http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible An entire Lightstalkers thread via RSS/XML. en-us Hello. I want to backup my photos in an external disk that is mac and pc compatible. I read that is no good only copy the files. I use a macbook on snowleopard but in the case of have some problem i prefer to backup my photos in a pc disk compatible because is the more common system here. Anyone knows some software to check if all the files were copied? Many thanks in advance. Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:44:50 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible None nerd to help? Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:41:13 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible#167806 Hernan, Macs can read and write to PC disks, so you should be able to just attach a PC disk and copy the files over. I think automated back up systems, like Time Machine and SuperDuper! need to work with disks that are formatted for Macs (not 100% sure of this) but for manually backing up files, any PC format disk will work. jack Mon, 13 Sep 2010 21:40:32 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible#167811 Hi Jack. Is what i am doing but I read that sometimes there are files that are not copied. So i am searching a way to verify that all was ok. Many thanks anyway. Best Mon, 13 Sep 2010 23:34:44 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible#167812 Use chronosync - it can verify if the files were copied properly. Wed, 15 Sep 2010 03:31:06 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible#167859 Many thanks Jonathan. I am reading the website, i will try this software. Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:40:12 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible#167872 There are softwares that enable PCs to read Mac drives, it's called MacDrive (if I remember correctly) http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/ it works flawlessly for what I could experience first hand. It should be the best way to have the 2 systems fully compatible. Sun, 26 Sep 2010 12:43:15 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible#168037 Many thanks Daniel. Good to know. Sun, 26 Sep 2010 13:44:35 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible#168038 Hi Hernan, If you want to read and write on a hard drive with a Mac and a PC you have to format it as FAT 32. Mac drives are usually formatted as HFS+, windows drives are formatted as NTFS. Another option is to store your data on a NAS that you can configure in RAID 1. Here you can format the hard drives as EXT3 or EXT4. You can read and write on this NAS with Macs, Windows- ore LINUX-based computers. To keep your pictures safe (in case of a failure of the NAS) you need an additional backup. With a NAS of QNAP for example (qnap.com) you can then backup your the data on an EXT3-, EXT4-, FAT 32-, NTFS- or HFS+ formatted hard drive. The problem however is: You need a software to work with your files. Lightroom for example you can run on both systems, Mac and Windows. Photoshop you only can run on a Mac or a PC. What other software do you use? In the case the hard drive of your MacBook fails you should make an image of it: You change the disk and you can work again. Very important is that the backup-software stores your data in the native format. Otherwise you cannot read your backups without having this software. You can try Intego Backup Manager Pro/Personal Backup (lacie.com, intego.com), that checks the backups it has made. Franz Sun, 26 Sep 2010 21:34:57 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible#168040 Lots of good info here, I have some tips too. Regarding formatting the drive for win/mac use in fat32, there is a limitation in the filesystem of how large a file can be. It's only 4 Gb in a single file. This might not be a problem for just photos, but if you have an aperture or lightroom archive, they tend to pass 4gigs rather quickly, then your portable disk won't support it. You can format the drive in ntfs on a win computer, and then install paragon ntfs for mac (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/) this means you will both read and write access to all windows drives on a mac. Quite nifty. (ntfs does not have limitations on filesize) What I do is I have a 500Gb drive split into two 250Gb partitions, one fomatted as hfs+ for mac, and one as fat32. The hfs partition is used for constant timemachine backup when I work. This way I have an up to date mirror of my laptop in case something goes haywire. The fat32 partition I use for filestorage, and the ability to transfer loads of photos from my mac to windows systems. For filetransfer to the fat32 drive I usually use superduper or carboncopycloner, both which have verification possibilities. This works for me, might not for you, but thought I'd give you the tip. There's like a million ways to do stuff like this...but no matter how you look at it, backup is key. Good luck :) Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:11:00 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible#168042 Many thanks Franz and Marius. To simplify i did a back up on mac platform for my system, emails, software, and the photos i have my computer. But i have another disk of photos from other years, only photos. This backup of photos are in mirrored fat 32 disks. Marius, you say that you can do the copy with fat32 drives with superduper? I believe you need the drives formatted for mac only. Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:44:06 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/backup-question-mac-pc-compatible#168057