How to format a drive for Mac and PC compatibility Posted by Ant on March 11th, 2012 43 Comments If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive that you’d like to use on both Macs and Windows PCs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. Sep 19, 2011 Mac 101: Format choices for USB flash drives. Which is the default file system for Windows, you're going to want to re-format the drive because Mac.
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By Juno | Posted to NTFS for Mac, updated on August 6th, 2019 |
With an external hard drive, you can efficiently transfer large files between computers running the same operating system type. However, it could be a totally different story if you plan to do this between a Mac and a PC. That's because, the two platforms have their specific file systems by default: Windows uses NTFS, while Mac use HFS+ or APFS. Out of the box, Windows can't read or write to HFS+/APFS and Macs can't write to NTFS drives.
Though the default file system is really a hurdle to use one external hard drive between Windows and Mac, there're still file systems that can connect the two worlds, i.e. FAT32 and exFAT. Thus, in order to use the same external hard drive on both Macs and PCs, you can format your external hard drive and make it compatible with both macOS and Windows OS.
But before that, it will be helpful if you know some background information and do some preparations.
- 2.1 How to format an external hard drive in macOS?
- 2.2 How to format an external hard drive in Windows?
- 2.3 How to partition an external hard drive for Mac and Windows PC?
Understand common file systems
Whether you're transferring files between Windows and Mac using external hard drives, or other portable storage devices like USB flash drives or SD cards, you'll be told about 3 file systems: FAT32, exFAT and NTFS. But do you know what is the difference between them?
You could use an external hard drive for Mac, such as Seagate Backup Plus drives for Mac and WD my passport for Mac to back up your files, but do you know what makes a hard drive exclusive for Mac is not the disk itself but the file system of this disk?
To answer the questions above and broaden your mind, this part will have a brief introduction to some common file systems.
FAT32
Pros: It can universally work with all versions of Mac, Windows, Linux, game devices, as well as other devices supporting a USB port.
Cons: FAT32 comes with file size limits and drive partition limits. It doesn't support files larger than 4GB, drive partition larger than 32GB on Windows, or drive partition larger than 2TB on macOS.
So FAT32 is commonly used in floppy disks, SD memory cards, USB flash drives as well as many portable and embedded devices. Also, FAT is the standard file system for digital cameras.
exFAT
Pros: The largest partition and file sizes it supported are nearly unlimited by today's standards.
Cons: exFAT file system is not compatible with older operating systems. It should be used in macOS 10.6.5 or newer, and PC need to be Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 or newer.
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As most users have upgraded operating system, it is actually quite easy to meet to lowest operating system requirements of exFAT. So exFAT can be a very good option to share external hard drive between macOS and Windows. Similarly, it also optimized for flash memory drives such as USB flash drives and SD cards. It can be easily implemented in firmware that has low memory and low power requirements, such as cameras, mobile phones, media players, etc.
NTFS
Pros: It is an improvement for FAT32, and it is used as the default file system of Windows system hard drive due to its improved performance, reliability, and disk space use.
Cons: You can't write to NTFS drives in macOS and the disabled-by-default write support for NTFS in macOS is unstable.
Mac OS Extended (HFS+)
Pros: It is the primary file system of Apple computers with the 1998 release of Mac OS 8.1. It also frequently used as Time Machine backup external hard drives of WD, Seagate, etc.
Cons: If HFS+ format volume is connected to a computer running Mac OS 8.0 or earlier, the files will not be visible or accessible.
APFS
Pros: The proprietary file system for macOS High Sierra (10.13), macOS Mojave (10.14), and macOS Catalina (10.15). It is optimized for flash drives and SSD with a primary focus on encryption.
Cons: Because APFS has no support for hard links to directories while Time Machine still relies on them, APFS is not yet a good option for backup volumes for Mac.
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Format external hard drives to make it compatible with both Mac and PC
Though you can't use APFS/HFS+ on Windows PCs nor write to NTFS on Macs by default, there're still file systems that bridge the two worlds, i.e. FAT32 and exFAT. Yes! You can format your external hard drives with FAT32 or exFAT to make it compatible with both Macs and Windows PCs, .
