The Challenge: To Share a Common External Drive Between a Mac and a Windows XP

• iMac
• Clone PC Running Windows XP Pro
• Western Digital 500 Gb MyBook Drive

– manzoor

We capture our “memories” in journals, diaries, pictures & videos.

Digital imaging systems (the various still and motion cameras) have made it much easier for us to capture our lives and memories in still pictures and motion video. Various online tools (flickr, picasaweb, YouTube etc) have also made it relatively easy, and affordable, to archive and share those memories.

But when using these resources it is good to be aware of the pros and cons. I have tried to capture my experience and opinions about some of these in this and other article(s)¹. I am focusing on the “Still Images” for now. Hopefully in the future I will expand to include the rest (starting with the Motion Video).

Capturing the Memories

Before we can archive and share our memories, they have to be made and captured. With digital cameras now available for as little as less than $100, “taking” the still images is more affordable than ever (no more recurring expensesfor the film or their development or printing).

Archiving the Memories

The very first stage is to copy / move the pictures off from the camera and onto the Personal Computer.

Sharing the Memories

We can, and do, share the pictures via e-mail, Instant Messages, Social Media etc.

Issue(s)

Before we had the ability to do all these, the only issue we had was that we didn’t have any pictures. But now, with the availability of all the above, we have created a laundry list of issues. In no particular order:

• Most, or a significant number, of my pictures are not taken by me.
  • Most of the pictures we take are of other people who are more interested in them than I
• They are not in any one / uniform location
• Over time I may or may not have access to the pictures

Goal

• I want to be able to access all of my pictures all of the time

– manzoor

1. Other Articles
   • flickr
   • Picasaweb