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Hi all, I have just purchased a WD My Passport external drive. I asked in the shop if it could be used for both a mac and a PC as I wanted to store my photos on it but be able to store them from both a mac and a laptop running windows and the salesperson stated it could. When I got home I noticed a small panel of text stating it was PC formatted but if using a mac it could be re-formatted. Surely this means it cannot be used for both but rather one or the other? Could anyone confirm this please?
The idea I had was to store images from my mac but to be able to add photos from the laptop when on holidays etc to clear the memory cards. Is there a device that will do this?
Many thanks
Keith
What size is the drive? If you can format it as FAT-32 then both should read and write to it. If it's too big and you have to format it as NTFS it won't be fully compatible with the Mac.
Quote: What size is the drive? If you can format it as FAT-32 then both should read and write to it. If it's too big and you have to format it as NTFS it won't be fully compatible with the Mac.
Where "if it's too big" means it's too big for FAT32, not too big for a Windows machine to format it as FAT32 - not sure about Windows 7 but I do know that earlier versions would only format FAT32 up to 32GB.
However, that limitation is/was solely a limitation in the Windows format tool, not the FAT32 format itself which, IIRC, can go up to 2Tb.
Try this: Western Digital
& this: FAT 32 for Windows & Mac
The hard drive is a 500gb. I havent opened it yet so wondered if there was a dual compatible one straight from the box so to speak.
Keith, judging form the WD website, the drive is functional to both Windows & Mac, but needs to be formatted for Mac. Check this link out for then "Specifications" link for compatibility: WD ME 500GB.
Sorry but that's all I can help you with as I have never had any dealings with the Mas OS, so not familiar.
Use Chris Mawson's link and follow the dos and don'ts. Only problem you might have is if you need to deal with files over 4gb, which should be rare unless you use very large archives or high res video files
Thanks everyone. You have all been really helpful. 
Keith
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