- Ext4 Vs Exfat
- Mac Os Extended Journaled Or Exfat
- Mac Os X Extended Journaled Vs Exfat
- Os X Extended Journaled Vs Exfat
- Os X Extended Journaled Vs Exfat
System cleanup in one click
Reddit: the front page of the internet. 3.79 x 1.95 x 0.35 inches Item Dimensions LxWxH 3.79 x 1.95 x 0.35 inches Color Standard Enclosure–Transfer Speed Up to 550MB/s. Flash Memory Size 1 Manufacturer Western Digital Technologies Inc. ASIN B078STRHBX Is Discontinued By Manufacturer No Date First Available January 8, 2018. Mac OS Extended vs Mac OS Extended(Journaled) The Mac OS Extended is a file system that is also known as HFS Plus. This operating system can either be journalled or not, each with its own pros and cons. Journalling is not exclusive to the Mac OS as other operating systems are also capable of having a journalling system. Note: To use an external hard disk with iMovie, it must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). IMovie doesn’t support network-attached storage or external flash memory drives. I was just surprised (just now actually) to find out that a thumb drive I use exclusively for OS X stuff was formatted for MSDOS (FAT32).
Make your Mac fast and secure with CleanMyMac X.
Most of the time, you won’t bother to think about the file system your Mac uses. Many of us simply create, save, and backup files as needed without ever considering what file system type we’re using at all.
Format: select “OS X Extended Journaled” for HFS+ or “MS DOS FAT” If you choose FAT, you only can use 32GB of your drive if your drive is larger than 32 GB. Scheme: select “Master Boot Record”. (you will miss this option if you selected the partition instead of the drive in the previous step).
When you need to do something like partition a drive, the type of file system you choose becomes extremely important. Depending on how you plan to use the partition – and with whom – your choice of file type to use on your computer is a critical moment.
Here we’ll discuss all of the Mac formats for your file system, APFS vs Mac OS extended, the best format for external hard drive Mac may be using, ExFAT vs HFS+, and everything else you’ll need to know about macOS file systems.
Types of a file system
Before we get into things like ExFAT vs Mac OS extended, it’s important we define the file systems we’ll be discussing. There are three main file systems for the Mac environment, but your choice in which to use will depend on both the hardware you have available, and whether you intend to work with Windows machines at all.
What is APFS
APFS is acronymous for “Apple File System,” first introduced with macOS High Sierra. This move coincided with the Mac’s move to solid state drives (SSD) on all hardware, as APFS is optimized for SSD storage solutions. APFS will still work on mechanical or hybrid drives, too.
On new Macs, APFS is the default file system, as modern Macs all have SSD drives. If you’re formatting a drive for use with a Mac with an SSD – and plan to use the drive with that Mac only – it may be wise to format it to work with APFS file systems as well.
Mac OS Extended: Best for mechanical drives or drives used with older macOS versions
The Mac OS Extended file system is also known as HFS Plus or HFS+, and is the default file system of all Macs from 1998 through now on Macs with mechanical or hybrid drives. Even if a Mac is running macOS High Sierra, if it has a hybrid or mechanical drive, the file system will be Mac OS Extended by default.
If you format a drive for use with older Macs – or are formatting a drive on an older Mac – Mac OS Extended should be your choice. Though APFS may work just fine, using Mac OS Extended is essentially a guarantee against problems.
Another thing to keep in mind is encryption. APFS can be encrypted, and Mac OS Extended Journaled is the method you’ll want to use if you need to safeguard Mac OS Extended file systems. Just keep in mind you will need to safeguard your encryption key for either, and encryption can ding your performance slightly.
ExFAT: Best for External Drives Shared with Windows Computers
ExFAT is a cross-platform solution for use with Mac and Windows devices, now serving as a base for files shared and edited between the two platforms. If you work with Mac and Windows computers often, ExFAT may be the best option for your Mac.
