I have a 1TB Mybook used with my macbook that I have used for almost 4 years and had minor issues with. I recently tried to copy my files on my Mybook to a friends WD Elements he just bought. I copied my mkv files on the new drive but realized it wont work on his PC. I converted his Hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS but once I plugged it back on my macbook to transfer the files it doesnt work or my macbook wont let me transfer or copy files on his hard drive. I therefore used Disk Utility on my macbook to change the settings to EX FAT and was able to copy the files but when I connected his Hard drive to PC it does not read again. I realize that if I use the MAC OS Journaled settings which is what I have on my Mybook that wont work on his PC either. Please helpa confused soul out thanks.
Hi, The issue is that Mac OSX (HFS) is only for Mac, the same way that NTFS is only for Windows, You will need to Format the drive FAT32 (MS DOS FAT on Mac) that is backwards compattible with Windows and Mac, just bare in mind that it has a limitation with Files that are larger than 4GB. However it should not affect you if you do not have HD Movies or other large files. Please see here how to format the drive FAT32.
I think ExFat only works with Vista SP1 and later. The best solution for using a drive with Windows and Mac both is to format drive NTFS (Windows) and go to Apple site and download NTFS-3G and install on the Mac. That will allow the Mac to read and write to the drive.
Joe
