Formatting an external hard drive for both Mac and PC

[Mary Grimsley]

Originally Posted by dnanian

Well, to share a drive you'd have to partition with "MBR", and that wouldn't support startup on Macs. Would that be OK?

Hi Dave,

Thanks so much for your quick reply. No, MBR wouldn't do; a major reason to buy the external drive is to have something for an emergency startup for them both.

Your reply got me busy searching for the prices on smaller drives. I was surprised and delighted to find two 300 GB drives at NewEgg for approximately the cost of the same drive in the 400 GB size from the place where I was going to buy the 400 GB! I've already ordered two now. (This is the same Seagate external that has served me well and has worked well with SuperDuper!) This solution will provide more storage space--something I'd assumed wouldn't be possible in having to buy two drives--and is better all around.

The drives will come with some free backup software, though that backup software didn't work well for me and I expect the Mac will end up with SuperDuper!. In case he doesn't like the PC software that comes with the new drive, would you happen to know of PC software that's easy and intuitive for external backup and that would also work for creating a startup system on the external?

Dave, thanks again for your help and especially for your Super Duper!

Best wishes, Mary