Possible to use the same external hard drive to back up both Windows and Mac systems?

Question

I have a Windows desktop and a MacBook Pro that I'd like to back up on a single external hard drive. The drive is compatible with both units.

I have tried this before with another external drive with similar compatibility, without doing anything special (formatting or anything). I noticed that after backing up the Mac, then the PC, I couldn't go back to the Mac files while hooked up to the Mac.

The only way I could use the drive again with the Mac was to reformat it completely.

So how do I use one compatible drive to back up both units?

Answer 1

Woo. This is an interesting question, thanks.
It is interesting because it shouldn't be happening. But since it is, there is another factor you have not discovered. The Mac can read the usual formats of PC drives, but PCs will often be unable to read Mac drives.

Since the PC can use the disk after it was used by the Mac, but not vice verse, the problem is occurring in the process you use to back up to the HD from the PC.

I guess you have 2 ways to back up to the HD from the PC: An application that does it for you, or you select what you want backed up and either drag and drop or copy/paste them to the HD.

1. An Application. An application has preferences that might create a disk that is unreadable by the Mac. These could include encryption or partitioning, or formatting with an unreadable method. So, look through the preferences and choose the most compatible prefs that the application offers. If this doesn't work, get a different application that does not block access by the Mac. One pref I can think of would be one that formats the drive before backing up. Anything that says 'mirror image' or 'complete back-up,' for example. It might be a bit more trouble for you to have to select what you want backed up, but at least you won't be formatting the drive.

2. Drag/Drop, Copy/Paste. If this makes the drive unreadable to the Mac, then the drive is not formatted in a compatible way in the first place. These methods don' t change any basic formatting, as they only update the directory and write to the format that is there already. Use the Mac's Disk Utility [Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility] to format the HD as a MS-DOS file system.
In Disk Utility, select the first occurrence of the HD, then click on the 'Erase' button, then click the drop down menu and select MS-DOS. Then click the lower 'Erase' button. This will create a single partition readable by both PC and Mac.
Disk Utility can also create partitions. Each partition can have its own formatting. If the above method fails, try formatting the drive in two partitions, making one a Mac format: Mac OS Extended, and one PC formatted: MS-DOS. You can adjust the size to suit the amount of data each partition uses.

;-D I hope just formatting the HD with Mac's Disk Utility an MS-DOS will solve the problem.

Answer 2

I do that with an external drive. I just have it formatted fo PC. I've never had a Mac that couldn't read and write to a PC formatted HD. It may be best though, to format the hard drive for PC using the Mac, and then there should be no problem moving it back and forth between the PC and the Mac. Do it all the time and I know I've never had to do anything special.

Answer 3

I'd use something like iPartion ( http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15360#descContainer_link ) to create separate partitions on the drive for the Mac and the PC. That way, both systems can be backed up in their native formats.

By the way, you do know that Macbook can run Windows from a partition on it's drive, right?

Answer 4

regrettably, no i don't think of there is yet another record gadget except FAT32 it really is nicely matched with Mac. even if, you should use WinZip or yet another ZIP application to compress the action picture record to be certain in case you could make it smaller. Then it would in tremendous condition on the stress counting on how small it can make it.