Warning: Formatting a disk or a partition will erase data on this drive. Make sure you have a copy of data backup in hand if you have important files on this external hard drive. However, if you have formatted this drive and are encountering data loss, you can recover data from formatted external hard drive with iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.
How to format an external hard drive in macOS?
If you are using an APFS/HFS+ formatted hard drive on Mac right now, and you want to use it on Windows PC as well, you can use the method below to format your external hard drive with exFAT/FAT32. https://hidhifz.weebly.com/blog/big-fish-games-for-mac. Also, if you plug in an NTFS formatted drive to your Mac and you have a copy of data backup, then you can follow the following steps to format your external hard drive for both Mac and PC without worrying data loss.
1. Click on Launchpad at the dock of your Mac, choose Other in the menu, and then select Disk Utility to open.
2. Select this external hard drive on the left part of the window.
3. Click the Erase on the top of the window.
4. Give a name to this disk, choose MS-DOS (FAT) or exFAT in the context menu, then choose a scheme.
Tips: You can choose FAT when you need maximum compatibility with the widest range of devices and if you don't have any files larger than 4 GB. exFAT would be advised if your external hard drive is larger than 2TB. And for better performance, you can choose Guide Partition Map scheme if your disk or partition is larger than 1TB.
5. Click Erase to proceed with this formatting process.
After you format this external hard drive to FAT32 or exFAT, you'll be able to use this disk both on Mac and PC seamlessly. Mac how to check for updates.
How to format an external hard drive in Windows?
You can also format your drive on Windows computers by following the steps.
1. Click on This PC/My Computer at your desktop.
2. Connect your external hard drive to your PC, and then select this drive from the list and right-click on it.
3. Choose Format from the contextual menu.
4. Choose format (FAT32 or exFAT), and then set format information (allocation unit size, volume label and format option).
Tips: FAT32 would be better if the partition of your external hard drive is less than 32 GB .
5. Check Perform a quick format and click OK to format the external hard drive.
In Windows OS, you can also format your drive in Disk Management by typing 'disk management' in Windows search or going to Control Panel >Administrative Tools >Create and format hard disk partitions.
How to partition an external hard drive for Mac and Windows PC?
Except for having the whole external hard drive formatted, you can also split this disk with two partitions. One is formatted with the file system that is compatible with macOS, another partition is compatible with Windows conversely. By this means, you can use all the advantages each format has on the respective system.
Warning: Still, you need to back up files on this drive before you begin to create two separate partitions to work for Mac and Windows PC.
Here are the steps to do this, which is a little tricky.
Step 1: Connect your external hard drive to your Mac, and then launch Disk Utility.
Step 2: Click on the drive name in the left sidebar, and then click on Partition at the top.
Step 3: Select Partition in the pop-up menu and click on the add button '+' to create another partition.
Step 4: Click on the untitled half of the pie, give it a name, choose exFAT format, and decide the size according to your need.
Step 5: Click on Apply and this partition will be created.
Step 6: Then click on another partition and format it with Mac OS Extended, and give it a name like 'Mac' for your convenience.
After saving all these changes above, there will be two partitions on your external hard drive. One is formatted with exFAT, and another is HFS+. Then, you need to eject this drive and connect it to a Windows computer, so that you can convert exFAT into NTFS.
Step 1: Search for Disk Management and open it. Then you will find this external hard drive at the lower right column.
Step 2: Right-click the Windows exFAT partition and select Format. Choose NTFS and check 'Quick format' box.
Step 3: Click OK and complete the format process. Mongodb for mac.
By creating two separate partitions, you can use this external hard drive on both Mac and Windows. You won't be able to write to the Mac partition from your Windows computer, and vice versa. Thus, it's a good solution for people who need to swap between two operating systems but with separate work.
Make external hard drives for Mac and PC interchangeable without formatting
NTFS and HFS+ file systems are hassles for users who need to use the same external hard drive on both Mac and Windows. NTFS drive will be read-only on Mac and you can't write to this drive normally in this case. But formatting is not feasible as it includes several steps and you will lose data if you didn't back up your files.
