External HD cross platform compatible?

[Fangeek]

I'm wanting to get an external HDD and I would like one that would actually work easily switching between a mac and a pc. So, simultaneous cross platform compatibility.

I'm torn between these two. They're price comparably. The Maxtor has better specifications, but the Lacie has firewire 800. But I have no idea how they preform in real world situations switching back and forth.

link
Maxtor One Touch II


Lacie D2 Extreme with Triple Interface

These are new technologies for me, so any help would be appreciated. But PC compatibility comes first. Blame my PC unfriendly school.

 

[The_Other_One]

I've never used Firewire 800, but I know most external HDs are limited to ATA33. Though that one(the Lacie) mentiones going around 66Mbps...

On thing to consider, any harddrive is compatable with mac. You could take your harddrive out of your IBM and it would work in your mac and vise versa. The problem is the software may not be compatable. I've not worked on many macs recently, but I know an IBM can't read a mac drive

 

[mayorredbeard]

an external hard drive is just extra storage space/harddrive memory for your computer right? so how does one normally hook up to a cpu with a cable? and how would you save stuff onto it, would you just when saving files select the external harddrive? (sorry if im kinda stealing your thread or if im bringing it off topic, mybe if i ask enough questions now i would be able to help people later in the future ).

 

[Fangeek]

An external hdd can hook up to your computer via firewire or usb, and it'll mount as if it was it's own partition on your regular hard drive, assuming that it's formatted correctly for your platform. Usually, you just plug it in and it pops up in your My Computer for Windows or on your desktop for Mac OS. You'd save stuff on it just as you would any other folder on your computer.

Now could someone help me?