How To Format A Windows Hard Drive To Mac

How to format (external) difficult drive for Mac and Windows PC? A Stepwise Guide

Summary: Tutorial to format (external) hard drive for Mac and Windows PC. To make NTFS drive interchangeable, download NTFS for Mac tool - iBoysoft NTFS for Mac.

Though the default hard disk file systems (also known as format) of Windows and Mac are different, there should be some ways to format an external hard drive to get in compatible with your Mac or PC.

This post will conclude these tutorials:

• ane. How to make an external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC without formatting
• 2. How to format an external hard drive for Mac
• 3. How to format an external hard drive for Windows PC
• 4. Which is the all-time format for an external difficult drive for Mac and PC
• 5. How to partition an external hard drive to get in compatible with Mac and PC
• 6. FAQ about formatting external hard drives for Mac and Windows

How to brand an external hard bulldoze uniform with Mac and PC without formatting

If you need to use an external hard bulldoze on Mac that is not completely uniform with your computer OS and yous have the urge to format it, y'all should know there is a more feasible way to make your external drives uniform with your Mac and PC. This method suits yous most if y'all just want to use it occasionally on different Os or don't desire to lose files on your external bulldoze by formatting.

Usually, most of the difficult bulldoze manufacturers utilise the NTFS file arrangement to format their external HDD as a manufacturing plant standard, including many famous brands such every bit Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Bear upon and WD My Passport. This is because Windows is the most normally used around the world. Withal, the NTFS format tin can be a hassle for users who need to use the aforementioned external drive on both Mac and Windows. Because you lot can read NTFS drive on Mac merely and you lot can't write to this drive normally in this case.

Under such a circumstance, a professional NTFS driver for Mac like iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is exactly what yous demand. Even if the external hard drive is read-merely on Mac, this iBoysoft tool enables you to write to NTFS drives on the Mac with ease. Now, it also supports Monterey 12, Mac with M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max chips. Hither is an easy tutorial to follow:

ane. Gratis download, install, and launch iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on your estimator.

2. Connect your NTFS external bulldoze to Mac, and iBoysoft NTFS for Mac will automatically mount it.

3. Write to NTFS external bulldoze after the disk has been mounted in read-write manner successfully.

How to format an external hard bulldoze for Mac

To format a Mac external hard drive, y'all'll need to launch the Disk Utility app, the built-in disk management tool. If you lot encounter to see the external hard bulldoze greyed out in Disk Utility on Mac or the external hard bulldoze not showing up in Disk Utility, set up the problems in the get-go identify. So, y'all demand to choose the best file format for your external drive when erasing it.

[Complete Guide] Disk Utility Won't Permit You Erase Hard Drives

If Disk Utility failed to exercise the chore, read this mail service to become out of the fault. Read more than >>

Tips: Remember to back up the files on the external bulldoze if you lot have saved anything of import on information technology, formatting a disk will erase all the data on it.

Format the external drive with Disk Utility on Mac:

i. Connect the external hard drive with your Mac, and the computer volition mountain your drive.

ii. Launchpad → Other → Disk Utility, and click the Disk Utility.

3. Cull your target external hard drive or book, click the Erase push button on the top.

iv. Edit the disk name, select a file format and a scheme.

Among all the 10 formats (file systems) y'all can select in macOS x.13 or above the APFS is the suggested one, because it has the most recent features to work with best performance and information management. However, it is just compatible with macOS. If your goal is to make the external drive compatible with Mac and Windows computers, you have to choose Fat or exFAT. And finally, all the other file formats are only used for Mac.

During the process yous are going to discover iii kinds of Scheme you can choose from:

• GUID Sectionalisation Map: for all Intel-based Mac computers.
• Primary Kicking Record: for Windows partitions that volition be formatted every bit MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFAT.
• Apple Partition Map: for compatibility with old PowerPC-based Mac computers.

Mac users choose GUID Partition Map in most cases for its compatibility.

5. After choosing the partition parameters click Erase at the bottom of the window to confirm the formatting of the external drive.

