Mac OS X forum: Format External Drive for Windows and Mac

Even if you get it working, I'm experiencing too many owners losing it all. Here's the story and why.

1. To share a volume between Mac and PC the current common file system is FAT32.

2. FAT32 is fragile. Don't write to me about this or ask how to fix it.

3. If I have the FAT32 USB/FIREWIRE connected drive and I pull the USB or FIREWIRE cable out without ejecting the drive or doing a "nice" shutdown, the drive contents can go missing. Again, don't write to me asking how to fix this.

4. OK, that should be enough information and warnings for you to get a FAT32 partition formatted and exchanging files with the PC and MAC.

What I want to stress here is such a volume is only good for exchanges and never to be trusted as your only copy.

Have fun,

Bob

First of all I would like to apologise for any confusion raised. My 13" Macbook with all software updates has been randomnly shutting down (as they do) and so I want to use my external USB hard drive to backup all my data (preferably with use with a windows machie as well). If I use FAT32, how safe would that be with my data if I do what I'm told by the OS? Also how do I go about formatting it in the first place as for some reason disk utility won't let this happen.

Thanks again


Hayden

So to simplify. If I just want to store on a mac based external hard drive, how do I format and what do I format to?