[328iGuy]

Hey

Well I just joined the MAC club and proud of it......but being my first MAC I have some simple questions I am hoping you experts can clear up for me without issue.

1. Can I use my external USB 2.0 250GB IDE drive? Does it need to be formatted specifically or is it fine in FAT32?

2. Can I use the integrated airport wireless card (iMac 17" Model) to hook up to my Linksys wireless router or do I NEED the Airport addon?

3. Once hooked up to my network, can it easily share files abck and forth with the other Windows XP based systems on the network?

Thanks a lot

[JKT]

1. You can keep it FAT32 if you just want to use it for storage (if you are sharing it with a Windows PC for example), but it isn't the most efficient file system for OS X. If you aren't going to use it with Windows as well, I would recommend reformatting as HFS+ (the Mac disk format). If you are sharing with Windows, do not reformat as NTFS as OS X can't write to NTFS (it is only able to read it).

2. Yes, it will work with any wireless router using standard b or g networking. You don't need an Airport base station.

3. It should be able to but I have no experience setting such a network up.

[328iGuy]

Originally Posted by JKT 

1. You can keep it FAT32 if you just want to use it for storage (if you are sharing it with a Windows PC for example), but it isn't the most efficient file system for OS X. If you aren't going to use it with Windows as well, I would recommend reformatting as HFS+ (the Mac disk format). If you are sharing with Windows, do not reformat as NTFS as OS X can't write to NTFS (it is only able to read it).

2. Yes, it will work with any wireless router using standard b or g networking. You don't need an Airport base station.

3. It should be able to but I have no experience setting such a network up.

Thanks a lot!

It will have to be FAT32 as I want to interface with other Windows XP systems as well for accessibility. Unfortunately I just checked and the partition is currently formatted as NTFS argh, will have to move files off, reformat and move back.

Thanks!

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

[quote=328iGuy;3237161]3. Once hooked up to my network, can it easily share files abck and forth with the other Windows XP based systems on the network?/quote]

Yes. go to Sys prefs > Sharing > check the box called "Windows Sharing"

[328iGuy]

[QUOTE=C.A.T.S. CEO;3237650]

Originally Posted by 328iGuy 

3. Once hooked up to my network, can it easily share files abck and forth with the other Windows XP based systems on the network?/quote]

Yes. go to Sys prefs > Sharing > check the box called "Windows Sharing"

Thanks!