6. Click Done, and you have finished all the steps.

Watch this video to know how to prepare up a new external difficult drive for both Mac and PC:

How to format an external difficult drive for Windows PC

Similarly, you can too format your drive on Windows computers with a utility called Deejay Management. Here is how to do:

Format the external drive with Disk Management on Windows:

i. Find the target external difficult drive in Deejay Management bank check if it's already initialized, if it's not, click on it using the correct push of the mouse and choose the manner (scheme) you are going to use, MBR or GPT, then right-click on it, and choose Format from the contextual menu.

2. Then ready the deejay information, including allocation unit size, volume label, and format. If you want an interchangeable drive to utilise on both macOS and Windows, you must choose FAT or exFAT as the disk format.

3. Click OK to format the drive.

In the case that y'all find some important files missing once were stored on the external hard bulldoze you format, you can restore files from Time Machine or rescue files with iBoysoft Data Recovery.

Which is the best format for an external difficult drive for Mac and PC

The file system is what manages how your files are stored and retrieved in your devices. So, every hard disk drive needs a proper file system, including desktop drives and portable storage devices like external drives, USB flash drives and sd cards.

However, dissimilar formats have different advantages and disadvantages. Then before you know how to format a hard bulldoze, y'all should know the pros and cons of each file system.

1. FAT32

Fatty (File Resource allotment Table) was one file organisation originally developed for use on floppy disks, afterwards it was adjusted for use on many other devices including Hard drives and it includes iii major file system variants. The majorly used one is FAT32 and is normally used in floppy disks, SD memory cards, USB wink drives, digital cameras, as well as many portable and embedded devices.

• Pros:
• Works universally with all versions of Mac, Windows, Linux machines, game devices, and other devices supporting a USB port

• Cons:
• Doesn't support a file size larger than 4GB and a bulldoze partition size larger than 32GB on Windows.
• Doesn't back up the drive partition larger than 2TB on macOS.
• Doesn't provide security and is prone to disk errors.

2. exFAT

exFAT is a mod derivative of the FAT file system (FAT32) and for this reason also a adept option for external difficult drives (e.g. Seagate Backup Plus Slim), especially for large-capacity removable storage devices. It likewise is frequently used in flash memory drives such as USB flash drives and SD cards. exFAT is easily oft implemented in firmware that has depression memory and depression power requirements, such as cameras, mobile phones, media players, etc.

• Pros:
• Supports the largest partitioning and stores files larger than 4GB.

• Cons:
• Not compatible with many common older operating systems.
• Non a skillful option for drives less than 32GB considering it tin't maximize space utilizationfor its cluster size arrangement.

[Answered] Tin can Mac Recognize and Read exFAT External Drives?

This article answers the question "Can Mac read exFAT" and the answer is yeah. Notice out what exFAT is, how an exFAT device performs on Mac, and how to get exFAT on Mac. Read more >>

3. NTFS

NTFS is a proprietary journaling format developed by Microsoft. It is used as the default file organization of Windows arrangement hard drive (eastward.g. Windows 10). NTFS does well in data security based on its encryption, access permission command, and log file.

• Pros:
• Improved operation, reliability, and deejay space use.
• Performs improve in protecting information security, data management.
• Uniform with all versions of Windows and the latest hardware.

• Cons:
• Read-but in macOS and the disabled-by-default write support for NTFS in macOS is unstable.
• For resizing (shrink or expand a sectionalization) yous should rely on 3rd-party tools because the Windows built-in i has shown to exist faulty on many occasions.

4. Mac Os Extended (HFS+)

HFS (Hierarchical File System) Plus or HFS+ is a journaling format developed by Apple Inc. It's the startup disk'south default file system in OS'due south before macOS High Sierra. Information technology is too oft used as Time Auto backup external drives.

• Pros:
• Supported past all versions of Mac OS X and macOS 10.12.
• Has journaling, pinch, and encryption features.

• Cons:
• Has no access permission control.
• Performs dull or crash in dealing with a large number of files. This situation is even worse when it's an enormous quantity of very small-scale files.
• Harder for data recovery when an HFS+ drive is corrupted.

5. Apple file system (APFS)

APFS is the new proprietary file system of Apple tree. It has been known to increase read/write speeds on solid-land drives (SSDs), as well every bit increase storage space due to the way in which it calculates the available data on disk.

