You can format your external hard drive from either the PC or Mac. Just keep in mind if you want to use your drive also for OS X’s Time Machine backups, we advise you to format your drive through Mac because there is an additional step to make drive compatible with “Time Machine Backups”. And you can only do this with exFAT as with FAT32 Mac OS X’s Time Machine backup won’t work. FAT32 or exFAT? You can format your external hard drive in both – exFAT and FAT32.
Once the drive is formatted it will be compatible to be read and written to on both a Mac and PC, and the resulting FAT file system is compatible with all versions of Mac OS X, Windows 95, 98, Windows XP, Vista, 7, Windows 8, even Windows 10, it’s one of the most widely recognized and usable file system formats. By default, they format disks with the Mac-only OS X Extended file system. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both Macs and PCs, you should format the disk with the exFAT file system instead.
They both will work just fine. Mac and PC can read and write on both. However, each of these filesystems has their own pros and cons. FAT32 has a maximum 4GB file size limit, but exFAT can work with files as large as 16EB, that’s more than you will ever need. If you have to work with large video clips, games or any other kind of massive files, FAT32 may not be the best choice.
Many still choose FAT32 over exFAT despite its slower performance, as it’s also compatible with Linux Os and is supported on many consoles. Once you have done with formatting, your external hard drive will be able to write and read files from both a PC and Mac. The resulting FAT32 file system will be compatible with all versions of Mac OS X, and Windows including back to 95. This is one of the most widely recognized file system formats.
FAT32 – a file system normally used on USB disks. exFAT – a newer file system optimized for flash devices and has improved performance overFAT32 Why I can’t use NTFS on Mac? The default file system for Windows is NTFS (New Technology File System). Macs that run Snow Leopard or Lion can read data from drives that are formatted as NTFS. However, they can’t write.
To make your Mac compatible writing on NTFS you have to get and install a third-party driver. So in the end, it’s possible to make your NTFS external hard drive compatible with Mac. But we advise to just format it to “FAT” file system as it’s less time consuming and easier.
Windows 7 can’t read nor write files to external drives that are formatted as HFS. To do so you also have to install third-party like. How to format an External Drive in Windows 1) Connect the drive to your Windows PC. 2) Open Disk Management.
3) Right click on unallocated or any other disk partition and select “ New Simple Volume” 4) Choose your desired size 5) Assign your external hard drive with any letter. 6) Choose exFAT as the file system. 7) Follow the instructions and at the end click “ Finish“ How to Format an External Drive in OS X 1) Connect your external hard drive to the Mac.
2) Open Disk Utility. You can do this quickly by pressing CMD and the spacebar at the same time. Then type in “Disk Utility”. 3) Select the drive you want to format. 4) Click the Partition tab.
6) Change the Partition Layout from Current to 1 Partition. 7) Click Options, Select Master Boot Record, and click OK. 8) Name the hard drive with a name of your choice. 9) Click the Format drop-down menu. 10) Select exFAT or MS-DOS FAT(FAT32).
11) At last press Apply, then click on Partition. WD My Book would be best for desktop, Seagate Backup Plus Slim would be one of the best portable hard drives. Both are all-around decent drives and will do fine for any backup, pictures included. As for cross-platform encryption, if you intend to use the same drive on both Mac and Windows, the best option would be using a cross-platform compatible encryption tool, like, while formatting the drive in exFAT to avoid compatibility issues. This is because Windows won’t recognize Mac’s native encryption and vice versa. VeraCrypt is well-renowned, so it should function well without any problems, just be prepared to learn how to use the tool.
Try testing this setup with just a couple files before you perform entire backups.
Do you need to read a Mac drive on Windows? Unfortunately, it’s not a straightforward process; you can’t just connect the Mac drive and expect it to work. Here’s everything you need to know to get it working. Why Can’t Windows Read Mac Drives?
Windows and macOS use different file systems. Windows uses the NTFS file system for its internal drives, whereas Apple replaced HFS+ with its successor— Apple File System (APFS)—in early 2017. Today, APFS is used on Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs. External hard disks and USB drives are generally formatted with the Windows FAT32 file system for maximum compatibility. Most devices, including Macs, can read and write from FAT32 devices. There’s even a way to Some of the most common methods of adding NTFS support broke with the recent release of El Capitan, but you can still write to your Windows drives with a bit of tinkering. All new Macs will be formatted with APFS.
Older Mac drives may still be formatted with the HFS+ file system. Windows can’t read either file system by default.
