disk format that works for mac and windows

Western Digital recommends that when formatting a drive that it be the only drive present on the system to limit occurences of accidental data loss. Once the process begins, ALL THE DATA ON THE DRIVE WILL BE LOST! This process is Data Destructive and cannot be undone. The instructions in the article below are designed to help repartition and format a hard drive. The easiest way to format the drive to FAT32 or ExFAT is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility for FAT32, or both macOS and Windows' built-in tools, Disk Utility or Disk Management respectively for exFAT.

For more information about what these limitations are please see Answer ID 20778: FAT32 File System and Partition Size Limits for Windows & macOS. This is a file system limitation that affects both macOS's and Window's, and the only workaround is to format the drive to exFAT. FAT32 has several limitations, including a 4 GB per-file limit. Most WD Drives come formatted in the NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (macOS) format.įor a hard drive to be able to be read from and written to on both a Windows and macOS computer, it must be formatted to ExFAT or FAT32 file format. This is useful if a drive is being used under both Operating System (OS) to move files between the two environments.

It adds several extra features, including automatic file defragmentation, support for RAID setups, and a way to create Mac ISO files.Answer ID 50277: Format an External Drive as exFat using Windows for use on Windows and macOS Guided AssistĪnswer ID 50276: Format an External Drive as exFat using macOS for use on macOS and Windows Guided AssistĪ Western Digital external hard drive can be used on both Windows and macOS. Other useful features include the ability to create and partition Mac disks direct from your PC, a powerful disk repair feature, and robust security tools. You will also be able to see your APFS or HFS+ drive directly within File Explorer, allowing easy integration with the rest of the Windows operating system. It acts as a hub for all the Mac drives connected to Windows. The app is focused on the freshly redesigned Disk Management Window. Unlike some options, MacDrive lets you read and write data to your Mac-formatted drive directly from Windows. The app works with APFS drives and HFS+ drives. If you're prepared to spend some money, you don't need to look elsewhere. The first version was released way back in 1996. MacDrive has been one of the go-to apps for a long time.

Disk format that works for mac and windows