• Pros:
• Allows full-disk encryption with single or multi-fundamental encryption for added security.
• Efficient in direction of gratis storage infinite.
• Crash protection to avoid abuse caused by system crashes.

• Cons:
• Not good for Time Machine backup due to no support for difficult links to directories.
• Can simply be used on macOS High Sierra and to a higher place.

After knowing their unique specifications, it becomes easier to choose the best ane from mentioned file formats for your external drive on Mac and Windows computers.

If y'all desire to use the same deejay on both Mac and Windows computers, you need to have FAT32 or exFAT because they are uniform formats. But if you adopt to utilise the external bulldoze on but 1 of the operating systems, you can choose APFS (Apple file system) for Mac and NTFS for Windows to work to the utmost extent. To savor the features of NTFS on Mac or APFS on Windows, you need the assistance of a third-party program.

How to partition an external hard drive to get in compatible with Mac and PC

Instead of having the whole external drive formatted, you lot tin can likewise split this disk into two partitions. One is formatted with a macOS-supported file system, another with a Windows-supported file organization conversely. By this ways, you can use all the advantages each format has on the respective arrangement with the aforementioned drive.

Pace one: Connect the external drive to your PC so launch Disk Management.

Step 2: Bank check if the external drive is initialized or not.

If the drive is not initialized, you need to initialize the external difficult drive with Master Boot Record (MBR). Then y'all can create two new partitions. You need to format one of them as NTFS for Windows and format the other every bit your wish.

If the external bulldoze is initialized, you need to correct-click the disk to cheque if information technology's an MBR external drive.

If you see Convert to GPT Disk in the context card, be it greyed out or lighted, it's an MBR difficult drive. So you can create two or more partitions. And you need to ready one partition for the NTFS format, and reformat the other with any file system.

If you see Catechumen to MBR Disk in the menu, it'south a GPT difficult drive. In this case, you need first backup files, delete the existing partitions, then click the Catechumen to MBR Disk button. Then, you lot can create two new partitions. You lot need to format ane partition as NTFS for Windows, and then format the other randomly.

Step three: Upwards to now, there should exist at least ii partitions on the external drive. And one of them (the NTFS one) is ready for Windows employ. Then, you need to safely remove the external drive and plug information technology into a Mac.

Step 4: On the Mac computer Open Deejay Utility and select the partition you lot preset for mac (not the NTFS ane) nether the name of your external drive.

Step 5: Click Erase on the window top, choose Mac OS Extended format when it asks, and choose Erase at the lesser to end.

Up to now, the external bulldoze will have 2 partitions. One is HFS+ formatted for Mac, and the other is NTFS formatted for Windows.

By creating 2 separate partitions, you can apply this external drive on Mac and Windows. You won't be able to write to the Mac segmentation from your Windows PC, and vice versa. Thus, it'southward a expert solution for people who need to swap the same bulldoze betwixt 2 operating systems only with carve up work.

Terminal Words

In conclusion, it is piece of cake to format external drives for Mac and Windows. You can either choose to format the whole deejay as exFAT/Fat, or you can create 2 separate partitions of HFS+ and NTFS if you adopt. Anyway if y'all accept more than than 1 external hard drive containing important files and want them to be interchangeable between PC and Mac computers, it's much easier to have a solution that allows your figurer to work in whatsoever of them. For example, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is a better and more viable solution.

FAQ most formatting external difficult drives for Mac and Windows

A

Yes, exFAT is a good option if yous demand to use the external hard drive often with Windows and Mac. Linux also supports exFAT.

A

Technically speaking, exFAT is the all-time format for external difficult drives that work with Mac and Windows computers for its compatibility and large file support.

A

If your external hard bulldoze is Microsoft NTFS formatted, the best fashion to make this HDD compatible with Mac and PC without formatting is to install an NTFS for Mac commuter on Mac.

A

FAT, FAT32, and exFAT formats work on both macOS and Windows operating systems. With a capable NTFS driver for Mac, the NTFS file organisation tin work equivalently as these uniform file systems.

Source: https://iboysoft.com/ntfs-for-mac/how-to-format-external-hard-drive-for-mac-and-pc.html

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