External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Interchangeable

External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Interchangeable

Mac External Hard Drive On Windows 10
Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc
External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Interchangeable 2017
Mac Computer External Hard Drive
External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Interchangeable
Right now, our top pick for best external hard drive is the Western Digital My Passport 4TB, which is a mechanical hard drive. We think it offers creatives the perfect balance of speed, reliability, portability and price for both Mac and PC users. Both operating systems use different formats for reading and writing to a hard drive. The only hard drive format that can be reliably used by both is called FAT32, or MS-DOS FAT as it's called on Mac computers. Even if your external hard drive doesn't come pre-formatted in FAT32, you can format it yourself using either a Mac or Windows PC.
 Dec 21, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
An external hard drive is just a storage device that is connected to your computer on the outside. Standard Hard drives draw power from their data source cable, which comes from the system itself. Adobe premiere pro cs5 mac cyberpiraten. Some advanced disks may require an AC connection to derive power on their own. These storage devices come in varying storage capacities, but they all connect to a computer either by USB, eSATA, or wirelessly.
Plug and play functionality offers system compatibility and offers extensive storage options and portable design for the consumer. These memory devices are compatible with both Mac and Windows PC. These disks provide capacities ranged from 250 GB to 10 TB.
Compatibility issues between Windows and MacOS may have reduced over the years, but that doesn't mean they've been completely wiped out. Sharing files from Windows to Mac is a demoralizing task, but in this article, we will discuss how to overcome such issues as there are various methods to do such that. Also, the external hard drive file recovery will be mentioned.
Part 1. Situations Where to Share External Drive Between Mac and WindowsMany MacOS and Windows users today find themselves in mixed platform offices, where they need to share files and work on them. Sharing stuff between PCs and Macs is not as nearly simple as it should be. There are different ways for your computer systems to talk to each other and share files. The main problem occurs because each operating system supports a different set of data sharing protocol, think of them as different computer languages. We will discuss some of them in this section:
Mac External Hard Drive On Windows 10FTP (File Transfer Protocol): It is one of the well-known data sharing systems. If you've ever spent any time on the internet, then you know that FTP is one of the most convenient options for sharing stuff between your Mac and PC.
NFS (Network File System): It is a file-sharing protocol that the Unix-based systems like to use for sharing files, which both Windows and Macs can understand. It is more popular on the Windows PC side of the fence.
AFP (Apple Filing Protocol): It is only designed for MacOS. Windows do not understand it. But from Mac-to-Mac, it's what makes sharing extremely easy. The problem occurs when you intend to use an AFP disk drive on a Windows PC.
Fortunately, there are many methods to fix such a problem. Download mac os 10 14. One of it is that you can perform 'partition' on your computer's primary hard drive. You can divide the HDD of your Windows PC into different sections with different rules, storage space, and functions.
You can also perform a partition on the main drive of Mac so that part of it works during the file-sharing process. Both Windows and Mac have the essential tools to help in performing partition for your External hard drives. Mac air storage full. Here we will discuss how to do disk partition on Mac and Windows computers.
Part 2. Formatting an External Hard Disk Drive From a Mac:To put in simple words, if you want to share the external hard drive between Macintosh and Windows PC, you need to format an external hard drive for the respective system.
Hard drives for Windows PC are formatted with NTFS by default, while hard disks for Mac are formatted with HFS+. However, when we connect an NTFS formatted disk to Mac, Mac OS X doesn't support it and would not allow you to write files to the drive. It also disables the ability to edit the pre-existing data in the drive. MacOS offers the user to read an NTFS drive. Windows OS will similarly ask you to format the HFS+ formatted drive when you connect such a disk to its PC. Creating a partition on the disk is the best option. Follow the step-by-step guide to partition the drive on a Mac.
Open Disk Utility on your Mac. Select the icon of Disk Utility by searching for it in Search in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Locate and select the hard drive you want to partition.
