Looking to buy an external hard drive for our office, so we can back up files from our current server and access them for a short while until the new server is installed at our new location. We would like to just be able to plug into any of our computers as needed.

However, I have been told that usb external drives cannot be used across platforms (osx and xp), so we would need two external drives, one for pc's and one for macs. I assumed that this was not the case, and that you could just plug and play on both os's (like you can with a flash drive).

Does anyone know if there are any out there that do not have compatibility issues, and can easily be used on both? Or if there are any tricks to making them work on both os's?

thanks!

10/14/2005 9:55:18 AM

As long as the drive is formatted in FAT32 you should be able to use it across platforms.

[Edited on October 14, 2005 at 9:59 AM. Reason : source: http://images.apple.com/macosx/pdf/MacOSX_Windows_TB.pdf]

10/14/2005 9:59:22 AM

yeah, just get a lacie usb 2.0 drive for about 129 for 160gb or something

10/14/2005 11:54:56 AM

You also might want to think about just getting a network drive like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144411

If you're moving it around constantly, it might just be easier to do that. Or just add an internal to one of the comps on the network and just share the whole damn thing.

10/14/2005 12:11:39 PM

thanks everyone - great ideas. I appreciate the help

10/14/2005 1:41:13 PM

OSX can read NTFS correct?

10/14/2005 4:15:30 PM

btw dont spent 130 on a 160gb external. pricewatch that shit.

10/14/2005 6:30:07 PM