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FAT32 okay in OS X?

S

suklee

Diamond Member
I have a "spare" partition on my 500GB Seagate. I understand OS X can read NTFS but not write to it. While I have seen free utils that enable NTFS writing in OS X, is there a big disadvantage to keeping this partition (230GB) as FAT32?

My only aim is to use this partition as a cross-platform "file sharing" partition. I'll be using Windows less and less, but it would be nice to have a partition that Vista can "see" once I boot into it. (again, without any additional drivers/programs)

How does everyone else handle it, or do you usually use the addons programs in both Vista/OSX?
 
Biggest downside is file size limitation - 4GB max per file

Personally, I prefer keeping the external HFS+ Journaled and just use MacDrive on Windows when I need to grab a file from it.
 
Oh yeah, I saw that in a search here just now... Hmm, I'd estimate that 98% of the time I won't be using a file bigger than 4GB so I can keep it at FAT32 for now.

Are there any speed differences between reading FAT32 and NTFS in OSX?

If I add the extra 'layer' to read and write NTFS in OSX, would that cause any noticeable slow down at all?
 
OK, thanks - couple other questions:

1) Are there any downsides at all to enabling NTFS write on OS X?

2a) For $0, is Macfuse + NTFS driver the best way?
2b) For a paid program, what will work best to add NTFS write?
 
FAT32 is pretty old at this point. Sure, you don't need 4GB+ that often, but I was using FAT32 on my external drive and when I did need to move a large file it was a total pain because I had to backup the data, refomat, recopy of the data, etc.

I like the idea of using HFS+ and using MacDrive from the PC.
 
If I install any kind of NTFS writer on the Mac side, will I then get those .____ hidden files on my NTFS drive(s)?
 
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