What is the best file system format for my portable Hard Drive?

Yassin S

I have a mac and a pc and it would be ideal to share files like pictures, video, and documents using this 2tb hard drive. It would be ideal to only have one partition that has the capability of having bigger files and can be shared across mac and pc operating systems. So which one should I use:

fat32 (probably not because it can't have files over 4 gb)
NTSF (doesn't work with macs)
mac format (doesn't work with pc's)

other??? Please help!

Answer
As far as I've seen, FAT32 is the only one that can be read and written by both. I use it on all my drives, and it works great.

Also, Macs *can* read NTSF, just not write to them. (I'd guess that Mac formats don't work at all with PCs.) What files do you have larger than 4GB? I can't imagine what those would be . . . (Folders can be as big as you like; it's only individual files like *one* movie or RAR/ZIP archive that have this limit.)

How to format portable hard drive for mac and PC, using a MAC?

Jake

I have some files on my MAC that I would like to put onto my hard drive so I can use them on my PC. So I believe I would need to have the hard drive formatted for both computers (to be able to move the files). I will need to do the formatting on my MAC so if any one could help me that would be greatly appreciated. I would assume I'd use the 'disk utility' on my MAC to do the formatting (or if you have another recommendation).

Answer
All of my portable drives are formatted for windows and they work on my Mac.

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