- Format External Hard Drive For Mac And Windows 7
- Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc
- Format New Hard Drive For Mac And Windows
- Format Transcend Hard Drive For Mac And Windows
- Format Hard Drive For Mac And Windows Exfat
HomeHow ToMacOSHow to Format External Hard Drive for Mac and PC
Looking to share an external hard drive between a Mac and PC? The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as FAT32. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. Using an external drive between Mac and Windows computers can be a hassle, since you constantly have to reformat it to fit which computer you're using it on. Instead of reformatting it all the. Sure You just need to use a format that is compatible with both macOS and Windows The best option would be to format it exFAT, it has both read and write support on both macOS and Windows, FAT32 is another option, though it does have some limitati. I get this question a lot – I have an external hard drive that is NTFS formatted (Windows format), and I want to reformat it for my Mac (HFS). How do I do that? And you know what?
Sep 26, 2018 So, if you want to use an external hard drive on both Windows and Mac, you need to format it to a filesystem that is compatible with Windows PC and Mac. Both FAT32 and exFAT can be used on Windows PC and Mac.
You can format an external hard drive or USB so that it’s compatible for both your Mac and your Windows PC.
Without formatting the drive, you won’t be able to use your hard drive across different operating systems.
When you do format a hard drive, you’ll be able to access your data, media and files across any operating system.
This is extremely handy if you use a Mac and Windows operating system because you’ll be able to cross between both platforms and use your USB on anyone.
Remember that everything gets wiped off your hard drive when you format it, so you’ll need to back it up before you follow the steps down below.
Let’s get started… Seagate ntfs for mac.
Format Using MS-DOS FAT
The good thing about changing the format to FAT is that it works with all Macs and PCs, plus it uses less memory and it works faster.
The negatives of using Fat is that it can’t contain files bigger than 4GB.
To format your hard drive to FAT on Mac: Video players for mac.
- Click on Spotlight and open Disk Utility
- Click on the USB drive you want to format
- Click the Erase tab at the top
- Choose the MS-DOS (FAT) in the format drop down
- Click Erase and follow the prompts
- Your external hard drive to now formatted
Remember that once you’ve formatted your hard drive, it will get wiped so you’ll need to backup the content on your external drive.
If you’re using a USB, you can simply drag its contents to a folder in your PCs hard drive and upload it back to your external hard drive once it has been formatted.
Format Using ExFAT
The good about formatting to exFAT is that it can handle unlimited file sizes and partition sizes.
Format External Hard Drive For Mac And Windows 7
The cons of exFAT are that you can only use it with Mac OS X 10.6.5 or newer and your Windows PC needs to be either Windows Vista SP1 or Windows 7 and above.
Another problem with exFAT is that it’s extremely slow so moving files to this drive will take several minutes.
To Format using exFAT on Windows PC:
Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc
- Plug in your external hard drive in Windows PC
- Open File Explorer
- Right-click on your external drive and select Format
- Choose exFAT in the menu
- Click Start
- Your external drive is now formatted
After formatting your drive, it’s now compatible for both your Mac and your Windows PC.
![Format Hard Drive For Mac And Windows Format Hard Drive For Mac And Windows](/uploads/1/3/4/0/134052363/129164354.jpg)
Fat is the best option to use because you can use it on any OS, however, it can only contain 4GB which may not be enough for you.
Format New Hard Drive For Mac And Windows
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Kmplayer for mac os x 10.6.8. If you have a new OS system, I’d definitely recommend exFAT because it can contain unlimited data.
Bottom Line
Format Transcend Hard Drive For Mac And Windows
Going into Disk Unity then clicking the erase tab is the quickest way to format an external drive on your MAC.
If you have any questions or you’re having any problems, comment down below and I’ll help you further.
Format Hard Drive For Mac And Windows Exfat
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