Topic: format external drive to share between osx/xp

[johnw]

i'm doing some video editing on a mac with large .mov files (6-20GB) that I want to backup to an 300GB USB external drive. The problem is that I also need to be able to read/write to the same drive in XP. I initially formatted the drive as NTFS which the mac can read from, but can't write to. I then formatted the drive as FAT, but the files are too big for that format. Any suggestions? I'm not opposed to multiple partitions if that would help.

[firmdragon]

best way would be to find a program that splits that .mov file into parts (seamlessly).  (hjsplit or something like that?)

or put it back to NTFS and find a program that will let mac write NTFS.  be careful with this option though because i used a sketchy program once and lost the whole HD.  :/

[johnw]

Or maybe create a network between the mac and a PC and then transfer the files over the network with the drive hooked up to the PC. Or use bootcamp/parallels, etc. I can't believe there isn't an easier solution for this.

[OFOTD]

Talk about timing.  I recently had an employee of mine leave a stack of Mac formatted (NFS+) external hard drives.  We're a PC office so I was somewhat screwed.  After asking a few of our resident Mac experts to no avail I finally found a program called MacDrive http://www.mediafour.com/

It allows read/write support between FAT32, NTFS and NFS, NFS+ drives.  They also have a free trial that can work on a short term basis without having to buy it.

Once installed it works really good as it integrates with your PC. 

[johnw]

What I'm doing is editing surgical videos to create an instructional library with the idea that people can bring in an external drive and have a copy of the library placed on it so they can view the videos on their home computer. The editing is done on a mac and ideally the library would kept on the same computer.

The program would work well for me, but then anyone else using the library would need to purchase it to view the videos on the osx formatted drive.

[rastasean]

What I'm doing is editing surgical videos to create an instructional library with the idea that people can bring in an external drive and have a copy of the library placed on it so they can view the videos on their home computer. The editing is done on a mac and ideally the library would kept on the same computer.

The program would work well for me, but then anyone else using the library would need to purchase it to view the videos on the osx formatted drive.

put the video up on the web and tell people to download then.
put it on DVD and have it in the library where people can check it out/return.

[johnw]

These are videos that are 6-20GB quicktime .mov files. They are for use in an academic setting and not appropriate for the web even if the files were of a more manageable size. I thought about doing DVDs, but having to format them for DVDs is more work and not worth it if you have to make several DVDs for each movie.

[OFOTD]

The program would work well for me, but then anyone else using the library would need to purchase it to view the videos on the osx formatted drive.

Not necessarily though.   If you are the one making the copies then the person bringing you a drive can then bring either a NFS or NTFS formatted drive.   You'd be able to write to whatever format the drive the person is bringing in is.

The beauty of MacDrive is that you can go from the Mac formatted drives to any other formatted drive. 

[scb]

http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/