Mac OS X is able to read and write files to and from almost all kinds of PC storage media, including CD-R/CD-RW, DVD, floppies and hard disk drives, as well as other types of external media, such as Syquest, Jaz and Zip cartridges. Connecting peripherals is a breeze — the widespread adoption of FireWire and USB has made cross-platform plug-and-play a reality for most external devices — from hard disk drives to DV cameras and PDAs.
Although Macs are particularly suited to modern digital media, such as CDs, CD-Rs and DVDs, they can also read and write files to and from almost every type of PC storage media, including diskettes, Zip drives and hard disk drives. All that is needed is for them to be formatted to FAT or FAT 32 standard. Windows, on the other hand, does not recognize media formatted by Macs; however, a number of utilities compensate for this, such as Here & Now, MacDrive 2000 and MacOpener. Mac OS X, like current versions of Windows, supports 255-character filenames. This means that, for example, the contents of a CD saved on a Windows XP system will display volume name and filenames identically in Mac OS X.
Exchanging CD-Rs and DVD-Rs
CD-ROMs simplify file exchange between Macs and PCs because they use the standard ISO 9660 format, which is compatible with a number of file systems. A CD burned on a Windows XP system uses ISO 9660 format by default (this format uses the CDFS file system) and can be recognized by Mac OS X.
The DVD standard file format is called Universal Disk Format (UDF), which is available on both Mac and PC. DVD-Rs burned using UDF on a Mac are fully compatible with PCs that can read UDF formatted disks.
Sharing USB devices
Mac OS X has built-in support for most USB products. With USB devices such as Zip drives, hard disk drives, CD-R/Ws or PDAs, usually all you have to do is connect the device to the Macintosh and the Mac automatically recognizes it.
Sharing FireWire Devices
Mac OS X can handle all kinds of IEEE 1394-compliant devices — from Apple’s iPod to hard disk drives, DV cameras, scanners and many other external peripherals.
For the majority of external devices, no driver installation is required; however, for hard disks, bear in mind that Mac OS X cannot open NTFS formatted disks, so please use the FAT PC format instead.
