Yes, of course a FIrewire drive will work on Windows computers as long as the Windows computer is Firewire (IEEE1394) compatible.
See the documentation that came with your machine.
Technically there is no difference between a Mac drive and a Windows drive, other than the format that is applied to it, and your currently problem will not be solved with the solution you propose.
If you purchase a Firewire external drive and you format it for the Mac, Mac OSX Extended(journaled), then it will work fine with the Mac but the Windows machine will not be able to read or write to it!
However, if you format it as FAT32, then both machines will be able to read and write to it. Problem here is that FAT32 is not a particularly good format to use. It does not like large files and has a tendency to make stuff disappear.
Another solution, which does not involve spending a chunk of change, is to install NTFS for Mac on the Mac. This will enable the Mac to read and write to an NTFS formatted disk with no problems at all.
For the princely sum of $20.00 and a visit to http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
your problem will go away.
There is a "free" piece of software that also does the same job. You will find that here: http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/
If you are bound and determined to get an external Firewire drive, remember they are more expensive than USB drives, take a look at www.macsales.com but bear in mind that your problem, regarding reading and writing NTFS or OS X Extended will still be there.
P
hi all,
i have an ext HDD formatted with NTFS. it has a lot of problems in working on macs. the mac OS is only able to read and not write to the drive.
so i am planning to buy a firewire drive for mac. and wondering -
1- can a firewire drive work on windows computers?
so will i be able to transfer data from my mac to windows OS ?
2- where can i get good deals on firewire drives ?
thanks!

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