Question for the computer savvy types

[littleheaven]

Hi all.  I'm wanting to use my PC as external storage to my Mac.  It has 3 hard drives, the primary is 320GB, the secondary is 250GB and the third 200GB.

I'm going to probably use the primary for vidding with Vegas, since I have to vid and currently don't have the time to learn Final Cut Express on the Mac.  There's enough storage on there for my source clips plus the project itself and any pre-rendered files.  I'm pretty sure I need to leave this hard drive formatted as NTFS to run XP effectively.

The other two hard drives I'd like to use to back up downloaded media files that are currently on a Mac-formatted external hard drive, plus other files on my Mac itself.  Mac will read NTFS but not write to it.  However it will read FAT 32, as will Windows.  Therefore, I'd like to format the other two drives in my PC as FAT 32 so I can read and write from both the PC and the Mac.  Will that work?  Will the PC mind running one drive as NTFS and two as FAT 32?

All answers, suggestions, and hints gratefully accepted!

Comments

[auntyk.livejournal.com]

ok, YMMV but I use Linux (basis for Mac or so I'm told).

Any hoo, I run the primary harddrive using either NTFS or ext3 (Linux format) though I can't remember which and my slave as FAT32(I think it's FAT32 and can check when I get home) as are my external hardrive 1TB.

The problem with Fat32 (as I've discovered) is that it can be unstable....but that's another story.

I would expect that if your primary drive (that which you run windows off) is NTFS, it doesn't really matter what you format your two slave drives as they aren't what windows uses to run XP, they're simply storage (or at least that's what I uss it for).

I hope I've been helpful with my 2c

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Yes, Macs are based on the same base code as Linux :o) And that was helpful, thank you. I suspected it would be okay, because when I boot the Mac in Windows (I have a very small partition just to run a few key programmes) it can see the Fat 32 external drive fine, but not the Mac drives.

[jomadge.livejournal.com]

XP has limitations with what it can do with FAT32. For example (if memory serves - it's been ages since I did anything ith FAT32), XP can't format drives to FAT32 if the drive is larger than 32 gigs (though third party software can help with that), and it can't write individual files larger than 4gigs on FAT32 drives.

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

I've come across the 4GB limit thing before, so I was aware of that. But the 32GB thing is going to squash the plan because the two drives I want to format as FAT 32 are both over 200GB. Darn.

It might just be easier to buy another external hard drive. *sigh*

ETA: Google, I love thee. Found instructions on how to do it via DOS, and also a link to a little freeware application that will do it for you if DOS doesn't work. YAY.