I have quite a dilemma here... I have an external drive which I need to be able to see, read AND write, on both my Mac and my PC.
I know FAT32 is supported by both, but NTFS is not. For some reason, Windows wont let me format my 300GB drive to FAT32, and every other attempt with something else always failed...Linux LiveCDs, even Disk Utility in OS X.
Please help? How can I format my external to FAT32 even though it is over 128GB?
Mac OS X can read and write from NTFS.
I'm using Tiger.
Also; I cannot use NTFS-3G and just use NTFS, because I take this external back and forth to school which those Mac's do not have NTFS-3G and cannot be installed.
Mac OS X can read and write from NTFS.
No you can only read, not write to NTFS.
thats why bootcamp software gives you a default option to allocate windows a "32GB" partition, because fat32 drives only go up to that size and can be both read and written to.
NTFS can be any size, but cannot as i say be written to under OSX. Coorect me if theres a way to do it, but im 90% sure u cant.
fat32 is a bit of a pickle too, because you can only put files on under 4GB.
oh why oh why isn't there a fat128?
...allocate windows a "32GB" partition, because fat32 drives only go up to that size...
Urban myth.
On Fat32, the count of data clusters is between 65526 and 268,435,456 clusters, inclusive.
Given a 1K cluster you can already have a 270 GB partition; maxing out cluster size will put you in the 2 terabyte range, albeit being an enormous waste.
4GB per file max is correct, though.
As for the problem, Windows will cripple itself on purpose for advertising the NTFS marchitecture.
First create an extended partition of 4GB or so. Inside that, create your FAT32 partition.
Now employ any commercial partitioner newer than 2000 and resize both to your wishes.
Or just try this tool.
hth,
herd
Thanks herd, but I have many files over 4GB....so I guess I can't use FAT32 anyway 
.
Man, now Im stuck with my music, movies, and disk images on my PC instead of my Mac, exactly why I bought the thing in the first place!!
*smashes head on wall*
Urban myth.On Fat32, the count of data clusters is between 65526 and 268,435,456 clusters, inclusive.
Given a 1K cluster you can already have a 270 GB partition; maxing out cluster size will put you in the 2 terabyte range, albeit being an enormous waste.
herd
ohh ok.... lol. I just assumed because I know the windows xp sp2 installer (and probably sp1) wont let you create a fat32 partition larger than 32gb to install windows onto.
but now I think of it, your right... my iPod works on both windows and Mac and its 80GB, it'd have to be fat32.
its damn annoying tho... I have movie *ahem* backups* that are larger than 4GB in size (they're ISO. in order to preserve menus etc) and I cant load them onto my iPod without an error, meaning they sit on my computer taking up space.
well, I've came up with a temporary work around for my home use dilemma. I formatted it to NTFS, then shared it on my network. Then I just used OS X's SMB service...Now I share my iTunes library on iTunes on my PC so I can use my Mac to listen to music/movies/podcasts etc, and I also shared my External, so that it could access it without being plugged in.
Downsides:
-Slow. Sometimes I could have 5 or 6 of my computers running in my house, on the internet, doing god knows what. Or, I could be using something that requires big network traffic (like BitTorrents or whatnot). This causes the SMB share to be Slow with a capital S. Heck, even when its only these 2 computers, it still is pretty slowww.
-Limited iTunes functionality. On my Mac, I access my music through my Shared Library over my network, hosted from my PC. Drawbacks? Slow response, so can't watch TV shows / movies over streaming (802.11n) , no Coverflow, no Album Browsing. At least the Now Playing and Selected Item functions still work properly. But this is a huge pain in the neck... And it takes the joy out of iTunes...Really.
-Still need to use PC for iPods. This is a sub-downside from the previous one. I MUST use my PC for my iPods. It SUCKS!
I'm using paragon ntfs for mac. Worth the $29.95 price
I'm using paragon ntfs for mac. Worth the $29.95 price
Or you could use macfuse. google it, its free and allows you to write to NTFS drives.
my new dilemma is this;
I want my iPod to be both used in Mac OSX and Windows as a storage device between the two.
I want my ipod be able to handle filesizes larger than 4gb as I use it for movies.
Thus the only solution is NTFS, and using Macfuse to allow MacOSX to "write" to the drive.
But... I want iTunes on my Mac to sync the music library to the iPod... im asking the impossible?
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