Access iTunes Library From Vista, to OS X?

[buzlink]

I am currently running OS X and Vista on a MBP. All of my music currently resides on my OS X partition. Is there a way to allow iTunes with in Vista to access my library in OS X?

Is this even possible?

Thanks

 

[mad jew]

Well, you'll need MacDrive to read the HFS formatting. If I were you, I'd create a third partition with FAT32 formatting that can hold the library as it'll save time and effort in the long run.

 

[Merlinus]

If you create a third partition using FAT32, you wouldn't really need MacDrive since both Windows and OSX can read and write to it. However, there are limitations to file and volume size of FAT partitions.

In any case, a third partition for your music is a good idea though, even if you keep it HFS and use MacDrive. You really don't want Windows messing around on your OSX partition.

 

[buzlink]

Doh I was hoping that Vista could read the OS X partition. I'm not really wanting to partition my drive up more, since space is getting cramped on my MBP with OS X and 20 GB Vista install.

 

[Merlinus]

Doh I was hoping that Vista could read the OS X partition. I'm not really wanting to partition my drive up more, since space is getting cramped on my MBP with OS X and 20 GB Vista install.

Well it can with MacDrive if you want it to. A separate partition is more for organizational and security reasons - for example, Windows wouldn't respect any of the security of your OSX drive. It'll be able to access, overwrite and delete any file. It could crash catastrophically while you just happened to be going through the OSX system files and mess up OSX files, etc. Not a huge deal, but it's possible.

 

[buzlink]

Ouch

Maybe I could get an external drive and place em all on there. Is a USB 2.0 drive have enough bandwidth to be able to play music straight off the drive?

 

[jdechko]

Yes, USB 2.0 has a maximum bandwidth of 480Mbps (in practice, the transfer speeds will be considerably slower, but still acceptable) while an iTMS song has either a 128 or 256 Kbps bandwidth. Even uncompressed AIFF and WAV (around 1411Kbps) can be played without problems.

Then again, what FS are you going to format the external as? It would almost have to be FAT32, or the entire point is moot (NTFS is un-writable in OS X without system mods, HFS is un-readable and un-writable in Windows without 3rd-party software, so you'd be back at square 1).

My recommendation is Mac Drive. It's some great software, and you always have your music with you (would suck to forget the drive or lose it/have it stolen).

 

[mad jew]

My recommendation is Mac Drive. It's some great software, and you always have your music with you (would suck to forget the drive or lose it/have it stolen).

...but then you've got Vista playing in OSX's backyard. Mate, an external drive is a pretty wise decision, especially if you're running low on space as it is.