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I have a bootcamped Mac, and I want to share my SteamApps folder between the two operating systems, since the bulk of the storage is in game assets.

I've tried using an exFAT partition, but OSX has a bug that reports it as case sensitive when it isn't, so Steam refuses to run on it. Fat32 is no good due to the 4gb limit.

I would rather not have to wrangle some sort of 3rd party ntfs / hfs driver for either side. Thats a last resort option.

Surely others out there want to do this and someone has succeeded?

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  • Are the ALL the OS-specific files separate from ALL the OS-independent files? If not it won't work. Steam for Windows will need to replace the OSX-specific files and vice versa every time you want to play. I'm sure you don't want to download them every time.
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Nov 10, 2011 at 15:29

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Not sure if you know, but you can't just share the apps folder and get access to the same games across operating systems.

When you install it on the Windows Operating system, it's a particular set of binaries. These will not work inside of OSX.

OSX has its own binaries. This is why some games are available for the PC and most are not available on the MAC.

BUT if you already knew this and were just looking for a way to be able to put files in between the system you could do this:

Accessing OSX from windows: https://docs.rice.edu/confluence/display/ITTUT/Access+OS+X+partition+from+Windows+in+Boot+Camp

Accessing Windows from OSX: I'm not sure on this one, you could probably just mount the drive and go from there.

Hope that helps.

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  • I believe I already stated that i dont want to go through a 3rd party driver. And I especially dont want to give carte blanche access to the entire os from another. As for your comment about the games and binaries. Please think before writing this sort of thing, you can tell from my question that I'm not a basic user. I understand that windows and osx run different binaries. However, the majority of filesize in a game are the asset files, of which the binaries share.
    – devians
    Commented Nov 10, 2011 at 7:55
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    It's not just for you @devians, it's for other users who come across your question in the future who may not know as much as you do.
    – Sterling Hamilton
    Commented Nov 10, 2011 at 18:54
  • @Grok: +1 for taking the high road (well, also because I think the answer is useful.)
    – Beska
    Commented Dec 28, 2011 at 19:19
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This is a old thread but in case some people are looking for a definitive answer. Here it is: don't do it.

The thinking is that even if the Windows and OS X binaries are different, they can still be stored in same directory and shouldn't cause a problem when using the other OS.

The problem is steam, will remove the other platform files, depending which you are one. I have tried using exFat, HFS+ on Windows, NTFS on OS X and all ending up causes almost all gems to redownload again.

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