The ExFAT file system was introduced in 2006, created by Microsoft to provide cross-platform compatibility between its FAT32 format and Macs without worry of file or partition size limitations. Because it’s an older system, ExFAT is much more susceptible to fragmentation than Mac OS Extended or APFS, and strips metadata from files.
Plainly put, ExFAT allows you to work on files between Mac and Windows machines without reformatting those files, but it lacks many modern features people may find important.
Other Formats (MS-DOS (FAT) and Windows NT
MS-DOS FAT is an older Windows file system type, a precursor to the ExFAT FAT32 file format. It’s reverse-compatible, but should only be used in the rarest of circumstances. Macs that need to cooperate with Windows XP or older should consider MS-DOS FAT, but that’s a really rare event these days. Windows XP is mostly used for really old commercial platforms, which wouldn’t work well with the Mac environment anyway.
Windows NT file system is not one Mac users will want to use often. It’s a Windows file system for use with Windows devices, and there’s rarely a reason the a Mac user should consider using it. That said, if your Mac is essentially hardware running Windows day to day, Windows NT may be the right file system for you. But if you use macOS and simply transfer files between your Mac and a Windows device, we suggest ExFAT.
Bonus tip: boosting your Mac
Whatever file system you choose, be sure to keep your Mac running its best with CleanMyMac X.
CleanMyMac X keeps tabs on your Mac’s performance via its menu bar icon, which also provides quick access to open the app proper. Its Smart Scan module quickly identifies unnecessary files on your Mac that have accumulated over time, scans your Mac for privacy threats, and optimizes your computer for speedy performance.
There are also dedicated malware removal, privacy, optimization, maintenance, and file management modules you can use to dive deep into your Mac and keep it running in pristine condition. There is also a really handy app and extension suite of modules for updating and uninstalling items on your mac, including associated files deleted apps leave behind.
For detailed monitoring of your Mac’s performance in real-time, choose iStat Menus. Residing in your Mac menu bar, iStat Menus keeps a contextual eye on what your Mac is doing, with its menus updating in real-time, all the time.
iStat Menus tracks your CPU, GPU, network, battery (for peripherals like keyboards and trackpads, too), memory, disks, and sensor performance. Clicking on the iStat menus icon in the menu bar surfaces a continually updating menu with graphs noting how your Mac is performing. Hover over any section of that menu, and a sub-menu with even more detail appears!
But that’s not all – hovering over any graphical element in the sub-menu brings up yet another menu with even more data. iStat Menus is great for giving you data at a glance, and even better at surfacing data in sub-menus for those times you want to understand what your Mac is doing in real-time with more detail than you ever thought possible.
Keeping your menu bar tidy is a consideration many Mac users have, and we can’t think of a better option than Bartender.
Bartender manages all the apps and services tucked away in your menu bar beneath a simple three-dot menu. Clicking the Bartender icon quickly surfaces the apps and services normally cluttering your menu bar, but also allows you to arrange them however you see fit. It’s great for developing a better muscle memory for finding apps in a snap, and organizing them by how often you use them, or their type (or both!).
If you’re a keyboard warrior, Bartended also has a feature for customizing your own hot key commands. If you’d rather surface apps with a few keystrokes, it’s no problem with Bartender. And if you finding yourself needing a few apps more often than others – like iStat Menus and CleanMyMac X – simply choose not to hide those icons to make it easier to navigate to them while keeping all the other app icons hidden behind the Bartender icon!
Setapp lives on Mac and iOS. Please come back from another device.
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
Read onSign Up
Setapp uses cookies to personalize your experience on our website. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our cookie policy.
Languages: EnglishFrançaisEspañolPortuguêsDeutsch日本語
Summary :
Want to format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows PC? Do you know how to do this work easily? This MiniTool article will show you specific methods to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC, which are easy and safe to complete.
Quick Navigation :
As we know, external hard drives are widely used to backup data or interchange files among different computers. Well, is there an external hard drive that could be shared between Mac and Windows PC? 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.
