[peertimo]

I would like to use a LaCie FireWire disk to swap files between a Mac X and Win2k. To get this up and running, do I have to reformat the drive as a PC drive? It is already in use between Macs. If so, what format? NTFS or FAT32?

[Eug]

FAT32, but OS X has issues with FAT32. One day FAT32 just stopped working and no matter what I do I can't get FAT32 to work with OS X anymore. Even a reformat of both the drive and the Mac didn't help.

I'm told a better solution is to install MacDrive on the PC and use HFS+, but right now I just use a 100 Mbps network.

[bradoesch]

How about formatting it as FAT16 or something else if FAT32 is giving problems? Actually, depending on the size of the disk, you might have have to format as FAT32, I think. If FAT16 can't be used for a drive your size, you could partition it into enough partitions until you have enough space for your files.


Brad

[Eug]

Never tried FAT16. I wouldn't bother anyway because of the limitations. I believe it's 4 GB max per partition.

But more importantly, it seems X.2 may have corrected some FAT32 issues. Well, it did for me anyway. I have not yet tried a hard drive, but FAT32 now works on my DVD-RAM drive in OS X. See here. It never worked at all for me in X.1.4 or X.1.5.

By the way, to the original poster, do NOT use NTFS. There is no support for NTFS at all.