If you have both Windows and Mac computers in your office, it's important to understand their different storage requirements before buying an external hard drive. Both operating systems use different formats for reading and writing to a hard drive. The only hard drive format that can be reliably used by both is called FAT32, or MS-DOS FAT as it's called on Mac computers. Even if your external hard drive doesn't come pre-formatted in FAT32, you can format it yourself using either a Mac or Windows PC.

• Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Without Losing Data
• Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Seagate
• Best Format For External Hard Drive
• Best Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc

Aug 22, 2019  Just like Windows, macOS also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for Mac (and PC). The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as Disk Utility. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. To learn how to format in Mac your hard drive, follow these steps.

1. How to Format an External Hard Drive. This wikiHow teaches you how to change an external (USB) hard drive's format on Windows and Mac computers. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computer's.
2. But you can open HFSExplorer, read a Mac-formatted drive, and copy the files to your Windows PC without paying a dime. It can also mount Mac.dmg disk images to get at the files inside them. This application’s read-only nature isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
3. 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.
4. See this step-by-step tutorial for how to format your USB drive on Mac machine (macOS) and PC (Windows 10). Got a new flash drive? See this step-by-step tutorial for how to format your USB drive on Mac machine (macOS) and PC (Windows 10). Skip to content. Most of the external hard disks and flash drives are formatted for.

FAT32

The FAT32 format is compatible with both Mac and Windows operating systems. FAT32 has a few disadvantages. It can't store any single file larger than 4GB. It's more prone to disk errors and its larger cluster sizes make its storage slightly less efficient than other format types. However, if you want to read and write files from a Windows and a Mac computer to the same external hard drive, this is usually your best option.

Other Formats

External hard drives formatted specifically for Windows usually use NTFS. Mac OS X can read NTFS drives but can't write to them. Unlike FAT32, NTFS supports Windows file permissions and is more stable. External hard drives designed specifically for Mac computers are usually formatted in HFS+. There are tools available online that allow you to write to NTFS from Mac OS X and tools that allow you to write to HFS+ from a Windows computer, but these tools can be difficult to manage and require some technical expertise. Microsoft's successor to FAT32, exFAT, is compatible with recent versions of Windows and Mac OS and removes the 4GB limitation, but brings its own set of trade-offs (see Resources).

Formatting From a Mac

If you want to format a blank external drive from a Mac computer, launch the Disk Utility, located in the Applications Utility folder. After you select the drive, click the 'Erase' button at the top of the window, and then select 'MS-DOS (FAT)' from the Format menu. If you want to only format a portion of the hard drive, click the 'Partition' button and then use the controls to select a partition size and which format you prefer. If you select a Mac OS format for the partition, it won't be readable from a WIndows PC.

Formatting From a PC

To format a blank drive from a PC, you can use the Windows 8 Disk Management Utility. To open this utility, right-click the bottom-left corner of the desktop and select 'Disk Management' from the menu. After you locate the drive in the list on the left, right-click its name, select 'Format' and then select 'FAT32' from the File System menu. To format only a part of the drive, create a new partition on the drive, right-click the drive name and select 'New Simple Volume.' The New Simple Volume Wizard opens to guide you through the process. Any partition you make that is not in FAT32 is visible from a Mac computer, but the Mac can't write to it.

About the Author

A published author and professional speaker, David Weedmark has advised businesses and governments on technology, media and marketing for more than 20 years. He has taught computer science at Algonquin College, has started three successful businesses, and has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines throughout Canada and the United States.

Photo Credits

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Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Without Losing Data

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.

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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…

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:

1. Click on Spotlight and open Disk Utility

2. Click on the USB drive you want to format

3. Click the Erase tab at the top

4. Choose the MS-DOS (FAT) in the format drop down
5. Click Erase and follow the prompts
6. 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.

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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

Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Seagate

The good about formatting to exFAT is that it can handle unlimited file sizes and partition sizes.

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:

1. Plug in your external hard drive in Windows PC
2. Open File Explorer

3. Right-click on your external drive and select Format

4. Choose exFAT in the menu
5. Click Start
6. Your external drive is now formatted

After formatting your drive, it’s now compatible for both your Mac and your Windows PC.

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.

If you have a new OS system, I’d definitely recommend exFAT because it can contain unlimited data.

Bottom Line

Going into Disk Unity then clicking the erase tab is the quickest way to format an external drive on your MAC.

Best Format For External Hard Drive

If you have any questions or you’re having any problems, comment down below and I’ll help you further.

Best Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc

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