Currently, hard drives for Windows PC are always formatted with NTFS, while hard disks for Mac are formatted with HFS+. However, when we connect a NTFS formatted disk to Mac, Mac OS X doesn't allow us to write files to the drive neither edit files, though it can read a NTFS drive. Similarly, Windows OS will ask us to format the HFS+ formatted drive when we connecting such a disk, let along edit files saved on HFS+ formatted hard disks unless we resort to third party programs.
But luckily, there are file systems well supported by both Mac and Windows PC, and they are FAT32 (it might be called MS-DOS on Mac) and exFAT. As long as we format the external hard drive to one of these 2 file systems, it can be shared between Mac and Windows.
Further Reading
Both FAT32 and exFAT have advantages and disadvantages.
FAT32: FAT32 works with all versions of Windows, Mac OS, Linux, game consoles, etc.
However, single files on a FAT32 drive can't be larger than 4GB. If your external drive saves files larger than 4GB or you plan to save larger files to this drive, converting to FAT32 is not recommended.
In addition, a FAT32 partition must be not more than 32GB if you create it in Windows Disk Management. Of course, there is free partition manager that can help create a FAT32 volume up to 2TB, which also functions correctly.
exFAT: exFAT has very large file size and partition size limits, which means it's a good idea to format your external hard drive to exFAT.
Nevertheless, a lot of users complained that exFAT is slow, and they highly suggest using FAT32 if you can avoid file size constraints.
Three Options for Accessing NTFS Drives on Mac
Paid Third-Party Drivers
Some paid third-party NTFS drivers for Mac can be used to access NTFS drives on Mac. They work well and they have better performance than the free solutions which will be mentioned in the following part. Paragon NTFS for Mac is such a driver.
Besides, you can also use the paid third-party file system converters to convert NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT which are compatible with both Mac and PC. MiniTool Partition Wizard is one representative.
Free Third-Party Drivers
FUSE for macOS is a free and open-source NTFS driver that can enable write support. But, this solution is slower relatively. And the automatically mounting NTFS partitions in read-write mode can be a security risk for your Mac computer.
Apple’s Experimental NTFS-Write Support
The Mac OS has an experimental support for writing to NTFS drives. Usually, it is disabled by default and needs some messing around in the Mac terminal to enable it.
It doesn’t work properly all the time and could lead to potential issues with your NTFS file system. For example, it had corrupted data before. Thus, we don’t suggest using this tool and we believe it is disabled by this reason.
Here, we recommend using the paid third-party tools since they are easy-to-use and can do good work for you.
Then, we will introduce these three options for you in the following content.
The Best Paid Third-Party Driver: Paragon NTFS for Mac
Paragon NTFS for Mac can write, edit, delete, copy, or move files on NTFS volumes from your Mac computer. It offers a 10-day free trial. If you want to use it all the time, you need to pay for it.
With it, you don’t have to fiddle with terminal commands to mount partitions manually. Additionally, it can mount partitions automatically and safely. More importantly, it can code with the potential corruption. If you purchase a Seagate drive, you can even get a free download of Paragon NTFS for Mac.
All in all, it does its works well and gives you good user’s experience.
The Best Free Third-Party Drivers: FUSE for macOS
FUSE for macOS is a free solution to access NTFS on Mac. But it is less secure.
If you want to make automatically mount NTFS partitions in read-write mode on Mac, you need to temporarily disable the System Integrity Protection and replace one of Apple’s built-in tools with a binary that is more vulnerable to attack. Thus, your Mac is in danger when using this driver.
However, you can use it to manually mount NTFS partitions in read-write mode if you never mind using the Terminal. This will be safer, but you need to do more work. You can go to google the steps and see how complex they are.
Apple’s Experimental NTFS-Writing Support: Don’t Do This, Seriously
Although we mentioned this method in our article, we still don’t recommend it because it is the least tested. It is just for educational purposes, and it is available on Mac OS 10.12 Sierra. Perhaps, it will be unstable forever.
