
As a result, it's a good idea to format a new hard drive specifically for macOS.

While the Mac can use a hard drive formatted for Windows, some features may be limited. Most new hard drives, however, come formatted for Windows, not macOS. Using an external hard drive for a local backup can also be faster, since backing up and restoring is not dependent on the speed of your internet connection. While many rely on iCloud, Dropbox, or some other online service, a local backup can provide a more secure option. In addition to daily use, external hard drives also provide an excellent way to back up a computer. In those situations, an external hard can provide additional space at a fraction of the cost of internal storage. Plug in your external hard drive or USB flash drive to your Mac computer Launch the Disk Utility app which can be found in Applications > Other. While that may be plenty of space for most users, video editing, animation, development, and virtual machines are just a few things that can make even 8 TB feel cramped. If you really fancy a consumer-oriented drive formatted for Windows (which will usually come.


Format external hdd for mac and windows driver#
You will have 2 options: exFAT NTFS where exFAT has the best compatibility across all different systems (it is supported on MAC, Windows, Linux, Playstation and lots more) but will require installing the exfat driver on Linux. Apple's computers are available with a generous amount of hard drive space, from 256 GB all the way to 8 TB on high-end models. Best Portable Hard Drive for Large Media Collections. fat, ext2 and ext3 are basically obsolete and ext4 is not accepted by Microsoft.