Select the Partition option.
If you intend to format the entire drive, then you can perform the procedure by clicking on Erase.
Select the Erase Free Space option to format the disk.
Specify the number of partitions on the external hard drive you want to create by entering the information in the partition column.
Enter the name and size of each newly formed partition of the drive. Please specify the details to proceed further.
It is recommended that you set the drive into two parts, one partition dedicated to the Mac and other for the Windows PC.
Select the format for the Mac portion as MacOS Extended (Journaled).
Select the Windows part as ExFAT. This format allows the drive to store a large amount of data.
It is recommended that you select the default option of GUID Partition. It is usually optimal with an external hard drive, as long as you don't intend to create a bootable drive out of it to install an operating system.
Once you are done with all of the methods mentioned above, click on Apply.
A warning pop-up will appear, click on Partition.
The partition process of your external hard disk drive on the Mac will finish. You will able to check exFAT format by plugging the drive onto a Windows PC nearby.
Part 3. Formatting an External Hard Disk Drive From a Windows PC:Partitioning is an act of splitting a drive into pieces, and it is important to set at least one partition to store data and a pre-set-up folder.
There are many reasons why one would want to create a partition on their external drive. You should save some of the space for general file storage; data that you might need later, and the other to store backups of your most important files. You also may want an encrypted portion of a drive for private files. You may even want to put your media files like videos in one partition and photos and documents in another to speed up searches.
You can also create a bootable portion of the drive to install a different operating system on computers; you'll need to partition part of a drive for the OS. Formatting and creating a partition on an external hard drive is complicated in the Windows operating system. In this section, we will learn how to format an external HDD from a Windows computer.
Click on the Start menu to open Windows Disk Management.
Type diskmgmt.msc in the search bar.
Click on Create and Format Hard disk partitions.
Disk Management window will appear.
Click on Disk 1.
Format the drive if you haven't already. Formatting the disk is essential before partitioning it.
Right-click on Disk 1 option.
Click on Format.
Click on Initialize Disk.
A new window will open, asking you to select a partition style for your disk.
Select the GPT format; it is supported by all the external hard disk drives.
Click on OK.
You will notice a drive listed as unallocated.
Right-click on the unallocated drive and click on New Simple Volume. It will initiate the New Simple Volume Wizard.
Click on Next.
Specify the size and name of the Volume.
Select exFAT as the file system.
Create this partition in conjunction with the Mac device you want to use the drive on.
Click on Next.
Click on Finish.
Repeat the process and set the file system for the other volume as NTFS, to use the drive in conjunction with the Windows PC.
By following the methods above, creating partitions on the external hard disk will now seem pretty straightforward. You know how to set up the drive on any operating system, and it will take just a little bit of time.
Part 4. How to Recover Data from a Formatted Hard Drive?The hard drive is a complex piece of storage device, and, commonly, even a slight bit of negligence can lead to loss of essential data. You should not save any new information on the formatted hard drive, or it will be completely overwritten.
Reasons Why Data get Erased on a Portable Hard Drive:
In this section, we will discuss some of the factors why your data can get deleted. Some of those reasons are mentioned below:
The Virus can enter the Hard drive when you insert it into some virus infected computer.
Neglecting any sort warnings after inserting the drive on to the system
Not properly removing the storage device from the computer.
Preparations before data recovery:
Before starting the recovery process, you should follow the necessary precautions listed below to avoid any inconvenience:
You need to Plug your External hard disk drive with the computer.
Directly Insert the drive in the USB port on your computer.
Do not remove the external hard disk from the computer, during the recovery scan.
Maintain the Backup of essential media before the recovery procedure.
You can recover your data by using data recovering software like Recoverit Data Recovery by Wondershare. The tool provides a high recovery rate of 96%. It allows you to connect almost every type of portable devices like the memory card or USB and recovers data from them.
