File Systems

Computers have different methods for organizing and storing your files on your hard drive. These methods are known as File Systems. There are 3 main file systems you will encounter. Here's what you need to know about them, as it applies to working in the Digital Media Lab.

NTFS is used by Windows (XP, Vista, Win7, etc.)
The Macs in the lab can read from an NTFS drive, but cannot write/save to it.
This means you can bring your files to the lab on your NTFS-formatted drive, but you won't be able to save new files or update existing files on it while you're here.

OSX (aka HFS) is what Macs generally use.
You can read or write to it while you're here in the lab.
Windows machines cannot read or write to an OSX drive.

FAT32 is readable and writable by both Macs and PCs. (Yay!)
So if you're transferring files between a PC and Mac, or you're not sure what kind of machine you'll be using, format your drive as FAT32.
Its main drawback is that there is an file-size limit of 4GB per file. (ie. if your video is bigger than 4GB, you cannot save it to a FAT32 drive).

Ask us if you'd like help formatting your hard drive. (Reformatting your hard drive will allow you to choose a different file system, but it will erase all data stored on it.) Depending on the amount of data on your drive, you may be able to copy all of the data onto one of our workstations, re-format the drive, and then transfer your files back to your own drive.