choosing a portable hard drive help please

tentickles666

Hi, I need a portable hard drive for my photography course, it needs to be mac compatible but also windows as i have windows at home.

I think I'll need 500gb really, and price is a very big factor sadly, if possible id like to spend £50 inc p&p at the most, if this is unrealistic please tell me!

Ive seen this one..

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255186

and this one

http://www.bestbuy.co.uk/product/1000072392/seagate-500gb-expansion-portable-hard-drive.aspx

but im not sure if they are any good, or which is better.....

help!

in_the_Cotswolds

You may have problems running a portable hard drive on Windows and Mac at the same time. I may be wrong but I think Mac is FAT32 and Windows is NTFS. I have a Western Digital portable hard drive for my Mac and it doesn't work on Windows.

If you buy a portable hard drive you have to format it to work with the Mac it then won't work with Windows and vice versa. The only way round it is to run Windows on your Mac. There is free software available that does the same as Parallels so you only have to buy Windows.

HTH.

System

mechanic wrote: »

I have a Western Digital portable hard drive for my Mac and it doesn't work on Windows.

It sounds as though you have it formatted in the Mac OS Extended format (default for Macs). Windows can read/write both FAT32 & NTFS.

To be readable on both Windows & Mac it needs to be FAT32.

KillerWatt

Much as I despise them, PC World have a 2½" portable Seagate 500GB drive for £42.95 at the moment.

As stated above, if you want it fully readable on both Mac & Windows machines then the drive needs to be formatted using the FAT32 filing system.
Having said that, all the external drives I have seen are formatted using FAT32 as standard at the factory anyway - so it should work straight out of the box.

in_the_Cotswolds

!!!!!! wrote: »

It sounds as though you have it formatted in the Mac OS Extended format (default for Macs). Windows can read/write both FAT32 & NTFS.

To be readable on both Windows & Mac it needs to be FAT32.

I bought it as a hard drive for Mac as I don't use Windows at the moment. Thanks for the info didn't realise both could be read. I thought it was either one or the other.

Sooler

WD My Passport 500 GB USB3.0/2.0 £49

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Passport-Essential-Midnight-Black-Portable/dp/B004445JHC/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1300628973&sr=1-1

this will work with your current USB 2 connections in your PC but will allow for faster file transfer when/if you get a PC with USB 3

nickj_2

how about this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IOMEGA-500GB-PRESTIGE-USB-2-0-2-5-PORTABLE-HARD-DRIVE-/150578762414?pt=UK_Computing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item230f3192ae

£46-00 , free postage

tentickles666

I don't feel comfortable buying electric on eBay, but thanks for the suggestion
Thank you for all the help, I'm not keen on pc world either but that looks a good deal! Thank you

nickj_2

helenathena wrote: »

I don't feel comfortable buying electric on eBay, but thanks for the suggestion
Thank you for all the help, I'm not keen on pc world either but that looks a good deal! Thank you

i've just brought a 250gb version from the same seller , arrived brand new within 3 days ,

KillerWatt

helenathena wrote: »

I'm not keen on pc world either but that looks a good deal! Thank you

I don't ordinarily use them, but very occasionally they drop the prices to sensible levels.
Add to that the convenience of being able to walk in the store and buy there & then (and having somewhere to go if it fails), and that alone is worth the extra couple of quid over the online prices.

tentickles666

i just got a 1TB portable hard drive for 49.99 in pc world in the end, its mains operated but thats not a problem, thanks for all the help