External hard drive format for mac and windows

#EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FORMAT FOR MAC AND WINDOWS HOW TO#
#EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FORMAT FOR MAC AND WINDOWS MAC OS X#
#EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FORMAT FOR MAC AND WINDOWS INSTALL#
#EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FORMAT FOR MAC AND WINDOWS DRIVERS#
#EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FORMAT FOR MAC AND WINDOWS SOFTWARE#

Data fragmentation remains an issue even in the era of mobile devices, and in some cases formatting is the fastest way how to solve it. Optimization is another good reason for hard drive formatting.

When you purchase a brand-new hard drive, thereвЂ™s no guarantee that it will be pre-formatted from the factory, nor is there any guarantee that it will come with the right file system. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive.

#EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FORMAT FOR MAC AND WINDOWS MAC OS X#

TheyвЂ™re not free, but they wonвЂ™t break the bank.Both Mac OS X and Windows allow users to format their hard drives using built-in utilities.

#EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FORMAT FOR MAC AND WINDOWS DRIVERS#

The other methods involve using 3rd party drivers such as: Paragon NTFS or Tuxera NTFS. Make sure to download the вЂњfree for home userвЂќ version. IвЂ™ve not tried it myself, but IвЂ™ve only heard good things about it.

#EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FORMAT FOR MAC AND WINDOWS SOFTWARE#

(tip: create an alias of the volumes so you donвЂ™t have to go back to the terminal every timeвЂ¦)ДЄnother free method: вЂњEaseUS ALL-IN-ONE Partition ManagerвЂќ software ThereвЂ™s your NTSF drive! Now you can do whatever you want with it in Mac OS X. Back in the terminal, type: open /Volumes Unmount your drive, then plug it back in.Д¤. Type: LABEL=TEST none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowseДЈ. Go to вЂњutilitiesвЂќ and start the вЂњterminalвЂќ app. Mac OS X is actually capable of writing to a NTSF drive, just not by default (donвЂ™t ask!). make the NTSF drive both readable and writable in Mac OS X. вЂ“ Stable, so your data is relatively safe (priority #1)Дў. Format your hard drive, or every partition on it, using NTSF. Maybe one day, but for now, вЂњnot ready for prime time!вЂќ.ДЎ. IвЂ™ve read too many posts from people having all sorts of problems using exFAT to consider using it. Select the format вЂ“ Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MS-DOS (FAT32), or exFAT вЂ“ then name the drive.

Select your external hard drive or USB flash drive from the list on the left.

Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities).

Format a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac If you know youвЂ™ll be using computers running updated versions of these operating systems, exFAT is the clear best choice. Any Mac running 10.6.5 (Snow Leopard) or 10.7 (Lion) supports exFAT, while PCs running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, and Windows 7 are compatible. Awesome, itвЂ™s perfect! AlmostвЂ¦ since exFAT is fairly new, it isnвЂ™t compatible with older Macs and PCs. The exFAT file system eliminates the two major deficiencies of FAT32: the largest partition and file sizes it supports are virtually unlimited by todayвЂ™s standards. Much better, except for that pesky 4GB limit. If you format it from a Mac running 10.7 Lion, the drive partition can be up to 2TB. If you format your FAT32 drive in Windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32GB. The other limitation is the total size of the partition. This is a deal-breaker if you work with huge files. For example, you cannot save files that are larger than 4GB on a FAT32-formatted drive. Unfortunately, FAT32 is a very old file system and has some technical limitations. It works with all versions of Mac OS X and Windows.

The most universally supported way to format your drive is with the FAT32 file system. However, you wonвЂ™t be able to move files in the other direction, from Mac to PC.

So if you need to get files from a PC to your Mac, NTFS is a decent option. Macs can read files on NTFS drives, but it cannot write to them. The native Windows file system is NTFS, which is only partially compatible with Mac OS X. This isnвЂ™t a good solution if you need your drive to work on any PC without installing software, though.

#EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FORMAT FOR MAC AND WINDOWS INSTALL#

When you install MacDrive on a Windows PC, it will be able to seamlessly read & write to HFS+ drives. If youвЂ™re only going to be using your external or USB flash drive with certain PCs вЂ“ such as at home or the office вЂ“ you might be interested in a program called MacDrive. But while HFS+ is the best way to format drives for use on Macs, Windows does not support it. Mac OS XвЂ™s native file system is HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended), and itвЂ™s the only one that works with Time Machine. In fact, there are four ways you can format an external or USB flash drive to achieve varying degrees of compatibility between Macs and PCs. Since Mac OS X and Windows use totally different file systems, the way a drive is formatted can determine what type of computer it will work with. Need to access or transfer files between Mac and PC? As simple as this task sounds, itвЂ™s not very straightforward for inexperienced users. Learn a few ways to make your drive Mac and PC friendly. If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive that youвЂ™d like to use on both Macs and Windows PCs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing.

External hard drive format for mac and windows