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warnergt · Apr 8, 2003, 02:15 PM

I recently put together an external Firewire
drive using the FireXpress 350 enclosure.
It works great with my Mac and I love it.

Is there a way to use it to share files
between a Mac and a Windows PC?
I formatted it in the HFS+ format. I'm
guessing that won't work with Windows.
It did come with some Windows software
(no software or drivers were needed for OS X).

I may already have the software that I need.
I just don't know. Does somebody have experience
sharing files between the two platforms with
an external Firewire drive?

bradoesch · Apr 8, 2003, 02:19 PM

There's a program called MacDrive than can read HFS+ on the PC side. There's also a program called Gemulator Explorer that can read (I'm not sure about write though) Mac formatted media (CD-ROMs, floppies, etc). Gemulator Explorer is free. MacDrive is not.

CatOne · Apr 8, 2003, 06:03 PM

The easiest way (as mentioned above) is to leave it formatted as HFS+ and buy MacDrive ($50) for the PC. I've used it for about a year -- it works like a charm.

You could also reformat the drive from Windows as FAT32, then both the PC and the Mac can use it. The downside is that from NT/2000/XP there's a 32 MB limit per partition on FAT32, so depending on your drive size you'll need multiple partitions. Also, FAT32 gets very wasteful of space with large partitions due to block size (I won't go into details, other than a 1 KB file could actually take up something like 32 KB of disk space for example).

A third option, is to divide the drive into a couple partitions -- format one as maybe 15 GB of FAT32, and format the other as "the remaining space" HFS+. If you want to share stuff from the Mac to the PC, copy it to the FAT32 partition (which the PC can easily see).

My personal preference again is for the first -- spring for the $50 for MacDrive. It's easy and works great.

todrain · Apr 8, 2003, 10:33 PM

MacDrive is great... .I use it for my iPod too!

bradoesch · Apr 9, 2003, 10:39 AM

Originally posted by CatOne:

You could also reformat the drive from Windows as FAT32, then both the PC and the Mac can use it. The downside is that from NT/2000/XP there's a 32 MB limit per partition on FAT32, so depending on your drive size you'll need multiple partitions. Also, FAT32 gets very wasteful of space with large partitions due to block size (I won't go into details, other than a 1 KB file could actually take up something like 32 KB of disk space for example).

FAT32 uses 4K blocks. FAT16 and FAT12 were the very inefficient ones, using as much as 64K blocks at a time. It depends on the partition size. HFS+ uses 4K blocks BTW.
I think you meant 32 GB.

Originally posted by CatOne:

A third option, is to divide the drive into a couple partitions -- format one as maybe 15 GB of FAT32, and format the other as "the remaining space" HFS+. If you want to share stuff from the Mac to the PC, copy it to the FAT32 partition (which the PC can easily see).

I've always liked this idea too. Nobody seems to go for it though.

legionare · Apr 9, 2003, 10:44 AM

Just read in a PC forum that FAT32 can only be used for disks up to 32GBs, as a way to push users toward NTFS. Is that so?

bradoesch · Apr 13, 2003, 10:40 PM

Originally posted by legionare:
Just read in a PC forum that FAT32 can only be used for disks up to 32GBs, as a way to push users toward NTFS. Is that so?

In a way, maybe.
My FireWire hard drive came formatted as FAT32. It's 40 GB. That's what I know, here's where I speculate. Microsoft's tools for formatting drives only allows 32 GB and under for FAT32, and forces anything over to be formatted as NTFS.

NTFS, what a name. New Technology. What version of WinNT did it come with? It certtainly can't be new anymore. Reminds me of the XT and AT IBM machines. What if Apple came out with the "New Mac." Just as stupid to me.

slider · Apr 16, 2003, 03:22 PM

What about using one of these external HD's with the USB 1.1 port? I reformated the disk with the Disk Utility tool which only does MS-DOS. The mac doesn't seem to flinch at it, but I am unable to locate the disk on Windows 98 and XP. The computers see it when I go under the systems control panal and is says the device is working fine, but I don't know were it is to use it. I like the mac drive idea, but I jump around to different computers at school, I don't think they would like me just installing software on random computers. Anyways, using the USB 1.1 (that is all they have) how can I reformat it to FAT32? It's a 6GB HD which currently has MS-DOS on it. I tried the "Convert to FAT 32" under Windows systems tools, but it does not see it. What do I do? For now I am just using this thing for larger files that my disk on key can carry due to size, so I don't mind the FAT 32 file system on there for now. Both 98 and XP installed the drivers that they need, don't get it. I have tried using this on 2 different 98 computers and one XP. I am obviously missing something, What is it? Thanks.

CatOne · Apr 16, 2003, 04:52 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bradoesch:
[B]FAT32 uses 4K blocks. FAT16 and FAT12 were the very inefficient ones, using as much as 64K blocks at a time. It depends on the partition size. HFS+ uses 4K blocks BTW.
I think you meant 32 GB.

Wrong.

For a 32 GB drive it uses 32 KB clusters:

http://www.winnetmag.com/Files/8294/Table_02.html

FAT32 is very inefficient for large drives. That's the point I'm making. If you buy a 100 GB drive formatted as FAT32 you may even get 64 KB blocks, or 128 KB blocks! That's why you can't format a partition larger than 32 MB from within NT/2000/XP... Microsoft is forcing the hand at "THIS IS SUCH A BAD IDEA WE WON'T LET YOU DO IT."

FAT32 is certainly much better than FAT16 (I can't even speak for FAT12), but it is not suitable for very large partitions.

CatOne · Apr 16, 2003, 04:56 PM

Originally posted by legionare:
Just read in a PC forum that FAT32 can only be used for disks up to 32GBs, as a way to push users toward NTFS. Is that so?

No, not as a way to push users to NTFS. In fact you *can* have FAT32 partitions that are large (I bought a 100 GB drive and it was formatted as FAT32). However, you CANNOT format a drive as FAT32 with a partition larger than 32 GB from *within* NT/2000/XP. You must do this format from 95/98/ME.

You can always look this stuff up via Google or via Microsoft's support:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;314463

slider · Apr 16, 2003, 09:18 PM

Not sure how, but I got it to show up in VPC as a drive and then it told me it was not in the proper format and was able to go from there. I had previously gone into the system control panel and messed with some of the settings, at the time it did not show up, but it did today when I was about to try some free software I had downloaded. Well, I'm all set now.