Korean Job Discussion Forums

corroonb · Joined: 04 Aug 2006

Is it possible to use the same hard drive with the same content on different Operating systems? This is not the hard drive with the OS installed on it. Would I have to reformat the HD and lose all my files? If say I go from Vista to XP would I be still be able to use my media drive or would I have to reformat?

This is an internal SATA2 HD btw.

mrsquirrel · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

Yes

but

If you are using Linux and want to write to the drive and its NTFS you will need to install a ntfs3g driver.

However if you use change the format using a program like Acronis Disk Director Suite you could convert it to EXT3 and install a driver on a Windows box to read that.

If it's FAT32 then no problem

Not sure about Macs.

There was a windows program that would let you write from

corroonb · Joined: 04 Aug 2006

Thanks. I want to use the drive on XP as I'm having problems with Vista Update.

mrsquirrel · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

Has Vista not released a new format for drives?

I'm not really up on my Msoft.

if they have you may need something extra to read it.

corroonb · Joined: 04 Aug 2006

No, its just NTFS.

fizban · Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Location: Bucheon

If you want the drive to work with Macs you'll have to have the drive formated in FAT. OSX can read but not write NTFS I believe.

demaratus · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:41 pm Post subject:

Fiz is correct. Macs can read and write Fat 32 and read ntfs. If using a mac, boot camp is easily better than virtual and paralells. However paralells is best if you want to use both windows and os x at the same time. I use boot camp on my macbook pro and it works great.