- #Best external drive format for mac and pc how to#
- #Best external drive format for mac and pc software#
- #Best external drive format for mac and pc mac#
- #Best external drive format for mac and pc windows#
Of course, those two things are absolutely vital. When choosing the best external hard drive for your Mac, you need to consider other things beyond storage capacity and price.
#Best external drive format for mac and pc mac#
What to look for in a external hard drive for your Mac It's more pricey than the other drives of its capacity, but the extra security it offers will be well worth it for many people. When you consider all that extra security, the prices won't scare you away either. What's more, the data is encrypted by the 256-bit AES protocol, with multiple forms of protection in place to ensure the bad guys don't get in no matter how persistent. If someone tries to tamper with your iStorage drive, you can configure it to self-desturct. If you want to use WD My Passport or any other hard drive on Mac and PC, you need to format a Western Digital My Passport external hard drive in exFAT or FAT32 format.If you're worried about people getting access to your data if your external hard drive is stolen, than you'll like the iStorage drive here. However, it only works with all versions of Windows, but read-only with Mac by default. It is packed with modern features not available to FAT32 and exFAT.
#Best external drive format for mac and pc windows#
NTFS, NT File System, is the modern file system Windows likes to use by default. You can use it when you need a bigger file size and partition limits than FAT32 offers. This file system doesn't have the limitations of FAT32. It was added to older versions of Windows with updates to Windows XP and Windows Vista. A FAT32 partition must also be less than 8 TB, which admittedly is less of a limitation unless you’re using super-high-capacity drives.ĮxFAT, Extended File Allocation Table, is optimized for flash drives. Individual files on a FAT32 drive can’t be over 4 GB in size. FAT32 is the oldest of the three file systems available to Windows. The successive major versions of the FAT format are named after the number of table element bits: FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32. Don't stray from them and tamper with instructions you don't understand.ĭifference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFSįAT is known as the File Allocation Table.
#Best external drive format for mac and pc software#
If you lost data after formatting your WD HDD on Mac, you can run EaseUS Mac data recovery software to get data back. Then, you can use the drive in macOS or OS X as a regular hard drive. Wait for the process to complete and let the macOS erase data on the drive and reformat it by FAT32 or ex-FAT format. Rename the drive, select the "Volume Format" drop-down list and choose "MS-DOS (FAT)" or "ex-FAT File System". Select your WD My Passport on the sidebar, choose "Erase". Once that's done, double left-click on the Mac HD, the internal Mac hard drive visible on the top-right corner of the desktop screen.Select "Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility".
Once the process begins, all the data on the drive will be lost! Tips: The instructions below are designed to help repartition and format a hard drive. The easiest way to format the drive to FAT32 or exFAT is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility for FAT32 or exFAT.
#Best external drive format for mac and pc how to#
Click "Start" to begin the formatting.ģ - How to Format WD My Passport in macOS/OS X Platform Rename the drive, reset its file system to FAT32 or exFAT. Open Windows File Explorer, locate and right-click on WD My Passport that you need to format, select "Format". If it is larger than 32GB, you can only format it to exFAT.
If you want to format your WD My Passport to FAT32, you must make sure that the size is smaller than 32GB. It does not offer the ability to format a drive larger than 32GB to FAT32, the only available choices are NTFS or exFAT.
Click the "Execute Operation" button and click "Apply" to format the hard drive partition.Ģ - Format WD My Passport Using File Explorer in Windows Platform.Set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and Cluster size, then click "OK".