Then, can you solve external hard drive read-only without formatting?
Definitely! If you want to use NTFS formatted external hard drives on Mac, there is a great software called iBoysoft NTFS for Mac that might be helpful.
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac - professional NTFS driver for Mac
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is a professional NTFS for Mac software, which can automatically mount NTFS drives in read-write mode on Mac. It supports macOS Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/Sierra 10.12 and Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11/Yosemite 10.10/Mavericks 10.9/Mountain Lion 10.8. With this useful tool, you'll have full access to NTFS drives on Mac and make your external hard drive interchangeable between Macs and PCs without formatting. Also, you can mount and unmount NTFS drives from the Mac menu bar with advanced and optimized options.
What's more, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is also a handy tool to manage NTFS external drives. You can use it to easily mount, unmount, repair, erase NTFS external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, memory cards, CF cards, pen drives, etc. on Mac.
Tutorial to mount NTFS external hard drive on macOS with read-write mode with iBoysoft NTFS for Mac
Step 1: Free download, install, and launch iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on your computer.
Step 2: Connect your NTFS external hard drive to Mac, and iBoysoft NTFS for Mac will automatically mount it.
Step 3: Write to NTFS external hard drive after the disk has been mounted in read-write mode successfully.
If you want to use HFS+ or APFS formatted external hard drives on Windows, you can also attempt to install HFS+ for Windows software or APFS for Windows software on your PC to get read and write access to this external hard drive.
Conclusion
To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both Mac and Windows PC. You can either choose to format the whole disk as exFAT/FAT, or you can create two separate partitions of HFS+ and NTFS if you prefer. But compared with formatting, an NTFS for Mac driver like iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is a better and feasible solution.
A macOS USB installer saves much time when you want to install the OS offline on two or more Macs. Also, it helps in recovering a system after a startup failure. It is easy to make a macOS USB disk from the full installer downloaded from the App store; Apple provides clear-cut instructions for the same. However, people use this feature only when they have a problem with their computer, mainly when their system is not booting up. In this post, we explore the ways to make a bootable macOS USB for Catalina 10.15 and others from Windows PC and Mac.
Make macOS Catalina 10.15 USB installer on Windows PC
TimeMachine is the safest option to recover a broken Mac in the offline mode. If a backup is not there, you have to go for a clean installation either from a bootable USB/DVD drive or the Internet. In my case, I lost the boot partition of my iMac and didn’t have a TimeMachine backup. Internet recovery was showing up, but it kept on failing to download the OS files from the servers. As it is my only Mac, I had no option left, until I found the method to use a Windows PC to create a Mac OS bootable USB installer. I did this for making a macOS High Sierra USB drive, and later I was successful in reinstating my iMac. As of now, the OS is Mojave, but the process given below is compatible with all editions of macOS including the upcoming macOS Catalina 10.15.
Step 1: Download macOS Catalina [DMG] for Windows
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As said in the beginning, a Mac is must for creating bootable macOS USB disk. If you think about doing it from Windows, the options are limited. The cross-compatibility of extensions for the two OS are entirely different. Luckily some Windows applications support a bootable macOS disk format, DMG. Hence, If we can download macOS DMG file, then it possible build the USB installer from Windows environment.
Most of the sites talking about the bootable macOS USB installer on Windows is not guiding on how to download the required DMG files for the method. Check our page to download macOS Catalina installer installer in DMG format for Catalina, Mojave and High Sierra.
Step 2: Partition USB disk on Windows to make it bootable on Mac
Here we are creating a UBS installer for Mac on Windows. So make sure that we keep the partition of the USB disk to have an appropriate scheme. Converting the USB disk to have a GUID partition table (GTP) is recommended for this method work effectively.
Connect the USB disk to Windows and run the above-given commands in the correct order. It cleans and converts the USB disk to GUID partition table if it is using MBR or something else.
Step 3: Make bootable macOS Catalina USB installer on Windows 10
When the Internet recovery is stuck and fails to download the OS files, you could use Windows to make a bootable macOS USB installer. Out of the two or three software for handling macOS installer [dmg] in Windows, Transmac is the best one. Transmac is not free, but the developers offer a 15-day trial period, and that is sufficient for one-time use. Now let’s move on to the steps to create macOS Catalina USB disk on Windows.
