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teszeract · Mar 23, 2003, 02:21 AM

I am about to reformat my "60gig within firewire enclosure" to FAT32 format. I want to use it as a documents backup for a wintel box and, equally important, edit DV on my mac.

question is: does anyone have any realworld experience with FAT32, MacOS 10.2 and DV? And how do you feel about it?

I am on a Pismo Firewire so my spec is not that high to start with... but still, i'd like to know if the mac and fat32 hd will play nicely?

TIA

Eug · Mar 23, 2003, 05:34 PM

OS X is much slower with FAT32 than with HFS+.

Also, FAT32 support in OS X is kinda flaky. It works fine most of the time, and then suddenly, the drive will simply stop working (but still works fine in OS 9 or Win).

I suggest NOT using FAT32.

By the way, how were you planning on formatting it to FAT32? Windows 2000 and XP won't let you format a 60 GB drive to FAT32 anyway. It has to be 32 GB or less.

For a shared hard disk, the best solution is HFS+ and MacDrive 5. Windows with MacDrive 5 isn't that fast with HFS+, but at least it works reliably.

teszeract · Mar 23, 2003, 07:59 PM

Originally posted by Eug:
By the way, how were you planning on formatting it to FAT32? Windows 2000 and XP won't let you format a 60 GB drive to FAT32 anyway. It has to be 32 GB or less.

I read a comment by someone else that Paragon? or some such PC utility would format FAT32 on volumes larger than 32g. I was going to use that.

Thanks for your input. I may just partition the hd as HFS+ and a portion as FAT32. That should work, right? I just can't spend anymmore right now on more software - the Sony DV and assorted pieces emptied my pocket

SuperGenius · Mar 24, 2003, 08:21 PM

I believe I used Partition Magic to format 2x80 gig drives that I have in firewire enclosures. I had some issues initially with the drives not mounting in 10.1 but that seems to have been fixed in 10.2

I have had a few minor issues but I am not sure its its due to fat32 or firewire. For the most part I am quite happy with the setup.

Eug · Mar 24, 2003, 11:02 PM

Yeah, Partition Magic works. However, if you're gonna spend moolah, I think getting MacDrive 5 for the PC is a better solution than trying to deal with FAT32.

CatOne · Mar 25, 2003, 01:27 PM

Originally posted by Eug:
Yeah, Partition Magic works. However, if you're gonna spend moolah, I think getting MacDrive 5 for the PC is a better solution than trying to deal with FAT32.

I second this suggestion. I have a 40 gig I share between a Mac and a PC. I formatted it as HFS+ and use MacDrive. It works great.

Plus I can put stuff on my iPod from my PC at work and use it as a backup.

SuperGenius · Mar 26, 2003, 11:09 AM

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. I was mounting my 80 gig fat 32 drive last night and to my horror when mounted it said 80 gig drive 80 gig free.

Would MacDrive be a more stable solution? My major concern is data integrity, performance isn't a big issue.

On another note, what is the best approach to try to recover data from the drive. Should I use OS X or XP tools?

Thanks in advance for any help

Eug · Mar 26, 2003, 01:01 PM

Originally posted by SuperGenius:
Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. I was mounting my 80 gig fat 32 drive last night and to my horror when mounted it said 80 gig drive 80 gig free.

Would MacDrive be a more stable solution? My major concern is data integrity, performance isn't a big issue.

On another note, what is the best approach to try to recover data from the drive. Should I use OS X or XP tools?

Thanks in advance for any help

If you tried it on OS X, try it on XP first.

I've been using MacDrive for several months now without problems.

cloudship · Apr 3, 2003, 01:54 AM

I'd like to hear from experienced MacDrive users about transfer rates before I decide to buy it.

I frequently have to transfer large files from a FAT32 HD to a HFS+ HD. I know very well from daily use that nearing the 34mb/s theorical limit of Firewire enclosures is impossible when transferring in MacOS.

How well does MacDrive compete with MacOS for transfer rates from FAT32 to HFS+? Through a Firewire enclosure? And through a direct IDE connection?

Thanks in advance for any info.

cloudship · Apr 3, 2003, 01:51 PM

Just to give some extra info.
I get 9.75mb/s when transferring large files from a FAT32 HDD to a HFS+ HDD with a Firewire enclosure in MacOS.

Thanks for any info.

Eug · Apr 7, 2003, 08:25 AM

Originally posted by cloudship:
I'd like to hear from experienced MacDrive users about transfer rates before I decide to buy it.

I frequently have to transfer large files from a FAT32 HD to a HFS+ HD. I know very well from daily use that nearing the 34mb/s theorical limit of Firewire enclosures is impossible when transferring in MacOS.

That is incorrect. I've hit 25 MB/s with HFS+ in OS X even with my laptop drive in benches, and in the 20 MB/s in real life transfers. Others have hit over 30 MB/s with desktop drives with HFS+.

The problem is FAT32. I don't remember the exactly speeds, but I believe the max speeds I got with FAT32 were maybe half what I got with HFS+.

The other problem is a fragmented disk (target or source, or both).

cloudship · Apr 8, 2003, 11:13 PM

My error, should read:
nearing the 34mb/s theorical limit of Firewire enclosures is impossible when transferring in MacOS from FAT32 to HFS+.