How to share an external hard drive between Mac and Windows computers

[Stephen Edgar]

Hi Folks,
I apologise in advance if this is an obvious question. For many years, I have used LR in a Windows environment and used external hard drives to back up my pictures. I have recently purchased a MacBook pro and I wish to install LR on this device. I am somewhat confused as to how to 'share' the external hard drives between the Windows and Mac computers. I have tried to research this topic but become somewhat confused in terms of 'file formats' on the external drives. If I install LR on the Macbook, will it (safely) read the images on an external hard drive (saved from a Windows machine), and allow any 'modifications' to be saved back to the external hard drive. Will i be able to attach the same drive back to a Windows computer and continue working as normal?
As you can imagine, my main concern is to ensure the integrity of my pictures.
I appreciate any help or guidance on this issue,
Regards,
Stephen

[Manoli]

Stephen,

Your external drives will be formatted in either ntfs (windows) or mac file systems. To read and write ntfs files from a mac you need Paragon software drivers.

https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

[Joe Towner]

How big of a drive?  You can plug a drive into the PC, format it as 'FAT32' and you can use it & add photos to it without a problem from both platforms.  The issue comes in how Lightroom will work (or not work) with it.  You'll want to keep separate Lightroom catalog files for each system.  The big issue comes down to large files - anything bigger than 4gb in size can not be stored on a FAT32 drive.

[E.J. Peiker]

It's actually not too hard and you do not need any special drivers or anything.  Simply format the drive on your Mac using the MS DOS format option.  Go into Disk Utilities, select Erase and make sure that you use the MS DOS or EXFAT option.  You will now be able to read and write to that drive on both Mac and PC.

I do not recommend doing the initial format on a PC as suggested above due to the exact limitations of the post above.  You should not have those limitations if you format it first on a Mac using EXFAT.

[Farmer]

Since the OP appears to have data on the external drive, formatting it would be a bad ideas as it would result in the loss of all data.

Using Paragon on the Mac is probably the best option.

[E.J. Peiker]

If he doesn't have at least two complete backups it's use a matter of time before epic disaster and that would be the first thing to address.  if he does then formatting a drive should not be an issue.

[Farmer]

Yes, he should have backups, but even then the first thing to do is to verify the backups before formatting.

I still would suggest that Paragon is a better option, and much safer than suggesting a format to someone who isn't highly technical on this side of things.

[E.J. Peiker]

Yes, he should have backups, but even then the first thing to do is to verify the backups before formatting.

I still would suggest that Paragon is a better option, and much safer than suggesting a format to someone who isn't highly technical on this side of things.

While that would likely work well, I personally try to stay away, as much as possible, from software translation layers.

[donbga]

While that would likely work well, I personally try to stay away, as much as possible, from software translation layers.

Well I guess we now know at least one person not using Paragon. The software works flawlessly and will not pose any problems to the user.
 

[Paul2660]

I would also agree with EJ, best option for an external, is format MS DOS from the Mac as that will be seen as Fat32 by windows.  On my macbook Pro, I have Paragon installed, so I can write over to the NTFS partition, but for an external drive, I always just format Fat32 from the Mac.  If the external drive does have data on it, the user might consider moving the data off to a different drive, then re-format if possible.

Pargon works very well for passing data back and forth between the internal partitions on the 15" macbook.  I have other piece of software (can't remember the name) on the windows side that allows me to write/read from the Mac partition. 

Paul C

[Manoli]

I have other piece of software (can't remember the name) on the windows side that allows me to write/read from the Mac partition. 

Paragon's 'HFS+ for Windows' ?

[Stephen Edgar]

Hi Folks,
Thank you for all the helpful responses to my query. I decided to purchase a new external hard drive to test some of the options suggested. I formatted the new drive to exFAT using a Windows 10 machine, transferred a copy of my LR catalogue and pictures (using FolderMatch) to the new drive. I 'pointed' the Macbook installation of LR, to open the catalogue on the new external drive, and within a few minutes the setup was working. I made a few 'metadata' changes, saved them back to the files and backed up the catalogue and exited the programme. The new drive was then connected to the original Windows machine, and the 'amended' catalogue opened, and the metadata changes appeared in the Windows version of LR.
I will now try the Paragon software as suggested. I presume this option may be more convenient, as there would be no need to constantly synch (or copy) the LR catalogue as it 'moves' between the two setups.
Thank you again for all the input. It was much appreciated
Stephen

[sjprg]

Thanks for the link to Paragon. That solved my problem when the MBP was used stand alone in a Motel. I formatted a Samsung 840 EVO in a USB adapter to NTFS and it works beautifully when plugged into the MBP.