- I already have the macOS Catalina 10.15 dmg file on my Windows desktop.
- Install the Transmac 12.4 trial for Windows; download here.
- Right-click on Transmac icon, and select to run it with Admin privileges.
- As shown in the screenshot, right-click on your USB disk and pick the option Restore with Disk Image.
- Point the Windows Explorer to the location where you have the bootable macOS DMG file.
- Wait until the software completes restoring the USB disk with Install macOS Catalina app.
- The disk is ready when you see the message “Restore Complete”.
- If you click on the just-made USB installer on Transmac, you could see the macOS Catalina 10.15 files present in the drive.
- Now safely remove the USB and connect it it the Mac you would like to recover.
Here we focus on preparing macOS Catalina 10.5 USB installer on Windows. But this method is same and applicable for Mojave, High Sierra and all previous versions up-to OS X Lion.
How to boot to macOS Catalina from USB Installer made on Windows
Check the image below for macOS Catalina USB installer showing up in the boot options. In this way you could recover and restore a Mac without Internet. Some models of Macs show a prohibitory symbol when you boot from macOS Catalina recovery USB made on Windows. In that case, you need to Install Mojave or High Sierra first and then upgrade to Catalina 10.15 using the in-built software updater.
While restarting, Press the Option key on your Magic keyboard or MacBook see the boot choices. However, if you use a Windows keyboard for Mac, press the Alt key. When you see the boot menu, click on Install macOS Catalina (10.15), and proceed to the recovery process.
Alternative: Make a bootable Catalina USB installer on macOS
The recovery partition in a Mac helps in restoring it from TimeMachine or the Internet when there is a system failure. It keeps the essential apps like Disk Utility, which aids in re-installing a fresh copy of macOS. However, this partition gets deleted when you change your Macs hard disk to SSD or like. A bootable macOS USB installer comes helpful in such situations. It is also useful when you want to install macOS on a couple of offline systems without wasting bandwidth and time.
You need a macOS DMG files for making a USB recovery disk in Windows but that not the case when you have a Mac. The only thing is that you have a copy of the Install macOS app, the offline installer downloaded from the App Store. Check out the most reliable ways to macOS USB recovery disk for Catalina, Mojave and High Sierra.
Method 1: Using Terminal to make macOS Catalina USB disk
- Maintain a copy of macOS Catalina full installer in the Applications folder.
- Use Disk Utility to erase the target USB to have macOS Extended format and GUID partition scheme.
- Now, copy the command for macOS Catalina 10.15 from Apple website, here and paste it to the Terminal app.
- In the code lines, there is a string “WINYTIPS.” Change it with the name of your USB.
- Open the Terminal app in Mac and copy-paste the edited code.
- Press the ENTER key and provide Admin password.
- Wait for a minute for the system to copy macOS Catalina installer and boot files to the USB.
Method 2: Using a third-party app to make booatble macOS USB disk.
If you are not familiar in dealing with the Terminal app and command-line interface, consider a freeware macOS app to create the bootable macOS installer. Among the many applications out there, we prefer Diskmaker as it supports Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, and all other macOS builds after Lion.
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The latest version DiskMaker 9 compatible with macOS Catalina 10.15.
Also, you may consider an alternative, macOS Catalina Patcher by Collin, here. The best thing about the patcher app is that it can make bootable MacOS ISO, and USB disk by downloading Catalina from the Internet, which DiskMaker do not support.
Download and create macOS Catalina USB bootable disk
- Download the latest version of the app from dosdude’s portal and mount the dmg file on your Mac.
- Click continue until you see the window shown in the screenshot.
- Here you may select an existing copy or macOS Catalina or download one from the Internet.
- Click on “Browse for a Copy” If you already have macOS 10.15 in your Applications folder.
Now, select the installation method as “Create a Bootable Installer,” and then pick the target USB disk in the next screen. Your macOS USB installer will be ready in a few minutes.
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