This post will teach you how to format an external hard drive or a USB flash disk so it can be used on both Mac and Windows PC.
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If your hard drive is only working with Windows or Mac, then its file system is probably NTFS (Windows only) or APFS (Mac only). To make it compatible with both Mac and Windows PC, we need to convert the file system to FAT or ExFAT, which is accessible from both operating systems.
Mar 15, 2018 Donât Format the Drive! (Yet) When you connect a Mac-formatted drive to Windows, youâll be informed that âyou need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it.â Donât click the âFormat diskâ button or Windows will erase the contents of the driveâclick âCancelâ! May 29, 2020 Up to now, Mac operating systems, including macOS Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra/Sierra and Mac OS X El Capitan, only provide NTFS read support but deny NTFS write support. You know the business, but for users, is there any way to let Mac write NTFS drives? Can you make the NTFS drive fully compatible with macOS or Mac OS X? Mar 15, 2018 Donât Format the Drive! (Yet) When you connect a Mac-formatted drive to Windows, youâll be informed that âyou need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it.â Donât click the âFormat diskâ button or Windows will erase the contents of the driveâclick âCancelâ! Getting access to an NTFS drive on macOS Mojave is not enough. Getting that access at fast speeds is the ideal thing that should happen. Paragon gives just that! With it, you not only enable Mac writing to NTFS but do so at blazing speeds. The speed is faster than the write speed natively supported by macOS Mojave on NTFS drives.
You may see a file system called FAT32, itâs just a variant of FAT. Actually, FAT32 is the only version of FAT that is still widely used.
Rtl8188 driver usb wifi. In fact, because this is independent of your Airport card, if you do have one you will want to turn it off prior to using this. This item works with any Mac that has a USB port- you do not need to have an Airport card in your Mac.
Important note: formatting a drive deletes permanently all data stored in it. You should make a copy of your driveâs data on your computer before proceeding.
This walkthrough works with any external/internal hard drive, flash drive, USB drive, or SSD,⦠so you can apply the same process to any other storage device that is accepted by Mac & PC.
How to format a Drive for Mac and Windows PC
To make a drive compatible with both Mac and PC, we need to format it to either FAT or ExFAT. Before deciding which file system you should use, let me explain the differences between these two.
Most of you 001dwould choose ExFAT as it outperforms FAT in 001dmost aspects.
Mac Os Format NtfsHereâs how to format your hard drive to FAT or ExFAT on Mac.
Step 1: Open Disk Utility on your Mac. You can quickly search for it in Spotlight Search or find it within the /Applications/Utilities folder.
Step 2: Connect your external hard drive to the Mac. If you Mac recognize the hard drive, 001dits name will appear on the left sidebar under External.
Step 3: Click the drive name, then click Erase. Click the pulldown menu alongside Format and select MS-DOS (FAT32) or ExFAT.
Step 4: Click the Erase button to start formatting the drive for Mac & PC.
After formatting, your drive will be compatible to work with both Mac and Windows PC.
The above process is performed on Mac. If you want to do it on Windows, hereâs how:
Step 1: Plug in the drive and open Windows File Explorer.
Step 2: Go to This PC (aka Computer or My Computer).
Step 3: Find the drive and right-click on it, select Formatâ¦
Step 4: Click the drop-down menu beneath File system, and select your file system of choice (FAT or ExFAT).
Step 5: There is a checkbox for Quick Format under Format options. If you uncheck it, the computer performs a normal format â files are removed and the drive is scanned for bad sectors. Realtek wireless lan usb driver mac os 10.4 tiger software. If itâs checked, only the files are removed and no scan is performed.
Step 6: Click Start then OK to confirm that you want to format the drive.
Read & Write NTFS hard drive on Mac
NTFS is the default file system for drives on Windows. Youâre able to mount and read NTFS formatted drives on a Mac. But if you want to write to them, you need to either use third-party software or enable NTFS writing on the Mac.
Mac Os X Format Ntfs
If you need to use the external drive on the Mac and the PC just for a couple of times, you can go with that. Otherwise, you should choose FAT or ExFAT for long-term use.
Mac Os X Format External Drive Ntfs Windows 10
Dan is a web developer, a digital nomad, and a lifelong Apple fan. At iPhonebyte, his job is to help you get the most out of your iOS and Mac devices. Read the story about him and the website here.
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