[babajazz]

hi there
I own a G5 and a powerbook, both running jaguar. I also own a windows 2000 machine. I read that the lacie d2 extreme drive is cross platform. Does this mean that I can plug it into my macs, throw a bunch of data on the drive, then plug it into the pc running windows 2000, and be able to see the data?
I thought that apple os was HFS, and the microsoft windoes was NTFS, and FAT 32, thus explaining why drive formatted for macs wont be seen on windows. Is this a special drive that works with both OS?. If so, I would like to buy one, because it allows me to bypass netwotking the apple and the windows machine. On the lacie drive they advertise it as cross platform, linux, mac os, and windows.Thanks for your answers.

[Spheric Harlot]

The hardware doesn't care what you hook it up to. USB2 and Firewire are standards.

However, Windows doesn't read HFS+ (Mac format) without additional software (MacDrive or some such).

The Mac will read and write FAT32, but only read (not write) NTFS, but some file types and most applications will break if you store them on FAT32 unless you stick them in a .zip archive first, since FAT32 does not support the resource forks needed for some things on the Mac.

[PurpleGiant]

The drive itself will work fine both platforms. If you want Windows and Mac OS X to be able to read and write to it, you will need to format it as FAT32.

Mac OS X can read, but not write to NTFS
Windows will not read HFS, however it can with extra software (MacDrive)

EDIT: The organ guy beat me to it. And did a damn site better job of it too. I'm tempted to try out my new-found swearing powers. But I won't. Next time boy.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by PurpleGiant:
The drive itself will work fine both platforms. If you want Windows and Mac OS X to be able to read and write to it, you will need to format it as FAT32.

Mac OS X can read, but not write to NTFS
Windows will not read HFS, however it can with extra software (MacDrive)

was my post that unclear?