F**K! I just want a str8 answer, PLZ! Can I use my HD on Mac & PC formatting it w/ 1 partition & GUID?

Question

F**K! I just want a str8 answer, PLZ! Can I use my HD on Mac & PC formatting it w/ 1 partition & GUID?

Answer 1

I would format it MBR (master boot record), and format as exFAT so that it can be edited by both OS X and windows. If not, just format using disk utility at home, select "erase disk" and choose exFAT for the format.



So basically, exFAT is the best choice for you because it is fully supported by Mac OS X and Windows. You can use only one partition and you'll be fine.



(And you didn't need the blatant swearing and request for a straight answer on the question)

Answer 2

you may get a straight answer if you used better english grammar, and actually gave some details to more clarify what it is exactly you want.



From context, im guessing by HD you are meaning Hard Disk Drive? (its HDD not HD...)



And from what i gather from what i think you are asking, is that you want to know if you can install mac OSX and Windows on 1 partition on the same HDD?





If that is your question, the answer is no, unless you are running one of the OS inside a virtual machine on the installed OS.

If you want to multi boot OS, you need multiple partitions or multiple drives.





EDIT: o from the tone of the question, i would have imagined you asked the question one or more times, and didnt get good answers.



anyway, to answer the question which i now understand :P

you will need to partition the drive ith multi partitions, unless the MAC osx can read the NTFS or FAT32 file systems (not sure, as my expertise isnt in the mac direction).

If mac OSX can read/write to the NTFS/FAT32 file systems, then just format your drive in that and you can use it with 1 partition on both OS just fine.



If it cant read them, then you will then need to format the drive into 2 partitions (the split size doesnt have to be 50/50, make it w/e you want. W/e OS you use more and would be saving more files to, should get the larger split)



And as for last question, yes you can at any time resize the partitions. BUT you can only resize to the section of free space after the last bit of data. even tho you may have say 2 149GB partitions, and you use say 49GB off of one partition. Well there may be 100GB of free space, but if the data is spread out on the partition, you may only be able to take like 60GB.

Like, there would be like data then 20GB of free space, then more data after that free space. well you can only take after the last bit of data, even tho there is free space inbetween. (if that makes sense).

Answer 3

@Uncle Albert:

You missed totally again. GUID IS NOT APPLE, NEVER HAS BEEN APPLE.

All FAT formats are NOT RECOMMENDED EVEN BY MICROSOFT, since they have a small number of clusters, thus cluster size grows way out of whack, and thus are very inefficient with large drive volumes.



GUID is universal, developed by Intel. Curious how Intel developments get pinned on Apple by PC geeks, such as EFI firmware. Microsoft has only good things to say about GUID. ("MBR partitioning rules are complex and poorly specified. GPT disks can grow to a very large size. The number of partitions on a GPT disk is not constrained by temporary schemes such as container partitions as defined by the MBR Extended Boot Record (EBR). The GPT disk partition format is well defined and fully self-identifying.") Even so, PC hardware cannot use a USB drive with GUID. It can use an internal GUID drive (except with Windows XP 32-bit, but no one should be using an eleven year old OS).



I see you get a POSIX (UNIX) error with "and a MAC". Tell which Mac. If the Mac has Firewire, and the case has Firewire, switch the connection and try again. Often Disk Utility will fail with USB, but succeed with Firewire. You could also create partitions in Windows. If you need a Mac format, that is easy to do with Disk Utility later.



It is very difficult to change the relationship in size between formats that are different. You need special software that can juggle the data in RAM while resizing. Best to either use one partition or choose carefully at first.



You can use an NTFS format volume with OS X for read-only with nothing special.

You can use an NTFS format volume with OS X for read-write with "Paragon NTFS For Mac", US$19.95.

You can use Mac format (That means HFS+ / "Mac OS Extended") with Windows as read-only with HFSExplorer, free.

You can use Mac format with Windows as read-write with "Paragon HFS+ For Windows", US$19.95.



For Apple's Time Machine backup, Mac format is the only choice. TM drive's partition scheme can be either GUID or Apple Partition Map and it will be bootable.



The GUID scheme is needed for installing OS X when booted to an Intel Mac. That's the most important reason for it, besides the technical advantages. Apple Partition Map is fine for all other uses, except booting a PC. It can even boot an Intel Mac (not a contradiction-- You can use Disk Utility to clone the system to an APM partition scheme drive and boot an Intel Mac fine).



I use a PC and three Macs that have Windows 7, so all my external drives (all Firewire 800) use Apple Partition Map scheme with either one NTFS partition or one NTFS and one Mac for emergency boot or restore. If I didn't need to share disks with others who use only PCs, I would use only Mac partition, since it is self-defragging and has no limitations compared with NTFS. All my Windows systems read-write Mac format fine.

Answer 4

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