What external Hdd formatting to support Windows and Mac OS

[ginggs]

Anybody else use this?

DVDs and Blu-Rays are UDF formatted, so media players that can read them might be able to read UDF HDDs too.

Yes but making a drive UDF isn't so straight forward. It is probably easier on a PC (someone else will have to chime in here) but on a Mac it requires command line FU.

Not sure offhand if you can do it from the Windows GUI, but from the Command Prompt:

format z: /fs:udf /r:1.02 /q

 

[iFan]

Yes but making a drive UDF isn't so straight forward. It is probably easier on a PC (someone else will have to chime in here) but on a Mac it requires command line FU. Thanks Ginggs - it reminded me how I used to do things in the OS 9 days so maybe I will go back to this method for a while. I will post Mac command line instructions shortly - I am on a pc at the moment.

Terminal stuff follows:

[COLOR="#008000"][B]GregMBP:~ gregory$ diskutil list[/B][/COLOR]
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macbook Pro             499.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *4.1 GB     [B]disk1[/B]
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 UNTITLED                4.1 GB     [B]disk1s1[/B]

# We need that disk1 ID

[COLOR="#008000"][B]GregMBP:~ gregory$ diskutil info /dev/disk1 | grep "Block Size"[/B][/COLOR]
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

# We need this number later

[COLOR="#008000"][B]GregMBP:~ gregory$ diskutil unmount /dev/disk1s1[/B][/COLOR]
Volume UNTITLED on disk1s1 unmounted
[COLOR="#008000"][B]GregMBP:~ gregory$ diskutil secureErase 0 /dev/disk1[/B][/COLOR]
Started erase on disk1
[ \ 0%..10%..20%..30%..40%..50%..60%..70%................ ] 79% 0:10:00 
Finished erase on disk1

# Expect about 2 minutes/GB on a flash drive. YMMV

[COLOR="#008000"][B]GregMBP:~ gregory$ sudo newfs_udf -b 512 /dev/disk1[/B][/COLOR]
Password: [COLOR="#008000"][B]<-your sudo password[/B][/COLOR]
write to block device: /dev/disk1  last written block address: 7913470
[COLOR="#008000"][B]GregMBP:~ gregory$ diskutil mount /dev/disk1[/B][/COLOR]
Volume Untitled UDF Volume on /dev/disk1 mounted

DVDs and Blu-Rays are UDF formatted, so media players that can read them might be able to read UDF HDDs too.

Not sure offhand if you can do it from the Windows GUI, but from the Command Prompt:

format z: /fs:udf /r:1.02 /q

Thanks Guys for all the advice and coding etc. I am going to keep all this and think about it, might just go the exFAT route!

Will see what happens

Cheers

 

[[)roi(]]

Btw the only time I'd ever consider UDF over exFAT is if you need to for example maintain posix file permissions: typical situations are moving drives between for example: OS X and Linux.

However as Linux can read/write HFS+ it'll probably be simpler to just use that; it's certainly the way I would probably go.

UDF has always been a little bit of a non starter and really only gained traction with DVD and Blu-ray.

Between Windows and OS X; exFAT is definitely the simplest option; however both NTFS and HFS+ could be used but will require drivers.

 

[iFan]

Btw the only time I'd ever consider UDF over exFAT is if you need to for example maintain posix file permissions: typical situations are moving drives between for example: OS X and Linux.

However as Linux can read/write HFS+ it'll probably be simpler to just use that; it's certainly the way I would probably go.

UDF has always been a little bit of a non starter and really only gained traction with DVD and Blu-ray.

Between Windows and OS X; exFAT is definitely the simplest option; however both NTFS and HFS+ could be used but will require drivers.

Excellent summary as far as I am concerned Thanks ! and thanks everyone! exFAT it is! I shall have to sort that out on Friday

Just confirming that I can format it on my MAC? and it will be fine to read/write on windows (7) as everything is fine since snow leopard, I am currently on Mavericks?

Cheers

 

[noxibox]

Yes, you can partition and format it on the Mac.

 

[[)roi(]]

It's of course a Microsoft filesystem; so no problems with Windows

 

[iFan]

It's of course a Microsoft filesystem; so no problems with Windows

Hundreds! Thanks all!

 

[shanezn]

I've been using Tuxera for the past few years. Essential software, if you're transferring between Mac/PC.

http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/

 

[iFan]

I've been using Tuxera for the past few years. Essential software, if you're transferring between Mac/PC.

http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/

Thanks for the input!

I formatted both my hdd's this weekend to exFAT! What a mission (moving data around) but non -the less all sorted and working 100% on my Mac, just need to test it on windows. But happy so far

Thanks again everyone!