Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability

#Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability how to#
#Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability mac os x#
#Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability mac os#
#Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability install#
#Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability windows 7#

In this blog post, we will walk you through the formatting process and share instructions to format an external drive on macOS & Windows.Д«ut before you proceed, understand that formatting carries a risk of hard drive corruption and data loss.

#Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability how to#

Summary: LetвЂ™s figure out how to format your WD Passport on macOS & Windows. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label.

A window will pop up where you can choose the format вЂ“ NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT.

Select your drive from the list and right-click on it.

Go to Computer (or My Computer in Windows XP).

Be aware that formatting a drive deletes all of the files on it, so back up anything important before completing this step.

Click the Erase button and the drive will start formatting.

#Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability mac os#

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.

#Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability windows 7#

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.

#Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability mac os x#

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.

#Ntfs fat32 or for mac and pc compatability 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. One is to use a paid 3rd party tool to add NTFS write support to a Mac, such as ParagonвЂ™s NTFS for Mac tool.

Then there is the inability to write files greater than 4gb on Fat32 and of course the complete lack of support on Windows for a Mac drive formatted with HFS+. Why should you consider formatting your hard drive? You might already know the consequences of. HFS+ Mac OS XвЂ™s native file system is HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended), and itвЂ™s the only one.FAT32 works for both OSes, but has a 4GB size limit per file, so it. Windows' default NTFS is read-only on OS X, not read-and-write, and Windows computers can't even read Mac-formatted HFS+ drives.