#WINDOWS AND MAC COMPATIBLE HARD DRIVE HOW TO#
#WINDOWS AND MAC COMPATIBLE HARD DRIVE FOR MAC#
#WINDOWS AND MAC COMPATIBLE HARD DRIVE INSTALL#
#WINDOWS AND MAC COMPATIBLE HARD DRIVE PLUS#

#WINDOWS AND MAC COMPATIBLE HARD DRIVE FOR MAC#

This is because when you initially connect an external HDD made for Mac (to a Mac computer), you wonвЂ™t be required to format it before you begin transferring files. Key considerations FormattingДЇor Mac users, buying an external HDD already formatted for your system makes getting started much easier. There are varying levels of storage capacity in an external hard drive, and the overall size of the HDD depends on the model. Others will need to be plugged into the wall. Some external hard drives get power directly from the computer connection. Flash drives are external drives, but they arenвЂ™t as fast, and they donвЂ™t usually store as much space as their larger external hard drive relatives.

flash drivesД®xternal hard drives are basically hard drives (HDD) or solid state drives (SSD) that are wrapped in their own protective casing and connect to your computer from the outside as opposed to the inside.

#WINDOWS AND MAC COMPATIBLE HARD DRIVE INSTALL#

Alternatively, you can install a program like MicrosoftвЂ™s NTFS software from Paragon (paid app) or the open source Tuxera (free) on your Mac to enable the NTFS read / write support, but, even with third-party options, some features, including Time Machine, will not work properly with an NTFS file system.There are hard drives that may hold volumes like 3TB, 6TB, and 10TB, but they are much less common than the standard hard drives that hold: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, and 18TB.

#WINDOWS AND MAC COMPATIBLE HARD DRIVE HOW TO#

HereвЂ™s how to partition a hard drive for use on Windows and Mac. You can check our Windows section for more information on this process. If you are concerned about the reliability factor of the exFAT file system, or the lack of it, there is a way to format the secondary Windows partition to NTFS, but it requires connecting the hard drive to a Windows computer. Note that you will see icons on the desktop for both units.

Click the Partition button in an additional pop-up window to complete the process. Enter a volume name, select the exFAT format, and click the Apply button. A second part appears, cutting the pie chart in half.

#WINDOWS AND MAC COMPATIBLE HARD DRIVE PLUS#

On the next screen, click the little plus ( + ) button below the blue pie chart to add a second partition. Select the drive again in Disk Utility and click Partition. After completing this procedure, your disk should have only one partition. Click the Delete button to make these changes. In the next pop-up window, select a profile, in this case MacOS Extended (Journaled) for Format, and GUID Partition Map for Scheme or Partition Type. Click Delete, located on the top toolbar of the application. With Disk Utility open, in the Location option, your drive appears in External on the left. Double-click the Disk Utility icon in the next window. With Finder highlighted, click Go in the menu bar followed by Utilities in the drop-down menu. If the error does not appear, start with step 1. Like Windows 10, you may see an вЂњinitializationвЂќ error because the driveвЂ™s file system is not вЂњreadable.вЂќ Click the Initialize button in the small pop-up screen to create the first compatible partition, and then start at step 5. If you already have a Mac compatible partition, continue from step 5.

Partitioning an external disk in MacOS is not that annoying, initially, we will assume that it does not have partitions, so we will need to create two.

Windows and mac compatible hard drive