Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

[PlanB]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

I note from your earlier posts that PC and Macs are more likely to be compatible nowadays then they were in the past, so perhaps market forces are at work and both see no sense in creating an allergy between their products

[Riz]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

Eureka ! My external HDD (loaded with my PC files) works on my daughter's trendy Apple MAC laptop I nipped over to her gaff today, plugged it in and there it all was. So you were right Rizzle. Thank you so much

Now I really am on Cloud Nine

Excellent.

[PlanB]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

Result indeed!

But I'm still going to explore the Cloud option suggested by Flowerpower in case my daughter kicks me into touch when I tell her about a recent court case which slipped my mind on the visit today

[philnicandamy]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

result!

[PlanB]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

Most likely formatted with NTFS then.

With a bit of luck, PlanB's should both read and write if FAT32.

Eureka ! My external HDD (loaded with my PC files) works on my daughter's trendy Apple MAC laptop I nipped over to her gaff today, plugged it in and there it all was. So you were right Rizzle. Thank you so much

Now I really am on Cloud Nine

[philnicandamy]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

well..most offer 2GB and up for cloud storage....you can pay for more if needed

(if you know anyone with a sony ericsson xperia mobile handset www.box.com offer 50GB of FREE space) but as a basic user they offer 5GB for free

and so far they've been pretty usefull for me...

[PlanB]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

True online storage can be a little slow..BUT i've found it pretty useful in the past with backups of stuff i've needed while out and about...I certainly wouldnt ever pay for a service been using box.net for a fair while now they had an offer via sony ericsson my mobile for an account of 50GB

nowhere near need that but it's been useful..

also to back up i've 2 external drives and a NAS drive...and 25GB backups on my blu ray burner...paranoid about data loss?? me?? hhahahahahahah

At my age I'm more paranoid about my short term memory loss. This cloud thing could be my saviour

[philnicandamy]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

True online storage can be a little slow..BUT i've found it pretty useful in the past with backups of stuff i've needed while out and about...I certainly wouldnt ever pay for a service been using box.net for a fair while now they had an offer via sony ericsson my mobile for an account of 50GB

nowhere near need that but it's been useful..

also to back up i've 2 external drives and a NAS drive...and 25GB backups on my blu ray burner...paranoid about data loss?? me?? hhahahahahahah

[PlanB]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

I quite like the concept of having a filing cabinet in the sky in case my home gets robbed or catches fire and I lose my external HDD It also means that if I turn up at a meeting without my laptop I can still access my files from someone else's computer and not look like a fool for forgetting stuff. One less thing to carry around in my handbag too

[kilasuit]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

online cloud storage all sounds well and good but personally it aint much to brag about. i have used one in the past but stopped using it as was quicker and easier and more secure to just back up to another hard drive.

plus that way only you have access to the information on that drive

[PlanB]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

Thanks FP. This could open up a whole new debate on who actually owns the copyright of anything and everything posted on the "net". Do Twitter or Facebook own the copyright of all postings Maybe when you open a Twitter account you tick the box which signs away your rights and ditto AAD and possibly Cloud too I don't have a problem with that.

As a journalist (ok here I go again ) in my day you either retain the copyright of everything you write/publish (and the obvious residual financial implications) or you sign away your rights (not on your nelly) to the publisher of your work (i.e. a newspaper or TV station). The whole extra-terrestial thing is way beyond me but I'm suddenly intrigued

[Riz]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

II always read NTFS was the better file system, FAT32 was supposed to be used with old versions of Windoze. Isn't it true that FAT32 can't store files over 4Gb? I think that's why I use the NTFS drive - I had some video files over 4Gb hence the need for a HD rather than a stick or a DVD.

Yep. FAT32 is limited to singe files sizes of about 4GB.

Looks like with newer Macs you can enable or install write support for NTFS with a bit of effort.

See: NTFS On Mac Tutorial

Whether you're work would be prepared to do that on the machine is another matter.....

[PlanB]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

Only President Obama can access them because he is the most powerful man in the world!

On a more serious note, it works just like here: if you upload something to the secure area of the forum, only you and Niddy can see it. I can only see my own agreements but not anyone else's. The cloud backup is like the secure area here, there are many cloud users but each user can only see their own files.

Don't forget Obama is the most fit man in the world after David Beckham

Who owns Cloud? And if I want to go 'elsewhere' (or can't pay my bill) do I do the usual MAC number "I'm off" thing and take my data with me to the next providor or will Cloud still hold my data? In fact who actually owns my data? I feel an ICO moment coming on

I also think it's time I went to bed but I'll be back in the morning because I have a real interest in who actually owns things posted in cyberspace from a copyright perspective

[Riz]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

Grabbed this off the web.

Operating systems along the top. What files systems they can read/write down the side.

[Riz]

Re: Will a PC external hard drive work on a MAC?

I can read my external PC HDs on the work Mac but not write to them.

Most likely formatted with NTFS then.

With a bit of luck, PlanB's should both read and write if FAT32.