Windows and Mac OS X use different file systems. Windows uses NTFS and Mac can't write files to volumes with NTFS format.
Aug 10, 2018 Of course, there is. Actually, most external hard disks could be compatible with Mac and PC as long as you format them correctly. Why Need to Format External Hard Drive for Mac and PC. To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between Mac and PC, you need to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC. USB devices,that are formatted in MAC format. It's format type is hfs. You cannot open the USB devices in windows. If you want to use the USB devices in windows you have to know how to do it.
Format: To format as a Mac disk, choose either APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Disk Utility shows a compatible format by default. Scheme: Choose the appropriate partition map scheme. Click Erase to begin erasing. If you're erasing your startup disk, you might be prompted to enter your Apple ID. Quit Disk Utility when done.
So, if you want to use a USB flash drive or an external hard drive with NTFS format on Mac, you should first reformat the devices to the Mac OS Extended file system. It is the best way to ensure full Mac compatibility of a new external hard drive or flash disk. Modio for mac.
Usually, FAT32 which can be read and wrote on Mac is recommended for maximum compatibility. And if you need to transfer files larger than 4 GB between Macs and Windows computers, exFAT or MS-DOS (FAT) is better.
How to format USB flash drive or external hard drive for Mac
But how can you format USB flash drive or external hard drive for Mac? Don’t worry! This page will show you two ways to do this job:
Format USB or external hard drive for Mac using Mac disk utility Format USB or external hard drive for Mac on Windows PC using third-party USB format tool
Method 1. Format USB or external hard drive for Mac using Mac Disk utility
Windows offers users built-in disk management tool to create, delete, resize, merge and format partitions. You can try the following steps to format USB or external hard drive for Mac with Disk Utility on Mac.
1. Connect the USB or external hard drive to your Mac computer.
2. Launch the Disk Utility by clicking 'Applications' > 'Utilities'.
3. Locate and click on your USB or external hard drive in Disk Utility and then click on 'Erase'.
4. Next to 'Format', click the contextual menu and select 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'.
5. Reset the drive name and click 'Erase', confirm the operation on the next pop-up window.
Wait for the process to complete and then you'll get compatible HFS+ file system on your external hard drive or USB, which will make your device compatible and workable on your Mac.
Method 2. Format USB or external hard drive for Mac using third-party USB format tool on a Windows PC
If you need a simpler format tool to format USB or external hard drive to FAT32 to make them work on Mac, you can apply a third-party format tool to format them on Windows PC. EaseUS partition software is a popular disk partition management tool which is available for all hard disk related jobs such as format disk partition, extend system partition, settle low disk space problem.
Now you can try it to format USB or external hard drive on your Windows PC by following the steps below. If you stored important data on the USB or external hard drive, you can try this tool to convert NTFS to FAT32 without formatting. Cd player for mac.
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the 'Format' option.
How To Format Usb For Mac And Pc Computer
Step 2: Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'. Microsoft office for mac free.
Step 3: In the Warning window, click 'OK' to continue.
Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.
How To Format Usb For Mac And Pc On Mac
After this, you can connect your external hard drive/USB to Mac computer and use it to save data by then.