Best file system for external h/d

[PunterCam]

I'm probably just being slow today, but my brother bought an external hard drive the other day, primarily to ferry information between various computers.

Simple question: what's the most 'universal' file system for format it it with? It has to be readable by any o/s. He has a mac, if that matters.

ta very much love

 

[ganzey]

fat32

if it was only being used by pc's, the ntfs would be the best choice, but macs dont recognize ntfs

 

[PunterCam]

fat32

if it was only being used by pc's, the ntfs would be the best choice, but macs dont recognize ntfs

Isn't there a size restriction with fat32? Or have a made that up?

Macs read NTFS but don't write it, unless 10.6 can

 

[ganzey]

Isn't there a size restriction with fat32? Or have a made that up?

Macs read NTFS but don't write it, unless 10.6 can

i think it is like 4gb. IMO you should partition it to two sections, one with fat32, and one with ntfs.