[Caleb14]

Just wondering what a good external hard drive are out there. What one would be good to use with a Mac and a PC? Thanks.

[paulzoom]

There a millions of good ones out there (do a search on the forums) but be aware that you can't change back and forth from the Mac and PC. You would have to reformat each time.

[dgrenier]

Well, that's not exactly true. If you format your drive in FAT32 (for windows) you can read and write to it on both platforms (I've done it many times in the previous weeks). You can even format it in NTFS, but on your MacOS X Mac you can only read from it. So far, I was unable to write to it.
I think that, using an app on the windows side (such as MacDrive I think), you can both read and write to a Mac formatted drive.
This is my experience so far, maybe others will have more to say about this...

[Caleb14]

So lets say I had a Laptop PC and Desktop Mac and wanted to back them both up, and transfer files between the two on an external hard drive, I would have to reformat each time unless it was formated in FAT32. This may be a stupid question but which drives can do that, all of them?

[EggyToast]

Yeah, a drive is a drive is a drive. Use http://www.mediafour...ducts/macdrive/ to read the HFS disks on your XP machine, and you're all set. Format it under OSX.
As far as the drives go, you can buy a retail box or put one together using an enclosure of your choice and a drive of your choice. make sure you pick depending on your needs (i.e. if you need space and speed, get a self-powered device (plugs into the wall). If you need portability, get a bus powered device that feeds off the firewire connection).

[RichL]

I buy my external drives from Other World Computing.
They have a highly rated line called the Mecury Elite Pro model.
They have USB 2 AND FW 400 connections.
You can also buy drives with USB2 FW400 and FW800 connections.
I use one drive between a PC and a MAC. USB for the XP, FW 400 for the mac, same drive.
Here is a link OWC to the drives I bought.
All are working great...
RichL

[gaelic2]

I switch an external Lacie 40 GB HD back and forth between my P4/2.2 ghz wintel laptop and my new (beloved) G4/1.25 ghz (1.0 GB RAM) iMac...and everything works perfectly. Not only is the Lacie iMac-friendly, but it's pretty stylish too!