Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.
Forums › Mac OS › External HDD Formatting help for PPC AND Intel usage


1937 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 53
Inactive user


Topic # 27401 24-Oct-2008 13:49
Send private message

I have a few questions about a new FW400 external HDD I picked up for use with a PowerPC iBook and an Intel MacBook, both running 10.5.x

I want to use the drive on both systems - in order for this to be "bootable" will I need to partition it using Apple Partition Map? If I use GUID, how will this affect the iBook usage of the drive?

Also, if I want to use this for a Windows PC also via USB, I presume I'll need to format it NTFS instead (Windows XP)?

If I do that, does that make it non-bootable on the Macs?

Create new topic
Professional yak shaver
1599 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8

Trusted
BitSignal
Lifetime subscriber

  Reply # 173390 24-Oct-2008 16:30
Send private message

APM is PowerPCs. GUID is for Intel Macs, although APM also works fine with them.

MBR is for Windows booting.

AFAIK, Macs can't boot from NTFS drives. And that's what you need to format your drive with if you want to use it on both Windows and Mac, although to write to NTFS on Mac you need an external program. With FAT32 it works fine (read/write), but can't handle files larger than 4Gb.

Another option (and it's the one I use) is to get MacDrive for Windows and format your drive with standard HFS+ (MacOS Extended). MacDrive reads and writes to it transparently, as if it were a normal Windows-formatted drive.




"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." - Doc Emmet Brown



1937 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 53
Inactive user


  Reply # 173398 24-Oct-2008 17:01
Send private message

Thanks for your reply. I'll look into MacDrive.

Currently I'm thinking that as I'm so happy with OS X, that I will just format the ext. HDD in Mac format, and if the PC needs access (which will probably be on a decreasing frequency), that I'll just utilise the gigabit networking capabilities of the machines.

Sure it will be fiddly at times but I think I can live with it.

Create new topic

Twitter »

Follow us to receive Twitter updates when new discussions are posted in our forums:



Follow us to receive Twitter updates when news items and blogs are posted in our frontpage:



Follow us to receive Twitter updates when tech item prices are listed in our price comparison site:



Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.


Updates »

Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.

Alternatively, you can receive a daily email with Geekzone updates.