

Portable Hard Drives

Discussion in 'Off Topic [BG]' started by iamlowsound, Jan 8, 2012.

  1. I am looking for a Portable Hard Drive that basically acts as a jump drive, just a lot more storage. My problem is that I use both Mac OSX and Windows and will need to use it with both. I haven't found any yet that say that they can do this. All of the ones that I have found say that they have to be formatted one or the other. So oh wise TBOT, is there such a device that can do this? I need 320gig, or more.

  2. DigMe


    Aug 10, 2002
    Waco, TX
  3. I have a LaCie 750gb external I got a couple of years ago @ Future Shop. It came with software on board that creates multiple partitions, including one that is win/mac compatible called Exchange. I set mine up when I had a hackintosh, so my second partition will work for both. Don't have the hacky anymore, but the drive is still there. I just use it for a backup backup.
  4. jabsys


    Mar 30, 2011
    I bought a WD Passport and formatted it FAT32, works fine on windows, osx and linux if you don't need to store files over 4gb.
  5. Thanks guys, this is just was I was looking for. I need to move big files all the time for school.

  6. Any hard drive can be formated to FAT and work on both mac and PC!
    You need to format it on your mac when you first plug it in, (disk Utilities/Erase/ Fat 32)

    The disk will then work on both OS.

    You wont be able to store files bigger than 4gb in Fat 32
  7. Is there a way to get around this? I might need to move files that are bigger than that.

  8. Strohsx


    Aug 16, 2011
    Any drive will work just format it fat 32, only problem you will experience is windows will not allow you to transfer files larger than 4GB to a fat 32 drive. SMaller files sure just not mot more then 4GB at any given file make sense.

    if you format it Exfat on your mac windows will have problems
    If you format it NTFS the mac will have problems with it.

    I highly suggest the Western Digital Passports I've got a 1TB one and it works great and is about the size of a deck of cards., if you need larger WD makes a "my book" for something like that, that's a bit larger but also requires it's own power cord..
  9. Nope, Fat 32 will not allow bigger files!

    Also, for some reason some HD need to be formated to fat 32 on a mac first before they work!
    I have had HD that i formated first on a PC that didnt work on mac but started working on both after being formated on a mac!

    I always format a new HD in FAT 32 from a mac before i use it on either OS! (if it is going to be used in Fat 32)
  10. DigMe


    Aug 10, 2002
    Waco, TX
    Yes, there is a way around it according to my earlier post.

  11. Selta


    Feb 6, 2002
    Pacific Northwet
    Total fanboi of: Fractal Audio, AudiKinesis Cabs, Dingwall basses
    Just use something like WinRAR to split up the file into multiple RAR files.
  12. MIJ-VI

    MIJ-VI Inactive Supporting Member

    Jan 12, 2009
    I use Ubuntu 10.04.3 and from the Ubuntu Repositories I always download gparted which can partition drives to one's needs and format them to just about anything.

    Here's a gparted solution for all you Windows and Mac fans too:
    GParted -- About

    Once you sort out your hard drive portioning and formatting needs these little drives are worth considering: :: MAXIMIZE YOUR DIGITAL WORLD ::

    I have the USB 2.0-only model with a 500GB, 5,400 RPM Seagate HD. The elephant2go's aluminum construction and design that promotes convection cooling helps to keep its HD from overheating.

    BTW. Due to extensive flooding in Thailand new hard drive availability has been severely hampered. It seems that all of the world's HD's are now made in that country.
  13. That post says nothing about files bigger than 4gb!
  14. Can you not still use zip or rar files to split a larger file into smaller seperate files?
  15. Is there any way you could network the computers together and allow file sharing, either by a physical LAN or VPN? I've got a MacBook, WinXP Alienware, and Vista laptop all playing nice on my home network.

  16. I guess you could, it depends what kind of file you are talking about!
    The only way i ever had single files bigger than 4 gb where movies... (a single AVI file)
    I dont see how you would get anything else bigger than 4gb!
  17. It is between home, school and work. All very different locations.

  18. MIJ-VI

    MIJ-VI Inactive Supporting Member

    Jan 12, 2009
    Have you talked to the systems administrators involved about making a Gigabit ethernet port(s) available for FTP?

    It's been a while since I had a PPC G4 Mac running OS X 10.3.9 but I recall getting it to transfer files via FTP with a PC running Ubuntu 7.10 therefore Windows should work as well since FTP (File Transfer Protocal) is a cross platform way of transferring files.

    (Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken. )

    EDIT: I forgot to mention that instead of an external hard drive one would have to use a Gigabit Ethernet equipped netbook (preferably a dual core model like this affordable unit: STAPLES | BUREAU EN GROS or notebook directly wired to a Gigabit Ethernet port. Adding a few expansion cards that provide such ports to the host machines shouldn't cost much.

    Note: Ubuntu will run well on many of these cheap netbooks (install Ubuntu on a USB thumb drive and try-before-you-buy) and will provide free access to all the networking tools one would need and much more.

    What's more I recently bought a 2.5" elephant2go external hard drive from a Mac dealer courtesy of a friend who was kind enough to pick it up for me on his way for a hospital visit and its HFS+ volume mounted on my PC notebook's Ubuntu 10.04.3 desktop.
  19. Selta


    Feb 6, 2002
    Pacific Northwet
    Total fanboi of: Fractal Audio, AudiKinesis Cabs, Dingwall basses
    Unless iamlowsound has an awesome ISP with an equally awesome amount of bandwidth, he won't get those 4GB files downloaded that quickly. It'll be at least 45 mins on a download, if he can sustain 1.5MBps (which I highly doubt).
  20. Strohsx


    Aug 16, 2011
    Yes, here's a trunk line for your own personal use, I'll just disconnect this closet it's only the liberal arts dept.

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