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Best Format for HDD

D

dezza.1985

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 17, 2010
61
0
Hi Everyone

I am about to purchase an external HDD drive to use with my NAS system, what is the best option when it comes to the format?

I want my Apple TV, Macbook and Windows PC to both read and write onto the Drive?

I know that my external HDD that I have for my Time Machine doesn't even get recognised in my Windows PC and one that works in Windows, I can't write onto on my Macbook?

Cheers
 
Is is a prebuilt NAS or one you built yourself?

If its a prebuilt one then once you put in the drive it will format it to whatever format the NAS box uses, most likely a version of one of the Linux file systems. If its a self built NAS then you may be able to choose which filesystem to use but again most NAS boxes use a linux filesystem ie ext2 or ext3.

Regardless of NAS type once formatted NAS drives aren't meant to be taken out of the NAS box to be used.

As for reading/writing to the drive, a NAS box connects to your network so any computer regardless of OS will be able to read/write data to it.
 
Sorry my bad, I see your talking about connecting a external HD to your NAS.

In that case FAT32 is supported out of the box on both Windows and OSX or NTFS works in OSX using NTFS-3G drivers.
 
Thanks for the answer, I think I miss lead you when I asked the question, mainly as I didn't explain myself properly... My fault.

The set up that I'm going to be using is very simple, I'm going to be attaching a external HDD to a airport extreme and using that as a very basic set up.
 
roidy said:
Sorry my bad, I see your talking about connecting a external HD to your NAS.

In that case FAT32 is supported out of the box on both Windows and OSX or NTFS works in OSX using NTFS-3G drivers.
Click to expand...

Are those drivers something that you have to download seperatly? As I think I have tried to connect an NTFS drive to my macbook OSX before and it could only read?!
 
roidy said:
Yep APE wont support an NTFS external drive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPort#Airport_Disk
Click to expand...

Ahh I see, the other option that I looked at was to get a My Book World Edition and plug it into my existing router, would that be a better option then? It states that it's Mac compatible?

I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to the compatibility between windows and mac especially with external data
 
The problem with the "My Book World Edition" is that it's a sealed unit so once it's full your stuffed. Your much better off spending the money on a proper NAS enclosure with removable drive bays so that you have the option to install more drives for increased storage at a later date.
 
roidy said:
The problem with the "My Book World Edition" is that it's a sealed unit so once it's full your stuffed. Your much better off spending the money on a proper NAS enclosure with removable drive bays so that you have the option to install more drives for increased storage at a later date.
Click to expand...

I know it's a really tough choice to make, I'm in the position that I need more space but I don't have the cash at the moment to fork out a large amount on a full NAS system, I know long term that the NAS will save me money, but its a good £300 to set the thing up, from what I have seen anyway.
 
Not at all, you can pick up a empty 2 bay NAS for anywhere between £100 and £150 and then just start off with a 1TB drive for around £60 and then expand later.

It just depends how many bays you want and weather you want to buy branded. I purchased a LG N2B1DD2 2 bay NAS populated with 2x1Tb HD's and a built in Blu-ray writer for £320, it's one of the best purchases I've made in a long time. You can also buy the LG with no hard drives and just a DVD writer for £135 which is a good price and then add your own hard drives.

I'm a Windows only user and have had no problems at all with the LG NAS, some of the Amazon reviews of the LG say it's not so good on a MAC, weather this is ture or not I don't know. However this review is done using a MAC.

http://www.geekanoids.co.uk/reviews/tag/lg
 
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