling a drive between boxes…

  sitruc
• 

  Josh Snider

  April 10, 2007 at 2:29 pm

  Thanks, I’ll check out the article.
  …You know I had never thought about networking my Mac to a PC. Can that be done pretty easily through firewire? there wouldn’t be the same format issues involved that the external hard drives have?
  I guess that’d depend on if I end up getting a desktop or a Mac Mini. The people I’m sharing files with are 40 miles away, so that was the reason I was thinking external hard drive.

  Josh
• 

  13

  April 11, 2007 at 1:55 am

  you cant network a windows computer through firewire. And even if you could you said they are 40 miles apart. How big are the files you are sending.

  Check out http://www.yousendit.com
• 

  Tony! Hulette

  April 13, 2007 at 7:42 pm

  MacDrive from Mediafour is the best solution I’ve found (and its easy). Just install it on the PCs and format your drives for the Mac.

  https://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

  They been making this product for along time and I know many people are very happy with it.

  Tony!
• 

  Brad Pemberton

  April 17, 2007 at 7:20 pm

  [zrb123] ”
  you cant network a windows computer through firewire.”

  Windows XP and Mac OS X (10.3 and 10.4) both support IP over firewire. That said you can get a possible dedicated 400 or 800 megabit connection using simple file sharing from the Mac (crank up Windows sharing in the Sharing Pref. pane.)

  BTW – FireWire 800 has a distance limitation of 300 feet.

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