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nlf1187

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 14, 2006
15
0
Will i be able to access the same files while running XP that I can while running OSX? or are documents, music files, and everything else kept seperate between the two operating systems?
 

jambi

macrumors newbie
Jul 14, 2006
10
0
I might be wrong, but your mac will read a FAT32 partition, while your windows won't read the mac partition. What you can do is save all the stuff you want to go between OSes on a FAT32 drive, be it your windows partition or an external HD.

The problem, though, is if you formatted your Windows partition as NTFS, then you're screwed if you don't have an external HD. I think.

Though NTFS is more stable, supposedly, anything I might ever connect to both Mac and PC I make FAT32, just in case.
 

Electro Funk

macrumors 65816
Dec 8, 2005
1,073
0
The Opium Garden
jambi said:
I might be wrong, but your mac will read a FAT32 partition, while your windows won't read the mac partition. What you can do is save all the stuff you want to go between OSes on a FAT32 drive, be it your windows partition or an external HD.

The problem, though, is if you formatted your Windows partition as NTFS, then you're screwed if you don't have an external HD. I think.

Though NTFS is more stable, supposedly, anything I might ever connect to both Mac and PC I make FAT32, just in case.

you are not wrong ;)
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,977
4,543
New Zealand
You can convert a FAT32 volume to NTFS by typing "convert c: /fs:ntfs" in a command prompt. Perhaps "convert c: /fs:fat32" will bring it back to FAT32.
 

ChrisBrightwell

macrumors 68020
Apr 5, 2004
2,294
0
Huntsville, AL
Alternatively, you could try an app like MacDrive to read your Mac partition while booted into Windows.

Just to clarify ...
- Windows XP can not read HFS+ partitions
- OS X can read/write FAT32 partitions
- OS X can read (but not write) NTFS partitions

The "cleanest" solution, IMO, is to use MacDrive on the XP install (to access your iTunes stash and ~/Documents and whatnot) and live life as you normally would within OS X.
 
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