External hard drives are basically hard drives (HDD) or solid state drives (SSD) that are wrapped in their own protective casing and connect to your computer from the outside as opposed to the inside. After you've formatted using ‘ExFAT' file system, the external hard drive is ready to be used in both Windows and Mac machines. Next, let us see how you can format a drive on a Mac. How to format a drive in Mac? To format a drive on Mac, you can use the built-in tool called ‘Disk Utility'. This is a great external hard drive for your Mac if you are concerned about keeping your data safe and secure. Western Digital My Passport Ultra features cloud storage and 256-AES encryption. To find your best external hard drive for Mac, you'll want to decide how quickly you want to save and retrieve data. Consider how you'll be saving and transferring files, such as photos, videos, files from tablets, files from PC laptops, or photos from top-rated cell phones.Drive speed is measured in revolutions per minute (rpm), based on how fast the drive can spin.
You may be thinking if it is possible to use an external hard drive on both PC and Mac. Yes, it is possible, but the only requirement is that the file system used is compatible on both these machines. To do this, you will need to format the drive using exFAT or FAT32, which are file systems compatible with both Windows and Mac.
To help you select between FAT32 and ExFAT, here are some details. Generally, ExFAT is preferred over FAT32 as ExFAT has large partition and file size limits and also performs better. For example, FAT32 supports files up to 4 GB, while ExFAT has a limit of 16EB.
On the other hand, if you're looking for compatibility with other devices such as Xbox 360 and such, you can use FAT32.
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Now that you know whether you want to use FAT32 or ExFAT, we'll move on to the steps to format an external hard drive. How to write on a pdf mac.
How to format a drive in Windows?
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Formatting a drive is pretty straightforward using ‘Disk Management' utility in Windows. First, connect the external hard drive to your PC and make sure you have a backup as formatting will erase all data on the drive. Keep my mac clean. Then follow the steps below.
- Press ‘Windows + X' and select ‘Disk Management'. This tool is used to manage all disk drives associated with your computer
- Identify your ‘external hard drive' from the list of drives and right click on it
- Click on ‘New Simple Volume'
- Choose a ‘volume size' in the wizard that opens. The volume size is the same as the maximum volume size that is displayed in the same wizard
- In the next step, assign a ‘drive letter' to the external drive
- Then ‘format' the partition as ‘ExFAT' in the format partition screen
- Finally, assign the volume a ‘new name' and click on Next to complete the format process.
After you've formatted using ‘ExFAT' file system, the external hard drive is ready to be used in both Windows and Mac machines. Next, let us see how you can format a drive on a Mac.
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To format a drive on Mac, you can use the built-in tool called ‘Disk Utility'. Start by connecting the external hard drive to your Mac and follow the steps below.
- Open ‘Finder' and select ‘Applications' on the left panel
- Click on ‘Utilities' > ‘Disk Utility' to open Disk Utility
- On the left panel, you will find a list of drives; select your ‘external hard drive' from the list
- Click on ‘Erase' button at the top. Please note that this will erase all data on the drive; so make sure you have a backup before performing this step.
- Assign a ‘name' to the partition and select ‘ExFAT' file system for the format
- Click on ‘Erase' to complete the format process
Once you've formatted the drive using exFAT file system, it is ready to be used in both Windows and Mac systems.
Conclusion
Please bear in mind that using the same drive regularly between both Windows and Mac can increase chances of corruption or damage. So, be sure to use ‘Safely remove hardware' after each use. And also have a backup of all the data on the external hard drive to be prepared for corruption and data loss scenarios. In case there is no backup available and your drive is corrupted, you can use Yodot Recovery software to recover data from damaged external hard drive.
The software can be used to recover data not only from external hard drives but also from USB flash drives, memory cards etc. The software is available for both Windows and Mac users.
