Writing to Windows XP Drive

[JWFerne]

Has anyone had any luck actually being able to write to a Windows Drive while in MacOS? Currently I'm only able to pull files off the Windows drive .

Cheers!

 

[waremaster]

Has anyone had any luck actually being able to write to a Windows Drive while in MacOS? Currently I'm only able to pull files off the Windows drive .

Cheers!

If your windows drive is formatted NTFS you cannot WRITE to it from OSX if it's formatted Fat32 you can. I hope that helps clear things up for you.

 

[JWFerne]

That makes sense.... so if I reformat in Fat32, what issues will I have putting windows XP on the drive? Any limitations?

Sorry for the basic questions... pretty new to the Mac side of the fence. The grass is greener here btw!

 

[tipdrill407]

That makes sense.... so if I reformat in Fat32, what issues will I have putting windows XP on the drive? Any limitations?

Sorry for the basic questions... pretty new to the Mac side of the fence. The grass is greener here btw!

Once you reformat the windows partition to FAT32, you should be able to read and write to the windows partition from OS X with no problems.

 

[Glen Quagmire]

But FAT32 is restricted in terms of the maximum partition size (NTFS is not, for all intents and purposes).

Comparison of NTFS and FAT32:

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

An alternative solution would be to use MacDrive, which allows a PC to read and write HFS+ drives.

 

[BadRambo]

But FAT32 is restricted in terms of the maximum partition size (NTFS is not, for all intents and purposes).

Comparison of NTFS and FAT32:

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

An alternative solution would be to use MacDrive, which allows a PC to read and write HFS+ drives.

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Using the Drive Utility in OSX, you can format any size drive to FAT32. I just did a 300GB for some tests --- and it is all now FAT32.

Cheers -- Bob --

 

[amin]

I dedicated a drive in my Mac Pro to Windows XP. Gave that drive two partitions - one 30GB partition in FAT32 which the XP sees as drive C, and one larger partition in NTFS which Windows sees as drive D. Drive C makes a nice go between for Mac and Windows - worls like a charm!

 

[slinger1968]

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Using the Drive Utility in OSX, you can format any size drive to FAT32. I just did a 300GB for some tests --- and it is all now FAT32.

Cheers -- Bob --

But will XP read and write to a FAT32 drive over 32GB? I didn't think it would?

I dedicated a drive in my Mac Pro to Windows XP. Gave that drive two partitions - one 30GB partition in FAT32 which the XP sees as drive C, and one larger partition in NTFS which Windows sees as drive D. Drive C makes a nice go between for Mac and Windows - worls like a charm!

This is pretty much what I've decided to do when I get my Mac Pro. But I've been using "work" partitions for files for well over 10 years. Keeping your files off the OS partition has always been SOP for me.

 

[balamw]

But will XP read and write to a FAT32 drive over 32GB? I didn't think it would?

It sure will. I have an external 300 GB Maxtor drive in FAT32 I've used with both XP and OS X.

B

 

[JWFerne]

Are there any file limitation sizes on Fat32 in Windows? I burn ISO's of movies that will be roughly 3-4 gig

 

[balamw]

Are there any file limitation sizes on Fat32 in Windows? I burn ISO's of movies that will be roughly 3-4 gig

Yes, FAT32 is limited to just under 4 GB maximum file size. So many ISOs violate that and would have to be split somehow...

B

 

[Glen Quagmire]

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Using the Drive Utility in OSX, you can format any size drive to FAT32. I just did a 300GB for some tests --- and it is all now FAT32.

Cheers -- Bob --

Well, you learn something new every day. Thanks Bob!

 

[slinger1968]

It sure will. I have an external 300 GB Maxtor drive in FAT32 I've used with both XP and OS X.

B

Thanks for the info, I don't think I've used FAT32 in about 4 years.

This will make it easy to set up a work drive that XP or Vista can share with OS X

 

[JWFerne]

Thanks for all the feedback guys! Very valuable