PC <> external hard drive <> Mac?

[blueandshiny]

I just bought a SimpleTech 120 GB USB 2.0 external hard drive, and I am
a PC user. My friend, however is a Mac user and suggested I format it
as a Mac to ensure ease of file transfer between our two computers. My
main concern is that I am able to easily access the files once I am
back on my PC.

We have used MacOpener in the past, but I'm not sure that it works as a
two-way street. The other thought I've had is making partitions on the
drive, but the little research I've done has suggested that it might
not work as well as it does in theory.

Is there a simple way of doing this?

 

[Fred McKenzie]

I just bought a SimpleTech 120 GB USB 2.0 external hard drive, and I am
a PC user. My friend, however is a Mac user and suggested I format it
as a Mac to ensure ease of file transfer between our two computers. My
main concern is that I am able to easily access the files once I am
back on my PC.

Blue-

I don't understand why a Mac user would want the HD formatted in a Mac
format, if it is to be used to transfer files between a PC and a Mac. My
experience is that the Mac can usually read the PC format, but the reverse
isn't always true.

Of course you can try it both ways and see how it works. If there is a
problem, just reformat and try again.

Fred

 

[Impmon]

Blue-

I don't understand why a Mac user would want the HD formatted in a Mac
format, if it is to be used to transfer files between a PC and a Mac. My
experience is that the Mac can usually read the PC format, but the reverse
isn't always true.

Of course you can try it both ways and see how it works. If there is a
problem, just reformat and try again.

PC cannot read any Mac format without 3rd party software like MacDrive
and even that when I tested MacDrive, it corrupted many files on the
Mac drive. PC just don't understand Macintosh' data and resource fork
so it's more than how the disk is formatted.

Just format it as PC (FAT only, I don't know if OS X can read NTFS or
not, OS 9 and older defiantly can't) and leave it at that. If there's
a need to transfer a Mac file from one Mac to another, use something
like Stuffit to make convert the file into binary or Binhqx for PC and
internet transfer, the data will survive.

 

[David C.]

PC cannot read any Mac format without 3rd party software like MacDrive
and even that when I tested MacDrive, it corrupted many files on the
Mac drive. PC just don't understand Macintosh' data and resource fork
so it's more than how the disk is formatted.

Windows can't read them.

Other PC operating systems may be different. For instance most Linux
distributions include a package for supporting Mac drives. I have
personally mounted Mac hard drives (HFS formatted and all) on many
different Linux PCs using only the software that came with my
distributions (various versions of RedHat.)

Just format it as PC (FAT only, I don't know if OS X can read NTFS or
not, OS 9 and older defiantly can't) and leave it at that. If there's
a need to transfer a Mac file from one Mac to another, use something
like Stuffit to make convert the file into binary or Binhqx for PC and
internet transfer, the data will survive.

If your PC is running Windows, this is definitely the best choice. Use
FAT or FAT32 format. Although there are NTFS drivers for Mac OS, they
are read-only, which isn't going to be very useful here.

For myself, I either use my LAN (via FTP) or a USB keychain drive (FAT
formatted) for transferring files between PCs and Macs. Neither has
ever given me a problem.

-- David