How to make an external drive useable on OSX and WinXP?

[apinomus]

Hi all,
I am needing to buy an external enclosure to use as file storage for some standard-definition (DV) video editing work. The drive will be used by both a Mac and a PC in two different locations, but I would like the drive accessible equally under both operating systems.

Obviously when doing video work, I would like to avoid FAT32 if at all possible due to its 4GB file size limit, when the files I will be working with will most often be larger than 4GB. Is there a file-system or method I can format the drive so that I can read AND write to it under both OSX and WindowsXP?

I am aware of programs like MacDrive that allows a PC to read/write(?) files to a Mac formatted disc, but would like to avoid an additional program if at all possible. Are there any solutions that fit my criteria or what potential solutions do I have?

Thanks!

 

[chcarnage]

FAT32 is the only true interoperable file system. Every other format isn't supported by both OS X and Windows because of competition, patent issues and/or closed standards. 🙁

 

[rudder]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ntfsosx/

 

[vailr]

When looking for external HD enclosures, consider getting one with both: USB 2.0 and firewire. Macs (Power Macs; not sure about Intel Macs?) can only boot from external firewire HD's.
PC's cannot boot from firewire, but can boot from external USB HD's.

 

[chcarnage]

Originally posted by: rudder
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ntfsosx/

This is of no use to the OP as it is incompatible with OS X 10.3 and 10.4 and doesn't have write support in 10.0-10.2.

 

[homercles337]

Not possible. I was forced to work on a mac for more than a year and the best i came up with was VirtualPC. Work on the PC with app 1, move fles to portable HD, go to lab, move files from portable HD to mac via VirtualPC, work on the mac with app 1, move files to portable HD, go home to PC, wash rinse repeat. However, i have heard that this is not the case with the intel macs.