I just picked up a lovely 80GB 2.5 inch IDE harddrive (Samsung MP0804H) in a USB connected enclosure (external harddrive) intending to share data between a Mac, Windows, and Linux. Since it was not quite obvious how to get a large external harddrive to work on all computers, I thought I’d share the results.

The preferred Mac filesystem is Mac OS Extended (HFS+) and NTFS on Windows. However, only FAT32 (MS-DOS) is compatible with just about all operating systems. Unfortunately, FAT32 isn’t the most efficient, and Windows chokes on FAT32 partitions larger than 32GB. Partitions created on the Mac (Disk Utility) can not be read on a PC (without special software), though the Mac can read PC partition tables.

Therefor, we need to partition the disk on a PC into FAT32 blocks no great than 32GB. Once the partition tables are created, it might be possible to make some partitions (of any size) in other formats. Though, only the FAT32 format can be used to easily transfer data between different systems.

If the summary at Overclockers is too terse, I’ll elaborate:

Start >> Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Computer Management

From Computer Management (Local) >> Storage >> Disk Management

Hopefully you’ll see an unallocated disk (likely to be Disk 1). Right click on this to create a primary partition (selection New Partion… >> Next). Unless you need half a dozen partitions, select Primary partition. Select a size less than 32000MB. Format the partition with FAT32, give the volume a name, and continue. Repeat this as many times as desired (you may prefer other formats, leave a partition blank/free if you intend to format one specifically on other operating system(s)). Remember, we desire at least one FAT32 partition to share data between all systems. Depending on the size of your drive, this may take quite a while. I hope this helps someone.