They can't even write FAT? I can understand NTFS, that's proprietry.

Quote from Bob Smith :

They can't even write FAT? I can understand NTFS, that's proprietry.

Had a bit more of a trawl and it can read/write FAT

They can read NTFS, but not write to it. They can read/write FAT32, but it's a terrible file system, and limited to 32Gb. I suppose you could partition the drive, splitting it between OS X and Windows, have half HFS+ and half NTFS.

Quote from spookthehamster :

They can read NTFS, but not write to it. They can read/write FAT32, but it's a terrible file system, and limited to 32Gb. I suppose you could partition the drive, splitting it between OS X and Windows, have half HFS+ and half NTFS.

Whats the best way to format the HD then, I assume I cant format a NTFS partition from my mac and AFAIK partitioning a drive from XP requires additional software. How limited would HFS be on XP? Maybe if I created an HFS and an NTFS partition with the option of being able to move files between them using the software that was linked to earlier on XP, which i wont actually be need to do very often.

partitioning from within XP can be easily done.
Here's an easy guide http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000588.htm

And some additional info for the Disk management tool here http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_management.htm

HFS isn't just limited in XP, it doesn't work. If you can live with the limits (such as maximum file sizes) of FAT32 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT32) then I'd make a 32Gb FAT32 partition, and have the rest as HFS+, then you can still have some files accessible to both systems.

Quote from spookthehamster :

I'd make a 32Gb FAT32 partition, and have the rest as HFS+, then you can still have some files accessible to both systems.

Why 32GiB? It's only Microsoft software that has that partition size limit for FAT32 (when creating the partition - it will read larger fine, and even format them).

Another idea, would be to format the drive with the ext2 filesystem. If Macs can read/write that? And then use this driver in Windows for accessing it.

http://www.fs-driver.org/

Edit: Found an open source mac driver - http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsx/

Is there anyway to add a HFS/NTFS/FAT partition onto a drive? I assume it could be done but I'd need software that allows me to create both HFS and NTSC partitions which would obviously rule either the standard mac/windows tools out. Otherwise I could probably live with a HFS and FAT partition.

Dunno about NTSC heeh btu NTFS and FAT can be done in windows. HFS and FAT can also be done on the mac.

I've had a 200gb drive formatted as FAT32 and used it on the macs at work and pc at home. It has both USB2.0 and eSATA. So at work I'd use the USB and just wait while it copied stuff, and at home I'd hook it up using the external SATA connection for fast speeds.

The caddy wasn't much more expensive than a plain USB only one, and the sata drive was cheaper than the IDE at the time sot ehy offset each other pretty much.

There's the option of using Macdrive on windows to read HFS, btu I don't really trust it and rather go FAT32. Forget FAT if you're working with files over 4gb though, it'll crap out on you.

Quote from Davo :

There's the option of using Macdrive on windows to read HFS, btu I don't really trust it and rather go FAT32. Forget FAT if you're working with files over 4gb though, it'll crap out on you.

Shouldn't be an issue I think I'll use FAT with a small NTFS partition for the very few files that I may use over 4gb, I think 1 dvd iso is the only file over 4gb I've ever used.

Bidding on this one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/maxtor-2 ... 16178QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

at £28 inc P+P it seems to good to miss even if its a bit of a risk.

Assuming that I'm going to get the IDE drive I now need an IDE caddie, and a cheap one if possible. So I've got a couple I like the look of:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer ... M=&product_uid=118510
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/79988

Although I'll probably go for this one:
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/120659/rb/24405483542

EDIT: got out bid with a minute to go, still looking...

I've got a 250 gig Wester Digital MyBook sitting on my desk. Cost me 100 USD, and it works great.

Another question, sorry I ask loads of them How can some caddies have a hard drive capacity limit?

The little chip that converts from IDE to USB probably has some kind of limitation. Most max out at 300GB though, so you should be safe. Oh yeah, better off getting a good brand because some of teh chips are incompatible with some mobos. The caddy on my old mobo didn't work properly. Didn't let me format it and speeds were very slow. new mobo and everything is fine. Should be right as logn as you go for a reputable brand. I took what the store had instead of going for a Vantec (they told me it was the same as a Vantec) only to find out about the problem later. Lucily I was getting anew system anyway and it worked fine at work.

Never heard of Sumvision, but might pay to do some homework on what chip it uses and which ones are problem free. google should coem up with some answers.

any list of good/bad chips? I was thinking getting it as cheap as possible from ebay TBH is that a bad idea, seeing its only risking £10?

I'll try to find a list somewhere but its been a while since I looked at them myself. I only found out after I had purchased it and it's definately not worth the hassle.

Genesis Logic seem to be the crap chips.

http://www.hollants.com/external_usb_controller_chips.html