How to Quickly Format External Hard Drive for Mac and PC without Losing Data
Another way to access NTFS drive on Mac is to convert the NTFS/HFS+ to FAT/exFAT. Then, the drive can be used on both Mac and PC.
There should be some important data on the drive. To keep it safe, you can choose this best NTFS/HFS+ to FAT/exFAT converter: MiniTool Partition Wizard.
How to Convert NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT Without Data Loss
To format hard drive for Mac and Windows without data loss, we suggest using MiniTool Partition Wizard and its 'Convert NTFS to FATS32' function. If you are a personal user, you can try its Professional Edition.
Step 1: Run MiniTool Partition Wizard
Download this software to your computer. Then, you can open the software and input the license key to the pop-out window to get its Professional Edition.
Step 2: Convert NTFS to FAT32 with This Software
After running the program successfully, we can see its main interface as follows:
Here, please select the NTFS partition of external hard drive and choose 'Convert NTFS to FAT' feature from the left action pane. If there is more than one NTFS partition, convert all of them one by one.
At last, click 'Apply' button to make the change executed.
![Journaled Journaled](https://www.anyrecover.com/images/public/format-sd-card-on-mac.jpg)
When MiniTool Partition Wizard shows it applies the change successfully, the original NTFS will finally become a FAT32 partition.
By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for Mac and PC without losing any data. Then, you can share external hard drive between Mac and PC
You Can Convert NTFS to exFAT in 3 Steps
However, if you want to convert NTFS to exFAT to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC, 3 steps are required.
Step 1: Transfer Data out from External Hard Drive
Ext4 Vs Exfat
You can choose to copy and paste those files to other external devices or internal hard disk of Windows, but it will cost much time. Instead, you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition to create a copy for your external drive, which is faster.
If there is only one NTFS partition on external hard drive, refer to the tutorial Copy Partition to get instructions. However, if there is more than one NTFS partition, view Copy Disk to get specific operations.
Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard
The Free Edition of this software also enables you to do this job.
Firstly, you need to delete the partition by using this software. Just open the software to enter its main interface. Then, choose the target partition and click 'Delete Partition' from the left action pane. After that, you should click 'Apply' to keep this change.
Secondly, the target partition will become unallocated. Here, you need to choose that partition and click on 'Create Partition' from the left action pane.
Thirdly, you will see a pop-out window. Here, you can choose 'exFAT' from the 'File System' setting option. At the same time, you can also set some other parameters for this partition, including 'Partition Label', 'Drive Letter', 'Size And Location'. After that, please click on 'OK'.
Fourthly, you will go back to the main interface. Then, please click on 'Apply' to save these changes.
Finally, an exFAT partition will be created on your external hard disk so that it could be shared between Mac and Windows PC
Step 3: Transfer Data back to External Drive
If you want to share files that you have backed up between Mac and PC, now please transfer these files back to external hard drive.
How to Convert HFS+ to FAT32 or exFAT without Losing Data
Besides, you can format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows by converting HFS+ to FAT32 or exFAT without losing any data.
Step 1: Backup Data in HFS+ Partition on Mac
Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on Mac. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step.
Step 2: Create a FAT32 or exFAT Partition on Windows PC
Some people may ask why create such partitions on Windows rather than Mac. That is because there are cases reporting FAT32 (MS-DOS) or exFAT partitions created on Mac did not work well on Windows.
Please skip to Solution 1: Format External Hard Drive to FAT32 to get steps to create a FAT32 partitions or go back to Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard to get operations to create an exFAT partition.
How to Make an Empty External Drive Compatible with Mac and PC
If there is no file saved on your external hard drive, how to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC?
It's very easy to share it between Mac and PC and you also need a Windows computer, a Mac machine, and the free partition manager MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
There are 3 solutions for this case, so please choose the one you like most to format external hard drive Windows 10/8/7.
Solution 1: Format External Hard Drive Windows 10/8/7 to FAT32
Since users are unable to create a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB in Windows Disk Management, they need to use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free.
Note: when you connect an external hard drive which is formatted with HFS+ with computer, Windows may ask you to format the drive. Please choose Cancel.