We’ll show you how to access your Mac-formatted APFS or HFS+ drive on Windows. How to Read APFS on Windows Firstly, let’s look at how to read the newer Apple File System format on Windows. All these apps will allow you to read drives from any updated Apple device, not just Macs. MacDrive MacDrive has been one of the go-to apps for a long time. The first version was released way back in 1996.
If you’re prepared to spend some money, you don’t need to look elsewhere. The app works with APFS drives and HFS+ drives. Unlike some of the options we’ll discuss later, MacDrive lets you read and write data to your Mac-formatted drive directly from Windows. The app is focussed around the freshly redesigned Disk Management Window. It acts as a hub for all the Mac drives connected to Windows.
You will also be able to see your APFS or HFS+ drive directly within File Explorer, allowing easy integration with the rest of the Windows operating system. Other useful features include the ability to create and partition Mac disks direct from your PC, a powerful disk repair feature, and robust security tools. The standard version costs $49.99. There’s also a Pro version. It adds several extra features, including automatic file defragmentation, support for RAID setups, and a way to create Mac ISO files. A five-day free trial is available. Download: ($49.99) 2.
Paragon APFS for Windows Paragon APFS for Windows is another paid app. It is the main competitor of MacDrive. The app provides read and write access to APFS-formatted partitions, read and write access to compressed and cloned files, and read-only support for encrypted volumes. It supports disk auto-mounting at start-up, but doesn’t have MacDrive’s partition tools. MacDrive has one big advantage over Paragon’s app: HFS+ support.
Paragon APFS for Windows only supports APFS-formatted drives. If you have some older Mac drives lying around that are still running HFS+, you would need to separately purchase Paragon HFS+ for Windows. MacDrive, therefore, is a more economical option. One license—which costs $49.95—works on three Windows PCs. Download: ($49.95) 3. UFS Explorer Standard Access Our third and final recommendation for reading APFS drives on Windows is UFS Explorer Standard Recovery. Once again, it’s a paid option.
The app will cost you €21.95. UFS Explorer Standard Recovery is the most versatile app on this list. It can read the two formats we care about—APFS and HFS+—as well as NTFS, FAT, FAT32, exFAT, SGI XFS, Linux JFS, Unix/BSD, UFS/UFS2, and VMware VMFS. As such, this is the app you should choose if you find yourself hopping between lots of different operating systems during your day. UFS Explorer Standard Recovery also comes with RAID support as standard. The app has a built-in RAID builder, so you can customize it for your array.
There is a free version of the app with no time limits, but it will only let you copy files smaller than 256KB in size. Download: (€21.95) How to Read HFS+ on Windows If your Mac-formatted drive is still running HFS+, use one of these three methods instead. Install Apple HFS+ Drivers If you only need read access, you can install the Apple HFS+ drivers for Windows.
Be sure to remove Paragon or MacDrive before proceeding. Download the correct, then follow these steps:. Copy the ApplsHFS.sys and AppleMNT.sys files to C: Windows System32 drivers. Merge the AddAppleHFS.reg file with your Windows registry.
Restart your system. The video above also demonstrates the process. After restarting, your Mac-formatted drive should show up under This PC. This method only gives you read access to the drive. If you would like to edit or delete files, try one of the alternative methods below. 2. HFSExplorer HFSExplorer is completely free.
You can use it to access Mac file systems from Windows without paying a dime. The developer hasn’t updated it since October 2015 due to the arrival of APFS, but it still works on older systems.
HFSExplorer requires. We generally recommend against having Java installed, but it’s necessary here unless you want to spend money.
You also need to run the app as an Admin. This tool is simple to use.
Connect your Mac-formatted drive to your Windows system, open HFSExplorer, and click File Load File System From Device. HFSExplorer can automatically locate any connected devices with HFS+ file systems and open them. You can then extract files from the HFSExplorer window to your Windows drive. Note that HFSExplorer is read-only, so you can’t modify or delete files on your Mac drive. It also doesn’t integrate with Windows File Explorer—files are available in the HFSExplorer application and you must copy them elsewhere.
Download: (Free) 3. Paragon HFS+ for Windows is a paid application, but it distinguishes itself with additional features. Unlike HFSExplorer, Paragon HFS+ for Windows provides full read/write access to Mac drives and promises high performance. It even integrates HFS+ file systems with Windows Explorer or File Explorer on Windows. Any Windows program can read from or write to the Mac drive. The app costs $19.95, but it also offers a 10-day free trial.
