Does anybody know of a good external hard drive that is compatible with both Windows XP and Windows 7?

Most of them. External drives work like giant flash drives, with respect to the interface.

Not that this is my field, but i would expect this is more microsoft bullshit, rather than a hard drive problem. I have two external USB hard drives that go back and fourth no problem (from xp to vista, have not tried on 7)

I would suggest that you upload your files to a host, like rapidshare, megaupload, or hotfile, and then download them on your new computer.

but yes, this really does not make any sense to me. its not like windows 7 no longer accepts mp3 files. something strange is going on.

if you can give me more info, maybe some screenshots, i can try and find what the problem is. there is maybe a solution.

EDIT: just plugged one in to the windows 7 pc and it worked fine.

All you need is a any USB external drive that is NTFS formatted. I personally prefer Western Digital drives. If you want the drive to be more portable (no power supply needed) then checkout the WD Passports. If the drive is just going to sit at home, then you could always get a large capacity My Book. It’s really just personal preference because 90% of external drives will work with Windows XP or above, and if it doesn’t you can just format it so that it does.

Are trying to use a utility to transfer stuff? You should be able to just drag them over.

Hi fly. I’ll probably just muddy things up here….I’m not up on terminology or technology, but I manage to get by OK and have never lost any music on my computers, itunes or my ipod. When you say you are trying to synch, are you trying to synch a mobile device (ipod) directly to the library contained on the hard-drive, or ?
Incidentally, after I got a warm feeling that Windows 7 had a good back-up program, I bought a Western Digital Element which does not contain its own backup software (no use wasting space on something I had no intentions of ever using).
See ya…...Gary/wytf
PS: Don’t forget you need to “authorize” your new computer in iTunes.

You’re leaving something out of your description of the problem. The hard drive is compatible with XP and 7.

Please explain again, with exact steps, precisely what you mean by trying to “sync” your iTunes library across machines. Be sure to write down the complete error message verbatim.

Sorry about the late reply.

Apparently it was just a minor problem with the settings on the hard drive, which I’ve got fixed now. For the record, when I said I was trying to sync the iTunes library, I mean that: My ext. hard drive allows me to synchronize files between computers, so any changes to one will be changed on the other. I was using the sync feature as a means of initially putting my iTunes library on the new laptop.

Thanks for the help.

Ah, so you were using the complementary software provided with your Seagate drive: the Seagate Manager.

The only documentation I can find for that is in the User Guide for your hard drive.

Just fyi, it’s always helpful to be very specific about this kind of thing. I had about a half dozen other scenarios in mind when first reading your problem, none of them including your drive’s builtin backup software.

Glad you solved it!