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formatting an ext HD for Mac & Windows, 4GB file transfer limit
Hi all
sorry if this has been asked before but I’m at a loss about my new external HD –
How do I format my external HD so that I can use it with both a Mac and a Windows machine?
Also, how do I get around the 4GB file transfer limit? I have this problem when I try to transfer a file bigger than 4GB from my Mac HD to an external HD (fat32-formatted).
Pls help!
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6 Replies
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Thanks for the advice David, I understand there’s no perfect easy solution…
What if I needed to use the drive on other machines that don’t have MacDrive then?
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[Lee Wong] “How do I format my external HD so that I can use it with both a Mac and a Windows machine?”
You can’t have it all with just a simple format. The problem being, that no format other than the Mac formats (Mac Extended or QUID) will give you the performance necessary for editing in FCP.
So, the best way to get everything you want is to format to one of the Mac formats (GUID on newer Intel Macs) using the Mac Disk Utility, and buy the MacDrive app and install that on your PC. MacDrive makes your Mac disks play nicely (both read and write) on Windows machines.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Then you’ll face one or more of the following issues:
1) Mac formatted won’t play at all
2) FAT32 – 4Gb file size limitation
2) NTFS will read from drives on Mac but not write to drives
This is why MacDrive is the best solution
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Hmm I see. Thanks for the insight.
I think I’ll just dedicate the drive to Mac-only. How should I format it to get around the 4GB transfer limit?
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When formatting your drive through disk utility, just select one of the MAC formats David mentioned above. I’ve only seen the 4GB limits on FAT-32 formatting.
To use the disk utility formatting, connect your drive to the system, launch the disk utility application and highlight the connected drive. There is an option for MAC format in the menu functions that appear.
Josh
Digital Media, Thought Equity Motion
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Buy a cheap hard drive from any store, format it with NTFS and share out across your network or if you don’t have a network then get a cross over cable, this is the best solution.
Windows 7 has a Unix subsystem and it won’t belong when a universal format will be available.
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