[G4] External Drive Case Firewire vs. USB 2

[Harry Freeman]

Dick ( + )!( + )

A Power Macintosh computer can  read a Macintosh formatted disk or a 
DOS formatted disk. If you  are using a windows based computer in one 
location and a Macintosh  in another, using DOS formatting will allow 
you to use the same  disk in either computer. Furthermore, if you have 
the same  application on each computer you can create a document on one 
  computer platform (Mac or IBM) and edit the document on the other  
computer platform (IBM or Mac).

See http://www.internet4classrooms.com/format_disk.htm

As the low-level format of a Mac OSX disk is very different than a 
Windows disk.
And if you don't format the disk for the Mac OSX then you won't be able 
to use it as a boot disk.

Proceed with caution.
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On Aug 2, 2006, at 7:11 AM, Richard M. Kriss wrote:

> Hello to all... I unsubscribed for vacation and forgot to subscribe 
> when I
> returned.  Hopefully, I am now back on the digest list.
>
> I am planning to buy an external hard drive enclosure for my spare 
> Seagate
> 80 GB SATA drive and the sellers really push the USB 2.0 interface 
> rather
> than firewire for the enclosures.  I don' think a G4 will boot from a 
> USB
> drive but understand the new Intel based Mac's will startup from a USB
> drive.  Can someone confirm the Intel Mac's will boot via a USB port?
>
> If I really wanted an external boot drive for this G4, I would look 
> for a
> firewire drive; however, my wife's Dell Latitude XP Pro does not have a
> firewire interface.  I plan to partition the external drive to backup 
> the
> Dell PC as well as personal files from this G4.  Anybody had success in
> using an external drive for both Mac and PC files?
>
> Also, any advantage to adding a software or hardware fix to have the 
> G4 see
> more than 128 GB?  I have a Seagate 200 GB as my primary and a Western
> Digital 160 GB as the backup in this G4-1GHz-AGP and they are only half
> used.  The G4 thinks they are both 128 GB drives.
>
> Dick