Few questions before the big switch

[Optimus]

Hello to all!

I am making the switch from a lifetime Pc user to a s Mac user during this summer. Or as soon as the updated rev B MBP and Leopard comes out.

A few things did come to mind as I was planning to switch to a Mac.


1. If I have a external HD (Western Digital) connected to the MBP via firewire 800, what partition would I have to use?

2. If I stored music, movies, pictures etc. on it would they show up in XP (have to use it for gameing sometimes) when running Bootcamp? What about the files I have stored in the OS X partition? Will they be accessable in XP Bootcamp and vice versa?


I'm also hoping that I could buy the MBP first then make sure that the external HD works under OS X and then connect the external HD to my old desktop PC via USB and move my files to a new home.

Oh and mind the english because I'm a Finn.

 

[gauchogolfer]

Hello, and welcome to MR.

I'd recommend reading up on the file systems used by OS X and Windows.

Namely: HFS+ and FAT32. Check out wikipedia or google, and you'll find the limitations implied in trying to share data between Macs and PCs.

 

[Optimus]

Hello, and welcome to MR.

I'd recommend reading up on the file systems used by OS X and Windows.

Namely: HFS+ and FAT32. Check out wikipedia or google, and you'll find the limitations implied in trying to share data between Macs and PCs.

Hi! Thank you for the wellcome.

So what I learned as a read a few wiki articless through quickly, that if I partition the windows side of the HD as FAT32, I will be able to access files in windows from the OS X side with bootcamp(?)

I'm guessing that when I use simulation software ie. PSpice or Aplac on the windowds side, I'll be able to access .doc and images from the OS X.

Guess I'll just have to partition the external HD to HFS+ and use on the OS X for storage (movies images etc).

I'm thinking that the FAT32 partition for Windows will have to be 40-60Gb so that I'll be able to instal a few games and all of the simulation software I use.

 

[gauchogolfer]

Ole hyvä.

(I'm not Finnish, I just pulled that off of a website).

Your plan sounds good to me. OS X should be able to read the FAT32 partition, but not write to it. The inverse is not true of HFS+ and Windows. However, there is a product called MacDrive that you can purchase which allows Windows to read HFS-formatted drives.

 

[Optimus]

Ole hyvä.

(I'm not Finnish, I just pulled that off of a website).

Your plan sounds good to me. OS X should be able to read the FAT32 partition, but not write to it. The inverse is not true of HFS+ and Windows. However, there is a product called MacDrive that you can purchase which allows Windows to read HFS-formatted drives.

Lol.. Kiitos paljon.

The MacDrive looks pretty interesting and there's a free trial for the newest version. I'll have to test it out when I get my Mac. Hopefully by June.. or May.

Thanks for all the info! Again I'm one step closer to picking up a Mac.

 

[nplima]

OS X should be able to read the FAT32 partition, but not write to it.

Bzzt. Wrong. FAT32 partitions can be read and written by OS X.

on related news, the other day someone developed a NTFS driver for Linux and OS X: http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

Also, there are ways to use EXT2 partitions on both Windows (http://www.fs-driver.org/) and Mac (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsx/)

In an ideal world, we'd all go running to get EXT2 for all partitions that need to be shared across different computers but in fact there are so many more Windows users that the NTFS project is already "stable" while the other 2 are Beta... In any case, I wouldn't trust my life's memories to a NTFS partition, you never know when MS decides to change the specs and you end up with a semi-functional disk...

Nuno

 

[jdechko]

Yeah, part of the problem is your drive size. FAT32 would be the more universal file system that you can use, but for practical purposes the size limit of the drive is only 32GB. NTFS for windows can handle more, as can HFS+ for OS X, but then there's either a write problem (OS X cant write to NTFS) or a read/write problem (Windows can't read or write to HFS+)

MacDrive works well on the windows side of things. Theres a stripped down version included in XPlay. I used XPlay initially to sync my HFS formatted iPod under windows before Apple released the Fat32 installer software.