It recovers documents and photos from all type of file formats which includes: Docx, pages, JPEG, PNG, GIF, Avi, MP3, MPEG exFAT, FAT, HFS, NTFS, and much more. Follow our step-by-step guide for the solution to your Data recovery problem.
1. Select the Location of the External Drive:After launching the Recoverit Mac data recovery software, follow these steps:
Select the 'External Drive Location' where data was deleted or lost.
Click the 'Start' button to initiate the process.
2. Scanning for Lost Data:Data scanning will start in Recoverit.
A scan completion pop up will appear on the screen.
The scanning time depends a lot on the size of your Hard drive. The larger the file, the longer the time it will take to finish the scan.
3. Recover the Lost Data:The recovered files will be sorted by the File Path and File Type on the Recoverit window.
Select the file you want to view and hit the Preview button
Click on the 'Recover' button after checking the authenticity of the data.
Part 5. How to Encrypt your External Hard Drive:In this day and age, data protection is essential. It is necessary to encrypt your portable storage devices to ensure safety. It will prevent individuals to hack into your files. In this section, we will discuss how to protect your drives and folders on both MacOS and Windows PC.
Encryption on MacOS:
Press Command + Shift + A to open the Applications folder on your Mac.
Open Utilities.
Click on Disk Utility.
Click on View.
Click on Show all Devices.
Select the External Drive that you want to encrypt.
Click on Erase.
Choose the GUID Partition Map and Format the drive.
Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) as the encrypted file format. You can also change to a Windows supported format like exFAT.
Enter and verify a password.
Click on Choose.
Click on OK.
Your drive will be Encrypted.
Encryption on Windows PC:
Encrypting a file or drive on a Windows PC is simple. Follow the steps below to enable the option:
Click on This PC.
Right-Click on the drive that you want to encrypt.
Click on Turn on BitLocker.
Check the option ' Use a Password to Unlock the Drive.'
Enter and verify your password.
Click on Next.
Save the password to your Microsoft Account or a USB.
Click on Next.
Choose Encrypt Entire Drive.
Choose New Encryption Mode and click on Next.
Click on Start Encrypting
Closing Words:Having to share and edit different files across several platforms can be unavoidable in some situations. That is the case when you need to open an external hard drive on your Mac or Windows PC. This article will help you in dealing with this kind of issue. It is essential to create a back up for your files and save the data before performing the partition and formatting the external disk. You can freely use the method for both the MacOS and Windows OS. If in any case, your data is formatted or lost, then you can quickly recover the formatted disk data by using Recoverit Recovery Software. It guarantees hassle-free data recovery in no time.
What's Wrong with MacRecover Your MacFix Your MacDelete Your MacLearn Mac HacksYou can format the external hard drive or USB drive to make it compatible with both Mac and Windows machines. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesn't worry it's not complex.
Format Hard Drive For Mac And PcIf you are tech savvy and use Windows and Mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between Mac and PC. Windows and macOS filesystems are different and you might need to format the drive every time to use on both platforms. You don't need to format the hard drive every time you can choose a filesystem while formatting the drive so the hard drive or USB drive work on both Mac and PC
So to get rid of these situations we bring here a guide that will help you to format your drive which works on both platforms and you don't need to format and backup data every time. After cross-compatible formatting, simply unplug the drive from one machine and then plug it into another. Sounds good to you right? So let's started, how this works.
Understand file systems for Mac and WindowsThere are three common file system types to format an external USB or hard drive, SSD drive, SD card and etc. FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT let's have a look what's the difference between these formats.
Advertisement
FAT 32 FormatThis format is pretty old but supported and it's not efficient as compared to NTFS. It doesn't support big features but offers great compatibility which means it's compatible with all versions of Windows. It can only support 4GB file size and up to 8TB hard drivers. It's not capable to store files larger than 4GB.