Please download and install this program on your Windows computer to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC.
Firstly, open the software to enter its main interface as follows. Here, please select the NTFS partition or HFS+ partition of external hard drive, and click 'Delete Partition' feature from the left action pane. If there are multiple partitions on the external disk, please select the disk and click 'Delete All Partitions' feature instead. After that, an unallocated space will be released.
Secondly, you can create one or more FAT32 partitions in unallocated space. Select the unallocated space and choose 'Create Partition' feature from the left side.
Then, you should choose 'FAT32' from the 'File System' option in the pop-out window. Meanwhile, you can set properties for this new partition and click 'OK' to go back to the main window of Partition Wizard.
At last, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.
Solution 2: Format External Hard Drive Windows 7/8/10 to exFAT
Firstly, please delete the NTFS or HFS+ partition in either MiniTool Partition Wizard or Windows Disk Management to release unallocated space. Then, you can create an exFAT partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition by following steps introduced in the section Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Mac Os Extended Journaled Or Exfat
Once a FAT32 or exFAT partition is created on your external hard drive, you can share it on both Mac and Windows PC.
Solution 3: Create One HFS+ Partition for Mac and One NTFS Partition for Windows
Alternatively, you can create 2 partitions on the external hard drive: one is for Mac, and the other is for Windows. As to size for each partition, it depends on your own demands. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows.
Step 1: Create a NTFS Partition and a FAT32 Partition
Please run MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, then delete all the original NTFS or HFS+ partition(s), and create a new NTFS partition as well as a FAT32 partition, and the latter will be formatted to HFS+ in Mac machine.
Then, select the external hard drive and choose 'Delete All Partitions' to create an unallocated space.
Here, select the unallocated space and choose 'Create Partition' feature from the left action pane.
Now, please specify partition label (Windows is recommended), partition type (primary or logical), drive letter, file system (NTFS), cluster size, and partition size (you can change the length of the handle to adjust partition size). Then, click 'OK' to continue.
Now, you can see a NTFS partition is created. Please use the same way to create a FAT32 partition labeled with Mac. At last, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.
Mac Os X Extended Journaled Vs Exfat
Step 2: Format the FAT32 Partition to HFS+ Partition on Mac
Please go to Utilities → Disk Utility.
Then, select the external hard drive and click 'Partition' tab on the top.
Now, find the FAT32 partition and format it to OS X Extended (Journaled), which is the desired HFS+. Finally, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.
Tip: You may receive the prompt 'The volume 'MAC' is not journaled. As a result it can not be resized'. Just ignore the message and click 'OK' button to continue.
After NTFS partition and HFS+ partition are created on your external hard drive, it can be shared between Mac and Windows PC.
Note: You might be unable to share all files saved on external drive since Windows doesn't support HFS+ partition while Mac doesn't support NTFS partition completely.
Bottom Line
Are you planning to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC? If yes, now try one of our methods to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC.
Should you have any problem, just feel free to leave us a message in comment part below or send an email to [email protected].
Format Hard Drive for Mac and PC FAQ
How do I make my hard drive compatible with Mac and PC?
If you want your hard drive to be compatible with both Mac and PC, you should format the hard drive to the file system that is supported by both of these two operating systems. FAT32 and exFAT can meet your requirements.
What is the best hard drive format for Mac and PC?
Although both FAT32 and exFAT are compatible with Mac and PC, exFAT is a much better choice because it has fewer limitations. For example, it has a larger file size and partition size limits.
Os X Extended Journaled Vs Exfat
If you formatted your hard drive to exFAT with Apple's HFS Plus, Windows will not recognize the exFAT drive. You can consider using a third-party partition tool to format your hard drive to exFAT.
Os X Extended Journaled Vs Exfat
Windows can only read a Mac hard drive that is formatted to FAT32 or exFAT using third-party software. If the file system of the Mac hard drive is HFS+ or APFS, the drive will become unreadable in Windows.