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Are all external hard drives compatible with mac and pc

The file system compatibility is always a big issue between Mac and Windows. Often switch between Mac and PC? Want to share one external hard drive between Mac and Windows? No worries! There are still ways to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC. Based on these three file systems, we have three methods to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC. As the oldest file system among these three file systems, FAT32 is compatible with a majority of recent and recently obsolete operating systems, including Mac and Windows.

Thus, unless every file we plan to store on the disk is less than 4GB in size, we'd better avoid this method. It eliminates the two major deficiencies of FAT32, which has no limitation on partition size or file sizes.


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It's a great way to share external hard drive between Mac and Windows. Step 1: On Windows 10, locate Cortana on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen and search Create and format hard disk partitions. Step 2: Typically, when you buy an external hard drive it will be formatted out of the box. If this is the case for you, right-click the drive you want to format and click Initialize Disk. This will prompt a new window, asking you to select a partition style for your disk.

Formatting From a PC

Step 3: The volume is the same as a partition. Step 4: After proceeding to the next page, select the file system exFat and keep the allocation unit size at the default. As a standard user, Microsoft advises against changing the allocation unit size. Step 5: On the next page, make sure everything is correct and select Finish.

Now repeat this process for Windows.

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As far as partitioning goes, Macs have it a little bit easier. To start, your first step will be to find Disk Utility. The easiest way to access Disk Utility is by searching for it in Spotlight Search in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.


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  • About file system formats.

With Disk Utility open, locate the hard drive you want to partition and select Partition. In the Partition Information category, specify the name and size of each partition. Unlike the older FAT32 format, however, ExFAT allows for the storage of files up to 16 exabytes which equates to about 16 million terabytes!

You can review our Windows section for more information about this process.

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Do I Really Need a Mac-specific External Hard Drive?

Expect to pay a small fortune for the largest capacities, but thanks to the easy drive removal system, you could always buy a cheaper, lower capacity G-RAID and upgrade it with off-the-shelf hard disks yourself. Thunderbolt, USB 3. If you want to make use of your Thunderbolt port, then this Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt is a great option, as it provides twice the speeds of standard USB 3. It's also not especially expensive compared to other Thunderbolt drives. This is mainly down to the fact that it's a traditional hard drive, not an SSD, which means it's not quite as fast as it could be — though it will still give you an upgrade to your transfer speeds.

Optional Formatting and Partitioning

This is also one of the most stylishly-designed external hard drives on this list, and it comes with a large 4TB capacity with other sizes available as well , and it performs brilliantly. The Adata SD will suit those looking for a rugged storage device that can provide ample capacity without costing too much.

Storage considerations

Thanks to the solid state drive that resides in this external hard drive, it's a lot faster than external drives that use traditional spinning hard drives — so you're getting great transfer speeds as well as rugged protection. It also comes in capacities up to 1TB, so you don't have to worry about missing out on storage space just because it uses an SSD. This Adata drive really does hit all the right notes.

USB-C Gen 1. If you don't mind sacrificing some of the ample storage space you can set the drives up in a RAID 1 array, so you have file backups of your files should one of the drives die. This is an excellent feature if you're going to use this device to back up irreplaceable data, such as your creative work, as it adds a level of protection in case things go wrong.


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It provides two additional USB ports on the rear, so you can easily insert flash sticks. It's also worth noting that the enclosure used is fully serviceable and that WD ships the drive already pre-formatted for Windows users NTFS , so you'll want to reformat it to work with your Mac. Read TechRadar's review here.