If you just need to recover files from a drive, 10 days is plenty of time to install this file system driver, copy your files over, and uninstall it. Paragon HFS+ doesn’t need Java to work. Download: ($19.95) Or Format the Mac Drive for Windows If you have a Mac drive lying around and you no longer have a Mac, you’re not stuck with the Mac file system forever. After recovering the files from your drive with one of the tools above, you can then format the drive and convert it to a standard FAT32 partition that will work with most devices.
Formatting will erase all the files on your drive, so make sure you have. To format the drive, just use the dialog that appears when you connect the drive to your computer. Check out our guide to FAT and FAT32 support up to 16TB. Yet Windows sets a 32GB limit for formatting with FAT or FAT32. We'll show you how to format larger drives. Explore more about:,.
I bought today a WD my passport 25E3 from Curry Pc world. I was talking with the guy about Windows and an upgrade to my HP with another HP. For some reason ha gave me an external drive for MAC!
I didn't notice until it was too late like why the hell my laptop can't see the hard and no drivers found for it. I literally black out when I saw it. No exchange or ref for opened boxes. But God I found you! And after bashing my head a few time, as I m not an expert I have managed to format my hard and now I can seeee it! Thank you sooo much! I've distrusted Paragon's filesystem code for years.
About a decade ago I bought their Windows driver for reading EXT3 (Linux) filesystems. It seemed to work OK for about a month, but then suddenly after writing a file under Windows, the entire EXT3 filesystem became unreadable! Creating robust filesystem drivers is hard.
A bug that only occurs on one write in a billion but that clobbers some critical element in some data structure the filesystem depends on can end up with you LOSING ALL THE FILES in the filesystem! Given the high risk of data loss, extensive testing is necessary before a filesystem driver can be deemed trustworthy, and it doesn't look like Paragon's testing is up to the task. But ExFat is legally-encumbered so that anyone who tries to write a Linux driver for it is subject to a nasty lawsuit from Microsoft.
FAT32 is the only filesystem I know of that can be both read and written under all three major operating systems (Windows, OS-X, and Linux) as well as by various special purpose devices like digital cameras. It's unfortunate that FAT32 is an archaic design and has some serious limitations, but if your files are smaller than 4 GB and the partition containing your filesystem is under 2 TB, FAT32 provides portability between OS's that no other filesystem can. Is MacDrive the only option that allows formatting disks in HFS+ format (and is that identical to or is MacDrive able to format and partition Macintosh Journaled volumes?)? My wife's iMac HD died, I replaced it with a Crucial M550 1TB SSD and now it's telling me the disk is bad. All I have to check to see if the drive is actually bad is a Windows 7 x64 machine as her Air sure won't help.
After two supposed hard drive failures in 3 months I'm a bit suspicious of the SATA controller or cabling. The Crucial SSD firmware update LINUX disc that boots a Mac or PC to update firmware failed repeatedly on the Mac with an error 13, which according to Crucial is common and issued an RMA. After I pulled the drive, I decided to plug into my test PC and the firmware updated fine and the disk management utility sees 3 healthy partitions, but I can't read them without one of the products mentioned in this thread. It sounds like MacDrive is the one I need, but seek confirmation as I do intend to purchase the product that best suits. Hmmm, HFS+ for Windows. After trialling the free version and finding it appeared to do what I wanted it to do and did it reasonably well and simply, I thought I'd do the right thing purchased a license. But the purchased licence won't load while the trial version is installed & I can't uninstall the trial version despite being the administrator and disabling the User Account Control.
So far, after 2 weeks, I'm still waiting for a response to my request for help from Paragon and it seems I could be waiting a while. Apparently, irrespective of the fact I have purchased a license, because I didn't also purchase a 'support package' I've gone on a 'no guarantee' waiting list while those who purchased a support package get preferential treatment. Doesn't Paragon understand any person who goes to the effort of purchasing a license expects sufficient technical support to at least get what was purchased working. But apparently not.
Further it seems some customers are more important that others). So, my strong recommendation is, 'think 2 or 3 times about when you want the application to work before you purchase. If you don't need it for several weeks, then go ahead but if you want it to work now, or if you expect support for your purchased license, FORGET IT!!!
I am a Mac user, video editor. The Fat32 limit of 4 GB makes it unsuable for my needs. I once had to prepare files for a non-profit client using windows XP. I instructed them to use the update for ExFat and prepared an ExFat drive to mail them original high quality HD video files on. It all went well until I realized some characters are illegal in ExFat and that made for a lot of initial problems. Once I removed any character like:!@#$%^&.
all was well. Somebody should mention that when talking about ExFat. Does anyone have a good link to reference?