Firewire Drive, use on Win XP and OS X? « Videomaker Community Forums

nobody
Member

I currently have an external 80 GB firewire hard drive that I use for video editing with my Sony Vaio tower. (I'm a proud user of Vegas), and am thinking about getting a new 15" powerbook, in order to also learn FCP Pro and DVD Studio pro. My question is it possible to use the firewire HD with both computers? I know that currently the HD is formatted for NTFS under XP. Will the powerbook be able to see it?

Thanks!

Jamison

Posted 8 years ago #
Kingkool682
Member

I don't think so.. but i rember hearing from Someone on another forum that there is a program that will enable you to do this. If only i remebered what it was called.

On a sidenote,I'm just curious, Why do you want to switch over to a MAC anyways?

Posted 8 years ago #
nobody
Member

I'm not sure about using NTFS with with Mac, but most Hard Drives should work with a Mac. I know my hard drive (formatted in mac's EFS) works with Windows XP. If nothign else, find a friend with a mac (or go down to a store) and try plugging your drive in. If it doesn't work, find another drive to back up your data on. reformat your drive in EFS and then transfer your data back.

Dont let this keep you from switching to mac. While mac's are overpriced, they are much better. The OS is so much more awesome than XP, not to mention Final Cut being one of the best NLE editors. (the best in MHO, but thats just waht i learned on). I've never met a single person who has switched and not been happier with thier Mac.

-Alex.

feel free to e-mail me with more questions

Posted 8 years ago #
nobody
Member

Ok here is the deal with your hard drive. I will work on a MAC. THe only thing is you have to reformt it to a mac that means you will loose all your windows stuff. Likewise if you went from a mac to XP you would have to reformati t for taht computer. There is program called Macdrive http://www.macdrive.com. and it will read you mac files on windows with out reformating .. thats all well in good except. in the case of eding. If using final cut pro it creats quicktime files which should be able to be acessed, but since FCP is not on windows it would do you no could because you could not edito n your pc. I hope this helps I dont have alot of time to expalin it here e-mail with any thing else. and if i were you i would just upgrade to adobe premiere pro. It works almost like FCP and it even has a preset for FCP keyboard short cuts. If u want more details on that i can give u them
Matt

Posted 8 years ago #
nobody
Member

Thanks for your input. I'm not exactly switching to the mac, but rather I'm expanding my skills as an editor to be more marketable in the workplace by learnign FCP and DVD Studio pro. Currently I'm working on the PC and using Sony Vegas (which I love using), I really haven't used Premiere too much, I simply don't have the time to learn how to use it, while I can already be editing on Vegas.

What I would most likely be doing is editing stuff on my PC and doing some DVD authoring on the Mac. And if feasible, editing on both the PC and Mac using Vegas and FCP. Anyone had any experience doing this?

Posted 8 years ago #
Kingkool682
Member

Vegas can edit Quicktime files so a program like Macdrive sounds like a good solution. I hear DVD Studio Pro is an amazing program and probally worth having a MAC around for authoring purposes. Good Luck!

Posted 8 years ago #
kenm
Member

probably your best bet to be cross platform is to use Avid dv software. It uses the same files on both platforms and from what i understand Avid gives you both pc and mac editing software on the same disc.(I think they used to do this but i'm not sure if they continue to do so). I use Final Cut 4. It's pretty good. But I also use vegas and ulead media studio pro and i think they are just as good. especially if you have to edit mpeg2 which is the most commonly used format for video in the world.

Posted 8 years ago #