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Sharing Files Mac and PC
Just trying to find a way to share large video files between my PC and a guy with a Mac.
What is the best solution to the hard drive compatibility issues between Mac and PC? I’ve found a “MacDisk” program that is supposed to help PC users read Mac drives… Haven’t downloaded it yet. I tried partitioning a PC drive to 135 GB each (based on some online advice), but the Mac couldn’t write to it.
Any help/advice would be appreciated.
RJL
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4 Replies
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Depending on the size of the video files, if you can keep them under 4GB a piece, you can format the drive to FAT32. This would work cross-platform between Mac OS and Windows. XP and 2000 can’t create large (over 32GB) FAT32 partiton, so you’ll have to use OSX Disk Utility to format the drive to FAT32.
Also if you are running OSX 10.3 or above, NTFS (Windows File system) can be mounted Read-only.
MacDrive is good software also, the demo runs for 30 days or something. So you’ll have time to really try before you buy.
Josh
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Thanks, Josh. I’m getting the Mac to do the “read only” part… Files are big, so I probably should go with the MacDisk. I’ll give it a try.
Thanks again!
RJL
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I have a shared folder on an NTFS formatted disk on my XP machine, and my 2 (non-intel) macs (all running OS X 10.4) can read and write to it via ethernet/wifi. Works perfectly for sharing media between Final Cut and Premiere.
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MacDisk is pretty great at what it does..
Otherwise, as mentioned I believe, you can format to FAT32, and then both systems can read/write without a problem. Incidentally, you can format to FAT32 from either a PC or a mac.
Finally, I would say that a network drive should also work, but as the files are huge, you’ll likely not want to go that route.
Best free option is to use FAT32 on a large external drive, second best would be to format to HFS (or HFS+), and then use macdisk to access it on your PC. Either way should work great.
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