NTFS FormatNTFS is a modern format system and Windows also uses this format for itself and for other non-removable drives by default. This format is also compatible with all versions of Windows but limited to none Windows OS as FAT32.
exFAT Format

exFAT drives are faster at reading and writing as compared to FAT32. This format can store large files and it's also lightweight. It's compatible with all versions of Windows and the best thing it's along with Windows it's also compatible with macOS, Linux, and Android, etc.
External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Interchangeable 2017If your drive is formatted as Windows default format NTFS then it's only readable to macOS. You can't do more than that or you have to install a separate app on Mac to read write the drive.
Drive with macOS format HFS+ cant readable to Windows.
FAT32 format works on both Windows and Mac but the problem is you can only work with files with a maximum size of 4GB.
Learn more: Copy data on NTFS drive in macOS
FAT32 is much better than NTFS and HFS+ becuase it works on both operating systems. You can also install drivers on each OS to make work your drive. So exFAT is much better than all of these formats and a simple option but this will not work on Leopard.
Format a USB Drive on MacTime needed: 5 minutes. 
First, let's see how to format an external hard drive or USB drive in macOS which works with both Mac and PC platforms, first plug-in your drive into a macOS machine.
Mac Computer External Hard DriveDisk UtilityOpen Disk Utility on your macOS, press cmd + spacebar keys, and type Disk Utility in the spotlight search. Open Disk Utility from the search results.
Erase DriveOn the Disk Utility interface, select an external drive click on the Erase button from the top of the window (make sure and backup your drive before erasing it).
Drive formatNow enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select the exFAT for Format option and click on the Erase. This will format the drive as exFAT format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms.
External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc InterchangeableFormat USB Drive in WindowsThe below steps for formatting external drive is for Windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of Windows. To format your external drive hard drive in Windows to use on Mac and PC platforms, first plug-in your drive with a Windows machine.

External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Interchangeable

exFAT drives are faster at reading and writing as compared to FAT32. This format can store large files and it's also lightweight. It's compatible with all versions of Windows and the best thing it's along with Windows it's also compatible with macOS, Linux, and Android, etc.
External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Interchangeable 2017If your drive is formatted as Windows default format NTFS then it's only readable to macOS. You can't do more than that or you have to install a separate app on Mac to read write the drive.
Drive with macOS format HFS+ cant readable to Windows.
FAT32 format works on both Windows and Mac but the problem is you can only work with files with a maximum size of 4GB.
Learn more: Copy data on NTFS drive in macOS
FAT32 is much better than NTFS and HFS+ becuase it works on both operating systems. You can also install drivers on each OS to make work your drive. So exFAT is much better than all of these formats and a simple option but this will not work on Leopard.
Format a USB Drive on MacTime needed: 5 minutes. 
First, let's see how to format an external hard drive or USB drive in macOS which works with both Mac and PC platforms, first plug-in your drive into a macOS machine.
Mac Computer External Hard DriveDisk UtilityOpen Disk Utility on your macOS, press cmd + spacebar keys, and type Disk Utility in the spotlight search. Open Disk Utility from the search results.
Erase DriveOn the Disk Utility interface, select an external drive click on the Erase button from the top of the window (make sure and backup your drive before erasing it).
Drive formatNow enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select the exFAT for Format option and click on the Erase. This will format the drive as exFAT format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms.
External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc InterchangeableFormat USB Drive in WindowsThe below steps for formatting external drive is for Windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of Windows. To format your external drive hard drive in Windows to use on Mac and PC platforms, first plug-in your drive with a Windows machine.
Open the Disk Management tool by right-clicking on the start menu icon and then select Disk Management. Now right click on the external drive and click on the format option (double-check the drive name and capacity to make sure you are going to format the right drive.)
Now enter the Volume label as you need and change the File system for exFat and click OK. Now you are done.
Share your experience, how do you use an external hard drive on both Mac and PC. Did you format the drive as exFAT ? or use any utility that helps the system to read another type of file system. Please leave a comment below.
Related Content