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. Learn a few ways to make your drive Mac and PC friendly.
Need to access or transfer files between Mac and PC? As simple as this task sounds, it’s not very straightforward for inexperienced users. Since Mac OS X and Windows use totally different file systems, the way a drive is formatted can determine what type of computer it will work with. In fact, there are four ways you can format an external or USB flash drive to achieve varying degrees of compatibility between Macs and PCs. Let’s take a look at them:
About file system formats. FAT32: compatible with Mac and Windows. However, FAT32 is a legacy file system designed for low capacity hard drives and it is not recommended for modern hard drives or operating systems. A FAT32 partition can reach up to 32GB when formatted on a Windows PC. If you are planning to use the Seagate Hard Drive on a PC and MAC better format it on your MAC Computer thru disc Utility and choose MS-DOS. This should solve the problem. Mac has the ability to recognize a FAT, NTFS and MAC File System for the hard drive but the PC Computer cannot recognize MAC File System. Then, connect Seagate drive to your PC and make sure that it can be detected by Windows. And you’ll detailed tutorial on how to format Seagate drive for Mac and PC in the following text. Format Seagate drive to via free format tool. Usually, you can use Windows built-in tools like Diskpart to format Seagate drive. But they are with some.
Hard drives in Seagate's FreeAgent line - except for the Go Pro for Mac and the Go for Mac - ship with NTFS, a file system designed for Windows. Your MacBook can not read or write to a NTFS drive. Many external hard drives come pre-formatted as FAT 32. This is a native Windows file format that can be read by Mac OS X, but is not ideal for use with Aperture. Download spotify mac not working. Before you begin to use your new external hard drive with Aperture, reformat it to the Mac OS Extended file system: Be sure your drive is attached and mounted.
HFS+
Mac OS X’s native file system is HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended), and it’s the only one that works with Time Machine. But while HFS+ is the best way to format drives for use on Macs, Windows does not support it. Sims 4 toddler update download mac. If you’re only going to be using your external or USB flash drive with certain PCs – such as at home or the office – you might be interested in a program called MacDrive. When you install MacDrive on a Windows PC, it will be able to seamlessly read & write to HFS+ drives. This isn’t a good solution if you need your drive to work on any PC without installing software, though.
NTFS
The native Windows file system is NTFS, which is only partially compatible with Mac OS X. Macs can read files on NTFS drives, but it cannot write to them. So if you need to get files from a PC to your Mac, NTFS is a decent option. However, you won’t be able to move files in the other direction, from Mac to PC.
FAT32
The most universally supported way to format your drive is with the FAT32 file system. It works with all versions of Mac OS X and Windows. Case closed, right? Well, not so fast. Unfortunately, FAT32 is a very old file system and has some technical limitations. For example, you cannot save files that are larger than 4GB on a FAT32-formatted drive. This is a deal-breaker if you work with huge files. The other limitation is the total size of the partition. If you format your FAT32 drive in Windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32GB. If you format it from a Mac running 10.7 Lion, the drive partition can be up to 2TB. Much better, except for that pesky 4GB limit.
exFAT
The exFAT file system eliminates the two major deficiencies of FAT32: the largest partition and file sizes it supports are virtually unlimited by today’s standards. Awesome, it’s perfect! Almost… since exFAT is fairly new, it isn’t compatible with older Macs and PCs. Any Mac running 10.6.5 (Snow Leopard) or 10.7 (Lion) supports exFAT, while PCs running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, and Windows 7 are compatible. https://numbertree548.weebly.com/sd-cards-for-mac.html. If you know you’ll be using computers running updated versions of these operating systems, exFAT is the clear best choice.
Format a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac
Format Seagate Expansion For Mac
- Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities).
- Select your external hard drive or USB flash drive from the list on the left.
- Click on the Erase tab. Select the format – Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MS-DOS (FAT32), or exFAT – then name the drive.
- Click the Erase button and the drive will start formatting. Be aware that formatting a drive deletes all of the files on it, so back up anything important before completing this step.
Format a drive using Windows
- Go to Computer (or My Computer in Windows XP).
- Select your drive from the list and right-click on it. Choose Format from the contextual menu.
- A window will pop up where you can choose the format – NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label.
- Click Start to format the drive.
> Mac Data Wipe > How to Format Seagate External Hard Drive under Mac OS?
by Shirly Chen, 2016-11-10
'Hi, anyone can tell me how to format a Seagate external hard drive on Mac? I am going to sell my 2TB Seagate external hard drive. Before sending it away, I want to make sure all the data on it has been permanently erased. So I try to format it on my Mac. However, I didn’t find a way to format Seagate external hard drive under Mac OS. Is it possible to do this?' – Manie
Formatting is the best way to give an old Seagate external hard drive its new life. It is easy to format a Seagate external hard drive on Windows PC. However, if you want to format a Seagate external hard drive on Mac, it is not as easy as formatting it on a PC. Cause this feature is ‘hidden’ inside your Mac OS. And in some cases, you need both formatting Seagate external hard drive and permanently wiping data on it. Such as these cases:
- You will resell, donate or give away your old Seagate external hard drive.
- You are going to lend your Seagate external hard drive with someone else or share it with other people.
- You are disposing your old Seagate external hard drive or throwing it into trash.
- You plan to send your Seagate external hard drive to be repaired.
In the cases above, you need to format your Seagate external hard drive and permanently destroy all sensitive data on it, leaving no chance for data recovery. Only Mac data erasure software can achieve the double effects. Music notation software for mac. DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac offers secure and easy solution to format Seagate external hard drive and permanently wipe all existing data and history data. https://numbertree548.weebly.com/winx-dvd-ripper-for-mac.html.
Format Seagate external hard drive with Super Eraser for Mac
DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac gives clear way to format Seagate external hard drive under Mac OS because it is so easy-to-use. You just need to connect your Seagate external hard drive with your Mac and run this Mac data erasure software to format it, here is the instructions.
Select mode 'Wipe Volume/Device' –> Select your Seagate external hard drive -> Click on 'Wipe Now' button. Then it will automatically format your Seagate external hard drive and wipe all existing/history data. Traktor scratch pro 2 update. You will get a brand new Seagate external hard drive.
![Seagate Seagate](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133910535/998135510.jpg)
Since this Mac data erasure will permanent wipe all data on your Seagate external hard drive while it is formatting your Seagate external hard drive under Mac OS. So please back up your important files before you run it to format your Seagate external hard drive. It also supports to format Mac hard drives, USB flash drives, external hard drives, digital cameras, SD cards, etc under Mac OS.
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