To format an external storage device, connect it to one of the ports on your Mac. Turn the drive on, and make sure it appears in the Finder. If the drive is internal, it should already show up in.

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Possibly the best solution to using a hard drive with both Windows and Mac without the use of third-party software is creating two partitions on the drive, one for Windows and one for Mac. The formatting process will format the selected drive by creating a partition map, and apply an appropriate file system that your Mac can work with to the drive. While you can format a drive to contain multiple file systems, volumes, and partitions, our example will be for a run-of-the-mill drive, with a single partition formatted with the. Why Need to Format External Hard If We Want to Share It on Mac and PC Currently, hard drives for Windows PC are always formatted with NTFS, while hard disks for Mac are formatted with HFS+.

With an external hard drive, you can efficiently transfer large files between computers running the same operating system type. However, it could be a totally different story if you plan to do this between a Mac and a PC. That's because, the two platforms have their specific file systems by default: Windows uses NTFS, while Mac use HFS+ or APFS. Out of the box, Windows can't read or write to HFS+/APFS and Macs can't write to NTFS drives.

Though the default file system is really a hurdle to use one external hard drive between Windows and Mac, there're still file systems that can connect the two worlds, i.e. FAT32 and exFAT. Thus, in order to use the same external hard drive on both Macs and PCs, you can format your external hard drive and make it compatible with both macOS and Windows OS.

But before that, it will be helpful if you know some background information and do some preparations.

Table of contents

1. Understand common file systems

2. Format an external hard drive to make it compatible with both Mac and PC

2.1 How to format an external hard drive in macOS?
2.2 How to format an external hard drive in Windows?
2.3 How to partition an external hard drive for Mac and Windows PC？

3. Make external hard drives for Mac and PC interchangeable without formatting

Understand common file systems

Whether you're transferring files between Windows and Mac using external hard drives, or other portable storage devices like USB flash drives or SD cards, you'll be told about 3 file systems: FAT32, exFAT and NTFS. But do you know what is the difference between them?

You could use an external hard drive for Mac, such as Seagate Backup Plus drives for Mac and WD my passport for Mac to back up your files, but do you know what makes a hard drive exclusive for Mac is not the disk itself but the file system of this disk? https://ggever.amebaownd.com/posts/23190648.

To answer the questions above and broaden your mind, this part will have a brief introduction to some common file systems.

FAT32

Pros: It can universally work with all versions of Mac, Windows, Linux, game devices, as well as other devices supporting a USB port.

Cons: FAT32 comes with file size limits and drive partition limits. It doesn't support files larger than 4GB, drive partition larger than 32GB on Windows, or drive partition larger than 2TB on macOS.

So FAT32 is commonly used in floppy disks, SD memory cards, USB flash drives as well as many portable and embedded devices. Also, FAT is the standard file system for digital cameras.

exFAT

Pros: The largest partition and file sizes it supported are nearly unlimited by today's standards.

Cons: exFAT file system is not compatible with older operating systems. It should be used in macOS 10.6.5 or newer, and PC need to be Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 or newer.

As most users have upgraded operating system, it is actually quite easy to meet to lowest operating system requirements of exFAT. So exFAT can be a very good option to share external hard drive between macOS and Windows. Similarly, it also optimized for flash memory drives such as USB flash drives and SD cards. It can be easily implemented in firmware that has low memory and low power requirements, such as cameras, mobile phones, media players, etc.

NTFS

Pros: It is an improvement for FAT32, and it is used as the default file system of Windows system hard drive due to its improved performance, reliability, and disk space use.

Cons: You can't write to NTFS drives in macOS and the disabled-by-default write support for NTFS in macOS is unstable.

Mac OS Extended (HFS+)

Pros: It is the primary file system of Apple computers with the 1998 release of Mac OS 8.1. It also frequently used as Time Machine backup external hard drives of WD, Seagate, etc.

Cons: If HFS+ format volume is connected to a computer running Mac OS 8.0 or earlier, the files will not be visible or accessible.

APFS

Pros: The proprietary file system for macOS High Sierra (10.13), macOS Mojave (10.14), and macOS Catalina (10.15). It is optimized for flash drives and SSD with a primary focus on encryption.

Cons: Because APFS has no support for hard links to directories while Time Machine still relies on them, APFS is not yet a good option for backup volumes for Mac.

Format external hard drives to make it compatible with both Mac and PC

Though you can't use APFS/HFS+ on Windows PCs nor write to NTFS on Macs by default, there're still file systems that bridge the two worlds, i.e. FAT32 and exFAT. Yes! You can format your external hard drives with FAT32 or exFAT to make it compatible with both Macs and Windows PCs, .

Warning: Formatting a disk or a partition will erase data on this drive. Make sure you have a copy of data backup in hand if you have important files on this external hard drive. However, if you have formatted this drive and are encountering data loss, you can recover data from formatted external hard drive with iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.

How to format an external hard drive in macOS?

If you are using an APFS/HFS+ formatted hard drive on Mac right now, and you want to use it on Windows PC as well, you can use the method below to format your external hard drive with exFAT/FAT32. Also, if you plug in an NTFS formatted drive to your Mac and you have a copy of data backup, then you can follow the following steps to format your external hard drive for both Mac and PC without worrying data loss.

1. Click on Launchpad at the dock of your Mac, choose Other in the menu, and then select Disk Utility to open.

2. Select this external hard drive on the left part of the window.

3. Click the Erase on the top of the window.

4. Give a name to this disk, choose MS-DOS (FAT) or exFAT in the context menu, then choose a scheme.

Format Drive For Mac And Pc 2018 Calendar

Tips: You can choose FAT when you need maximum compatibility with the widest range of devices and if you don't have any files larger than 4 GB. exFAT would be advised if your external hard drive is larger than 2TB. And for better performance, you can choose Guide Partition Map scheme if your disk or partition is larger than 1TB.

5. Click Erase to proceed with this formatting process.

After you format this external hard drive to FAT32 or exFAT, you'll be able to use this disk both on Mac and PC seamlessly.

How to format an external hard drive in Windows?

You can also format your drive on Windows computers by following the steps.

1. Click on This PC/My Computer at your desktop.

2. Connect your