Originally posted by glennmac:
<STRONG>I have a new TiBook and an older IBM laptop that I was using at work. I currently have no method of backing up either one. I think I can get a CDRW that they could share, but I'd rather have a hard drive. Can a PC and Mac both be connected to and share the same external hard drive? At the same time? If they can somehow share, could I transfer Word and Powerpoint documents between the PC and Mac via the hd?</STRONG>
They can't both be connected to the same Firewire drive at once, no. One or the other will use it, and on the other it won't show up. I wouldn't recommend even keeping it plugged into both at the same time, it'll probably cause problems with the machine that is accessing the drive.
Two ways you can format the drive for both Mac and PC. Format the harddrive for DOS and both the PC and Mac can use it. For Office documents and the like, that method will work perfectly, as virtually any Office document is platform independant. Just remember to use file extensions on the Mac, in order to have the apps on the PC see the documents. (IE: filename.doc and filename.pps etc.)
Also you can back up Mac Applications and Mac specific files on DOS formatted drives. There are some problems that can arrise from this however. You have to be very careful not to destroy the Mac resource files while using the disk on a PC. Sometimes Windows itself can screw up Mac directory files on the disk.
Another option is to use Mac HFS formatting, and an application like MacDrive on the PC that will allow the PC to read the Mac format. If you don't want to deal with DOS format, this is probably the best option.
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