- How to make external hard drive mac and pc compatible how to#
- How to make external hard drive mac and pc compatible for mac#
- How to make external hard drive mac and pc compatible portable#
(“m” is the partition number that’ll be formatting) In the Diskpart windows, type the command lines below and each command shall be followed by hitting “Enter” key: In the box, input “diskpart” and hit “Enter”.Ĥ. Open Run box by pressing “Windows” + “R” simultaneously and hitting “Enter”.ģ.
Connect your drive to working computer running Windows and make sure that it will be detected by operating system.Ģ. It is advised to backup important data on the partition before formatting.ġ. PS.: Formatting will delete all data on the partition.
How to make external hard drive mac and pc compatible how to#
Then, let’s see how to format a drive with exFAT using Diskpart utility. However, in Disk Management, you’ll find that there is no exFAT option when you right-click the partition that you need to format and choose “Format Partition” if the partition is on an internal or external hard drive. In general, Windows built-in tools Disk Management and Diskpart can format drive to exFAT easily.
How to make external hard drive mac and pc compatible for mac#
It is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for Mac and Windows. Two utilities to format a drive for Mac and Windowsįrom all above, you can have a general idea of FAT32 and exFAT file system. But it is also with a defect: Compared with FAT32, the entire file system of exFAT is easier to be corrupted. 〓 exFAT supports partition larger than 2TB and a single file over 4GB. However, it is with significant defects: Single file size is up to 4GB and partition capacity is not beyond 2TB. Apart from Mac and Windows, it can support Linux and Android. It is compatible with various devices like DVD player, game console, etc. 〓 FAT32 takes advantages in compatibility. FAT32 and exFAT can be compatible with Mac and Windows and you can choose one after realizing their respective merits and defects based on your demands: If you want to make your drive compatible with Mac and Windows, you need to format it with a common file system for Mac and Windows. NTFS is the default file system for Windows operating system and HFS for Mac operating system. Two file systems compatible with Mac and Windows Is there anyone who can tell me how to make my hard drive compatible with Mac and Windows? Thanks a lot!” That is to say, my external hard drive is unable to work well both in Mac and Windows. I have realized that NTFS drive is fully supported on Windows computer, but read only on Mac computer.
How to make external hard drive mac and pc compatible portable#
I want to copy and transfer files between the two computers using my portable external Western Digital hard drive that is originally formatted with NTFS. “I have two computers, one running Mac operating system, another running Windows. How can I make my external hard drive compatible with Mac and Windows? → Two utilities to format a drive for Mac and Windows → Two file systems compatible with Mac and Windows → How can I make my external hard drive compatible with Mac and Windows?