 

[mkrishnan]

Yeah, part of the problem is your drive size. FAT32 would be the more universal file system that you can use, but for practical purposes the size limit of the drive is only 32GB.

I don't think this is true. It was at one time, but FAT32 was extended for larger volumes and larger volumes are recognized both in OS X and in Windows. Case in point is that a 60GB iPod is a 60GB single partition FAT32 volume, as far as I know.

 

[jdechko]

I don't think this is true. It was at one time, but FAT32 was extended for larger volumes and larger volumes are recognized both in OS X and in Windows. Case in point is that a 60GB iPod is a 60GB single partition FAT32 volume, as far as I know.

Yeah, thinking about it now, you're right. I had some information confused. On Win 95/98/me, the max was 128GB, but Wiki lists the theoretical max way higher.

Ignore that part of what I said. (Can I use the excuse of having a 3-week old? )

 

[gauchogolfer]

Oops, sorry for the NTFS/FAT32 mixup. I'm Mac-only, and thus a bit rusty in my PC wisdom.

 

[Optimus]

Heureka!

I'll partition the external firewire HD to a OS X HFS+ and access it on the windows side via MacDrive. The 6.0 version of MacDrive seems to support it. Thus I can save all of the data on the external HD, that doesn't need speedy access (anything other that games and apps) and can use it with both OS X and windows.

The windows side of the internal HD would be NTFS and about 50 to 60Gigs.

 

[mkrishnan]

Ignore that part of what I said. (Can I use the excuse of having a 3-week old? )

And a very cute one at that!

 

[ahriman]

or if you happen to have a windows server laying around simply turn on mac support and voila! volumes accessible by either mac or windows!

 

[mkrishnan]

or if you happen to have a windows server laying around simply turn on mac support and voila! volumes accessible by either mac or windows!

You can actually do that with served volumes from any computer...doesn't need to be running Windows Server (not sure if you meant that or not). But any Mac, Linux, or Windows computer should be able to serve native volumes to any of the other three.

 

[ahriman]

You can actually do that with served volumes from any computer...doesn't need to be running Windows Server (not sure if you meant that or not). But any Mac, Linux, or Windows computer should be able to serve native volumes to any of the other three.

nah, it was the "just laying around" part, as if anyone would just have a server laying around to solve a somewhat simple problem. but true, and server worth its salt should be able to serve up volumes natively to many platforms concurrently.

 

[Optimus]

Thanks to all of you guys for helping me solve this dilemma. I really don't have any problems in mind in switching to OS X platform MacBook Pro. Now the only thing left to do is wait until the next version of the MBP rollers out.

 

[ahriman]

Now the only thing left to do is wait until the next version of the MBP rollers out.

i am curious, is it the hardware (new chipset etc) or software (leopard etc) that most interests you and makes you want to wait? and why?

 

[Optimus]

i am curious, is it the hardware (new chipset etc) or software (leopard etc) that most interests you and makes you want to wait? and why?

Well a month or so ago I started to toy with the idea that I would buy a lapton and later on build a new desktop pc. But the only thing I favored in a new desktop was a better GPU and the HD volume. Realizing that I really don't game on my pc that much made think that I would look for a to of the line laptop. An external HD would solve the HD problem and dedicated GPU in the laptop would give me the possibility to do some gaming now and then. I'm also thinking about buying a console for gaming at some point.

I was looking at asus, dell, hp and one day I started to think, what about ? And here I am.

Mostly I would say I'm waiting for Leopard. But since the MBP line up isn't brand new and my desktop at the moment runs pretty strong, I desided to wait for the next hardware update before buying. At the moment I can't justify the need for a Mac, only the desire for it. That's why I wait, because I can wait for the next thing that Apple puts out for the Pro line laptops.

 

[ahriman]

i was sort of on the fence about leopard, waiting or not, $129 is not that big of deal when you look at the $3000 price tag for the MBP purchase. what cinched waiting for me was the new chipset - 800MHz FSB in particular.