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I just got a new LaCie external hard drive, and I want to copy my files to it so I can take them back and forth between work and home. At work I have a PC and at home I have a Mac, so I need them to be readable/writtable from both machines.

What format do I need to format them in? NTFS, FAT32, other?

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You have to decide yourself:

  • You could format the disk as FAT32. That way you can't handle files > 4GB. But it'll work on both systems out of the box and it's fast.
  • You could use NTFS. But you'll have to install ntfs3g to be able to write from the Mac. ntfs3g is somewhat slow (last time i checked, 4 Months ago).
  • there are other options (ext2/3, ...), but they require unstable or not easy-to-use software on one or both machines.

I'd stick with NTFS.

[edit] corrected fat32's size limit (4 instead of 2 GB)

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NTFS isn't "easily writable" on Mac OS. I'd use fat32 if file size is not an issue (though NTFS will pretty much be the only way if it is). – zneak Aug 3 '10 at 17:34
FAT32 can't handle files larger than 4GB, not 2GB. From Wiki: The maximum possible size for a file on a FAT32 volume is 4 GiB minus 1 byte (232−1 bytes). Video applications, large databases, and some other software easily exceed this limit. Larger files require another formatting type such as NTFS. – Hondalex Aug 3 '10 at 21:35
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Surprisingly, newer versions of Windows don't allow you to format larger drives with FAT32, and yet Mac OS X does.

I'd format the drive as FAT32 on Mac OS X, and it will be usable in both operating systems.

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... but only if file size is not (and will never be!) an issue. – lajuette Aug 3 '10 at 20:07
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If you're up for a little experiment, I noticed that the Apple Boot Camp drivers for Windows allow reading/writing of HFS+ file systems (thus allowing access to your Mac's data when booted into Windows). I only tested this on a real Boot Camp partition, but you could try installing the drivers on your regular Windows machine (after appropriate backups of course). This would, if successful, allow you to use a file system with a more reasonable file size limit than FAT32, which is just a few gigs.

However, you're probably better off leaving the work computer in pristine condition and messing around with drivers and extensions on your Mac at home.

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That's a good point: Are you allowed to install software on your Windows machine, JAG2007? – lajuette Aug 3 '10 at 20:08
yeah, i can do just about anything to that machine. – JAG2007 Aug 3 '10 at 20:36
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