Windows FAT on Mac

[mcsaxman]

I have read that it is possible to get software that will allow me to write from windows to a hard drive formatted for Mac Intel machines. I would like to be able to use this hard drive primarily to back up my Mac but to periodically back up from windows machines. Does anyone know about such software?

thanks,

Chris

[John A]

You don't need any special software. Mac OS X includes read/write support for Fat32 out of the box.

[mcsaxman]

You don't need any special software. Mac OS X includes read/write support for Fat32 out of the box.

Thanks for the note, Joe. Does this mean that if I format an external hard drive for Mac, I can also move files from a windows box onto this hard drive? Woudl I just hook the hard drive up to the windows computer, and i it will be recognized?

My problem is that I use a MacBook as my primary computer, but I run Parallels on it and still programs based on Windows accordingly. I also have an older Windows box from which I want to suck a bunch of files, so I would love to be able to hook that computer to my drive at least once.

Any more thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Best,

Chris

[John A]

Thanks for the note, Joe. Does this mean that if I format an external hard drive for Mac, I can also move files from a windows box onto this hard drive? Woudl I just hook the hard drive up to the windows computer, and i it will be recognized?

My problem is that I use a MacBook as my primary computer, but I run Parallels on it and still programs based on Windows accordingly. I also have an older Windows box from which I want to suck a bunch of files, so I would love to be able to hook that computer to my drive at least once.

I might as well just cover all the bases, it all depends on your setup. Windows, as you may already be aware, uses the NTFS filesystem by default. Mac OS X will automatically mount FAT32 partitions with read/write access, whereas it will automatically mount NTFS partitions, but with read-only access. Windows on the other hand, offers zero default support for Mac OS X's HFS file system.

Of course, it doesn't have to stay that way. If you want to give Mac OS X the ability to write to an NTFS partition, take a look at MacFUSE and its NTFS plugin . As for Windows, you can get read-only access to HFS volumes using HFSExplorer , or if you want full read/write access you'll have to buy MacDrive .