Re: My Passport Ultra for use on both Mac and Windows computers

Hi,

Im 73 years old and looking for a bit of advice before using my new portable My Passport Ultra HD` .

I purchased this yesterday as the salesman said I could set it up so as it will be able to work on both my Mac computer and also my daughter`s Windows computer.  

I have thousands of images on my Mac computer and basically what I wanted to be able to do was transfer them all to an external HD and then give that drive to my daughter so she could view the images on her computer, downlod them if she wanted and send them off for printing.    I also wanted her to have the ability to use the HD on her Windows platform for whatedver else it can do while at the same time perhaps use it on my Mac computer running Mavericks 9.5 to copy my iTunes library now and then. 

That is my dilema so before I do anything I thought it best to check here as to what steps I should take as the saleman said to make sure and format part of the HD for Mac and the majority space for Windows as the daughter will be using it mostly on a daily basis. .  I would only need to use it now and again to transfer something off my Mac for her to see.

Could someone please help me as to what order to do things.

Forgot to say Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give me.

Ian

Well it’s not a simple solution and I don’t know much about Macs. A drive formatted for Mac will not work on Windows. A drive formatted NTFS for Windows will be read only on a Mac. FAT32 is usable on both but has limits. The max file size is 4 gig and there is also a limit on the drive size. There is something called exFAT that is susposed to overcome the limits but I have no experience. Another alternative is software for one system that will allow use of the drive on the other. Unfortunately I don’t believe there are any free ones. I have seen this one recommended  http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive by a person who is very helpful on a Windows forum. That should givbe you some options to check out.

Joe

1 Like

Hi there Joe,

Thanks for taking time out to reply.

I do understand that a drive specifically formatted for either Windows or Mac will not work in the others computer but this drive is apparently sold as suitable for partitioning off a part and formatting that part say in Mac language and then the remaining partion in Windows language.  That is why I bought it as I carefully explained to the salesman what I intended to use it for which was that I have thousands of images on my Mac and I wanted a portable drive so I could download all the various family images onto it so that my dayghter could then use it on her Windows computer to view etc. download and print off if desired.  I said that I also wanted to be able to say bring back the drive and if necessary upload an image from it to my Mac and process it as if it was on my computer to start with. He said yes that can be done so I took it that it could be formatted for both operating systems to be able to both read and write. Now, I did not however go into the detail of how to actually do it. I presumed that when I loaded the drive to my Mac there would be menus etc. appear asking questions and I would have to make suitable selections and partition part of it off for Mac use and then take the drive to my daughters windows computer and load it up there and format the windows partitioned section on her computer. Then I again presumed that - a lot of presumptions based on him saying it could be done - when either of us would load that drive up to our computer it would give us the choice as to which platform to use. That is /was my understanding or our conversations and as I did not want to go and do anything stupid I thought I would ask on here and seek advice to see if anyone else had done this before so as not to make any silly mistakes. I will do nothing as yet with the drive until Im sure that what I want to achieve can be done and that I personally am capable of doing it  - otherwise its back to the shop tomorrow morning for a refund as the good is not fit for purpose and does not do what the salesman said it could.   

P.S. Where is the kudos star located?

Ian