get external hard drive to work for both mac and pc

#Get external hard drive to work for both mac and pc how to#
#Get external hard drive to work for both mac and pc mac os#
#Get external hard drive to work for both mac and pc update#
#Get external hard drive to work for both mac and pc windows#

Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is the best option for most Mac users since it is compatible with all Macs.

However, you can choose between the following formats: You can choose whatever name you want, and you should choose GUID Partition Map for the Scheme in most cases.

Choose a name, format, and scheme for your drive.

This will open a small pop-up window with a warning that erasing the drive will delete all data stored on it and that it can’t be undone. For the best result, select the disk (the highest option in the external tree). You can find this on the left-hand side of the screen under External Hard Drives.

Click the external hard drive you want to format.

Then click View in the top-left corner of the window and select Show All Devices.

This will open the Disk Utility app, where you will find all the internal and external drives that are connected to your Mac.

Go to Spotlight Search, type in Disk Utility, and click the first option.

Some external hard drives need to be plugged into an outlet to work.

Connect an external hard drive to your Mac.

Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it. Note : If you already used your external hard drive on a PC, be sure to back up any files on it.

#Get external hard drive to work for both mac and pc how to#

Here’s how to do that: How to Format a Hard Drive for Mac So if you’re trying to connect an external hard drive to a Mac, you might have to format the drive before you can use it.

#Get external hard drive to work for both mac and pc windows#

It also doesn't require complicated ACLs and file attribution system like NTFS.Most external hard drives are designed to work for Windows computers. exFAT has no realistic file or partition size limits. exFAT is the preferred file format for flash storage drives that you share between Windows and Mac. This was designed by Microsoft to provide similar compatibility to FAT32 without the pesky limitations. Manufacturers like Seagate lets you read and write data interchangeably on Windows and Mac without formatting the external drive. You can only access drives formatted with HFS+ on Windows through third-party apps. Even if you’re using SSD as a Time Machine drive, it’s not compatible with APFS.

#Get external hard drive to work for both mac and pc update#

If you have older Macs (pre–2016), particularly those too old to update to a recent version of macOS, choosing HFS+ will enable you to use your external drive with those machines.įor Time Machine backups, use MacOS Extended (Journaled) if it’s a mechanical hard drive or if you’re using macOS Catalina or earlier. If you bought a Mac between those dates, it shipped with macOS (or OS X, as it was known) installed on an HFS+ volume. Mac OS Extended, also known as HFS+ (Hierarchical File System Plus), was the main file system used for Mac system storage from 1998 until APFS launched in 2017. Here are some of the best apps that read-write APFS on Windows. You can only access drives formatted with APFS on Windows through third-party apps. If you connect that disk to Catalina, Time Machine won’t recognize it.

Time Machine volumes formatted as APFS will only work with Macs running Big Sur or later. It’s fast, consumes less space, which means more room for backups, has greater resistance to data corruption, and copies cloned or sparse files efficiently. Time Machine backups to APFS are impressive when compared to HFS+. However, you won’t be asked this option for the already formatted HFS+ disk. On macOS Big Sur, Apple lets you format an external drive and choose APFS for Time Machine. An external SSD gives you the best performance over APFS, provided you don’t need to use the drive with other pre-Sierra Macs. If speed and convenience are your top priorities and cost is not an issue. Note: You’ll lose all the data in the external drive, make sure to back it up. Type in the disk name you want, then select your preferred option for both Format and Partition Scheme.

Be sure to choose the device, not the volume or volumes it contains. In the sidebar, select the external storage device. Now choose View > Show All Devices to see the storage device at the top level, then the container, and finally any volumes that are in the container.

In the left panel, you’ll see the listing of internal and external drives separately. For a Mac user, neither of these file systems is desirable. It’ll likely be already formatted, either for Windows (using NTFS) or for maximum compatibility (using FAT32). Once you’ve bought a new external storage drive, connect it to your Mac. How to Format Your Drive With Disk Utility Let’s look at the best file system formats to use for your Mac's external drive. With the Disk Utility app, you can easily format the drive, give it a label, or even partition it and create multiple volumes. Once you have it, your first task is to pick a suitable file system for that drive depending on your intended usage. The easiest way to add storage to your Mac is to buy an external hard drive.