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Pixelman · 2005-05-09, 03:49

Is it possible to have an external hard drive (in enclosure with Firewire or USB connection) that can be plugged in to both OS X based and WinXP based PC's?

Colleagues here at works says it does not work due to different types of file systems.

If it really is so

- is having it as a "network drive" the solution? I have data I want to share between booth platforms.

Pixelman

chucker · 2005-05-09, 04:36

If you use FAT32, it will work. FAT32, however, is a terribly outdated and inefficient file system.

Another solution is to buy a commercial HFS+ driver for Windows and use HFS+ on the drive.

Note that either way, you won't be able to connect the drive to both computers at once, as neither FireWire nor USB support that. You'd need a network drive for that.

ghoti · 2005-05-09, 05:34

It looks like there are some free utilities for HFS access in Windows, too. Don't know how good they are (especially the writing part), but they probably will at least let me get the data on my external HD if my Mac should die ...

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Pixelman Member Join Date: May 2005	2005-05-09, 03:49 Is it possible to have an external hard drive (in enclosure with Firewire or USB connection) that can be plugged in to both OS X based and WinXP based PC's? Colleagues here at works says it does not work due to different types of file systems. If it really is so - is having it as a "network drive" the solution? I have data I want to share between booth platforms. Pixelman
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chucker ‽ Join Date: May 2004 Location: near Bremen, Germany	2005-05-09, 04:36 If you use FAT32, it will work. FAT32, however, is a terribly outdated and inefficient file system. Another solution is to buy a commercial HFS+ driver for Windows and use HFS+ on the drive. Note that either way, you won't be able to connect the drive to both computers at once, as neither FireWire nor USB support that. You'd need a network drive for that.
	quote

ghoti owner for sale by house Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Charlotte, NC	2005-05-09, 05:34 It looks like there are some free utilities for HFS access in Windows, too. Don't know how good they are (especially the writing part), but they probably will at least let me get the data on my external HD if my Mac should die ...
	quote

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External HD shared - OS X / Win XP - possible?