I recently purchased a Maxtor 300GB USB 2.0/Firewire hard drive for my PC.

I have a project I would like to edit on my universities maxed-out Mac's to edit on Final Cut Pro.

Will my hard drive be interchangeable between the PC and Mac, easily read by both?

The PC will always reformat the drive- wiping out all files saved from the Mac.

You will be able to do it with MacDrive 6:
http://www.mediafour.com/products/

You can format the drive for the PC, and it will mount and work fine on the Mac. However you may find that performance is then too slow to reliably capture and edit video on the Mac. Give it a try and see if it works though. When I tried this a couple years ago, the PC formatted drive was problematic for video edition on the Mac, but OK for everything else.

In the latest versions of the Mac OS windows file system support has been quite enhanced. I think even NTFS is partially supported. If I were you I would format it as FAT32, but I don't know if FAT32 support volumes of such a size. Run some tests first.

While you are at it, make sure your Windows apps can use QuickTime files and/or test ways to convert from AVI to QuickTime and back. If you use Premiere on PC's you will have to do this, so in this case make sure it works first and check to see whether it is faster on the PCs or Macs you have access to.

Mac OS X has read-only access for drives formatted in NTFS. It can read/write drives formatted in FAT32, but then you're limited to video files no larger than 4GB (about 18 minutes).

I'd think a more pressing question, though, would be how you would pass the project back and fourth between Final Cut Pro and whatever software you use on your PC. I have a feeling you're not going to be able to transfer much more than basic cuts/dissolves between the two.

Mark, please don't post the same message in more than one forum section. I just saw that others had already answered your post in another section.

Format the drive as Fat32 on the Mac so you can read and write on both PC and Mac. XP intentionally limits partition sizes beyond 32gb so that you use NTFS.

I know you can format at least 160gb FAT32 partitions under OSX, so if you have trouble using the full size of the drive split it into 2 ~150ish GB partitions.

FAT 32 also prevents file sizes larger than 4 GB, correct? So really, your best bet is to format it for Mac and use software on the PC it read it.

My apologies. I lost track of where I submitted it (and thought that I hadn't at all).

Thanks for the info, Chris.

The reason I ask is because I need to do more serious projects using Final Cut Pro, but also smaller projects on my home PC. So I need to be able to share the files between both operating systems, but not the edits.

I lost track of where I submitted it (and thought that I hadn't at all).

I understand. You're forgiven. ;-)

I hope you find someway to get it to work. Not having to pass edits back and forth definitely simplifies things.

Just along the same vane my mate has an external drive that he uses for his mac. Now I want to import all those files into my PC via that external drive. The files are .mov not .avi but the only difference is that they are flagged differently.

However when I plug his drive into my PC it wont recognize the drive at all. I just want to import all the files not edit them so that I wont have to capture from tape again. Is there a way of doing it?

Mark & Christopher: the two threads have been merged together
in this one thread in the Open DV Discussion forum.

Perhaps the easiest and best way to hook up the two systems
(if they are in the same room/building) is by a network. If you
install samba on the mac (I think that is needed) it will just
become a part of the Windows network.

Of course you will need the room on the mac system, so that
may mean a second (external) harddisk.

Whether this 4 GB file limit is a problem (when going with FAT32)
depends on the way you shoot. If you never have shots above
18 minutes in length (I don't think I've ever had that for any
serious work) and you capture with automatic scene detection
(ie a file for every scene / shot) it isn't too much of a problem.

Personally I would like the flexability (and far more important the
extra safety that comes from NTFS) and would thus hook the
machines up through a network. If you go with a 100 MBIT
network you could even access your PC's external harddrive on
the Mac over the network. This will work even better if you go
with a gigabit network.

Rob, you don't need to install anything on the Mac to do that. Apple includes Windows File Sharing with SMB as part of OS X. Just go to the System Preferences and enable it in the sharing pane. If the two machines aren't already networked then just get an ethernet crossover cable and plug them directly together.

<<<-- Originally posted by Boyd Ostroff : Rob, you don't need to install anything on the Mac to do that. Apple includes Windows File Sharing with SMB as part of OS X. Just go to the System Preferences and enable it in the sharing pane. If the two machines aren't already networked then just get an ethernet crossover cable and plug them directly together. -->>>

Thanks for that tip Boyd. As a new mac owner, I would like to access files on my pc and vice versa. I have both computers on the Airport Extreme. PC is directly connected and the mac is wi-fi.

-gb-

That should work fine if the Mac is properly configured. However transfering big video files is gonna be a lot slower than doing it over hardwired gigabit ethernet :-)

Also, if using WiFi be certain to setup proper user logins and passwords for everyone on your machine - do not allow any public access. You could be asking for trouble on a wireless network if you're in an apartment building or other urban location. I'd also suggest only turning sharing on when you actually need it to copy files, then turn it off when done. Not only will this make things more secure, it will give you better performance on the Mac.

You can double check, but I know Powerbooks automatically detect the ethernet connection so you don't need a cross over cable, just a regular cable will be fine.

Even 802.11g, aka airport extreme is not anywhere near the 54MBps that is advertised. You'll get much better results with a hard cable between the 2 machines.

I was wondering whether Mac OS X had that installed per default
or not, now I know. Thanks Boyd!