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kevs · Mar 20, 2006, 10:27 AM

Bit confused. I think I read once that all external HD's will work with both Mac and PCs. Yet I'm online shopping, looking at specs, and with some Maxtor and Iomegas it says computer platform: PC.

I don't want to buy anything that I would not be able to send out to clients on either platform.

Clarification appreciated. thanks.

ghporter · Mar 20, 2006, 10:43 AM

The big deal is usually whether they support USB or Firewire (or both), and perhaps the native format of the included hard drive. A Mac can only READ an NTFS volume (that's the native format for Windows XP), while a PC cannot (generally) even read a Mac volume. On the other hand, both Macs and PCs can read and write FAT32 volumes, so cross-platform drives typically are formatted this way.

I have a networked drive (a NAS) that appears to be formatted in FAT32-except that it's a 300GB drive, and FAT32 has size limitations way below that...I can read and write it from both platforms, so I don't know what's up (and I don't care as long as it works).

Post the specific drives you're looking at and someone will probably quickly tell you what if any issue is at play here.

kevs · Mar 20, 2006, 09:33 PM

thanks GH:
well lets put it this way:
I'm shopping on J&R audio and in spec it says platform or OS: PC. ok? so don't buy that.

Just buy what says, "pc & mac", I think that'll be safeest bet. and I think Lacie is the pioneer with that. I was under the impression that any hardrive could work for both, but I guess that info was about being your hardrive and not sending it off to others who who knows what platform they are on.

USB/FW is this an issue: does not every user these days have both?
I guess I'll ask this:
If you want to spend around $100 for a small HD (40 -100 GB) to mail, which will be cross platform and last for few years to come, what would you go with?

ghporter · Mar 21, 2006, 06:48 AM

Frankly, I'd build my own. I can get a USB/Firewire enclosure for about $50, and then a big hard drive for around $100 (I've seen 200GB and even 300GB drives for this price after rebates), and then just put the drive in the enclosure and I'm done. I have yet to see anything that really compells me to say "Brand X is better" because what I said above is pretty much all they do.

peeb · Mar 24, 2006, 01:23 PM

It really doesn't matter as long as: 1. the drive has the physical connections for both machines (USB is safer than firewire for this, since everyone has it) 2. format it for fat32, since almost everything from mac, pc, to your digital camera can read it.

Beyond this, all modern drives will be the same in theory. Of course, there will be speed, quality issues.
Peeb

Apfhex · Mar 24, 2006, 01:52 PM

Hard drives are not platform specific, it only depends on how they're formatted. FAT32 is the universal option. If you're sending these to both Mac & PC users, chances are some PC users won't have Firewire, so USB 2.0 would be the best bet (faster for those who have it and backwards compatible with USB 1).