External drive for switch to Mac??

[Kewk]

Potential stupid question warning. (I'm not a computer guy):

My 500 GB is full and I need a new drive. Along with more space I'd like one that both works with my current PC and will also work with the Mac I plan on buying in a year or so.

Can I get a external drive (or two) that will work with both? Any issues with formats? For example, will the folder names I put in windows explorer read on with a Mac?

Is there really any brand that makes a more reliable drive?

Thanks.

 

[raywest]

Maybe you think it is overkill, but a home server will be worth considering. You can add drives as you wish, and it does automatic backups, etc. http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mediasmart-server/#/Why/

There are other brands out there, but this one is easy to use. If you enable the file duplication, you can swap out drives if they fail. As your storage requirements grow, you just add to/replace with larger internal drives, or add external units.

For reliability in drives, all much of a muchness for the usual consumer products, currently I prefer wd, but for better reliability you probably need scsi/sas, or a raid system(file duplication)

hth

Best wishes,
Ray

 

[Kewk]

Nice but I should add that cost is a factor. I'm thinking less than $200 for one TB.

Also, I like to have two external drives, one of which I back up every few months and keep at my father's house in case some disaster befalls my place.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Jack]

Re compatibility with Mac AND PC at the same time. If you format your drive FAT then it will be cross-compatible, but you will not maintain any error correction from either platform. Otherwise, either proprietary format is compatible over a network but not directly.