Are there any compatibility issues using a HDD on PC/Mac?

For the last 5 years, I've used my HDDs with my laptop. Recently I've switched to a Macbook Pro and am hoping that I can keep using all my HDDs that store all of my photography. I assume I can edit photos on PS/LR and save them to my HDD from my PC and then also use the same HDD for saving photos on PS/LR on my Macbook...please correct me if I'm wrong.

If your PC HDDs are formatted in NTFS, you will likely be able to read from them, but not write to them. Windows NTFS volumes generally mount read-only (RO) on Mac OS X. There may be some third-party software to allow write access on Mac OS X for NTFS volumes, but I don't know if this compatibility software has kept up with Apple's gratuitous changes to it's system software. OTOH, if your PC HDDs were formatted in FAT32, you will have no problem with read-write access on your new laptop.

You can see what your volumes are formatted as using the Disk Utility, contained in the Utilities folder on your Mac.

raksphoto wrote in post #17310224
If your PC HDDs are formatted in NTFS, you will likely be able to read from them, but not write to them. Windows NTFS volumes generally mount read-only (RO) on Mac OS X. There may be some third-party software to allow write access on Mac OS X for NTFS volumes, but I don't know if this compatibility software has kept up with Apple's gratuitous changes to it's system software. OTOH, if your PC HDDs were formatted in FAT32, you will have no problem with read-write access on your new laptop.

You can see what your volumes are formatted as using the Disk Utility, contained in the Utilities folder on your Mac.

Checked my HDD, its NTFS. So the easiest thing would be to go get another 1TB HDD and start fresh with files coming from my Macbook...

Rather than buy another drive, just get Tuxera NTFS for mac and you can then read and write to your windows HDD with no issue.

urbanfreestyle wrote in post #17310350
Rather than buy another drive, just get Tuxera NTFS for mac and you can then read and write to your windows HDD with no issue.

+1 to this. That's what I did and it works for me.

urbanfreestyle wrote in post #17310350
Rather than buy another drive, just get Tuxera NTFS for mac and you can then read and write to your windows HDD with no issue.

Ok I'll see about that as an option. Thanks!

If you have somewhere that you can store the files temporarily, you can just re-format your existing hard drive to exFAT which is readable and writable by both PC and Mac.

Vcize wrote in post #17311500
If you have somewhere that you can store the files temporarily, you can just re-format your existing hard drive to exFAT which is readable and writable by both PC and Mac.

I would do that, but the process of transferring 300GB worth of photos to somewhere is a slightly lengthy process. At this point in time, I don't plan on using the device on my PC anymore. This specific HDD is going to be with my Macbook.

I would say there is no benefit of re-formatting it, if you want to pm me i'll even sort you out with a full copy of tuxera lol. i like having my external drives formatted in ntfs so that i can always borrow a friends laptop to read my files.