- Make External Hard Drive Compatible With Machine
- Make External Hard Drive Compatible With Mac And Windows
- Mac Computer External Hard Drive
Making a Time Machine backup before a major operating system upgrade is always a good and safe way to do things. Any external USB hard drive is going to be compatible, whether it's an older large/clunky 3.5-inch desktop hard disk drive in an external USB 2.0 enclosure, or a sweet and slick 2.5-inch Solid State Disk drive in a pocket-sized USB3.0 enclosure and also regardless of whether it has. Oct 10, 2020 The best external hard drives for Mac are not only useful for storing data but are an excellent way to transport files from one location to another. When you take into account price, ease of use, and portability, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim is the most reliable hard drive you can carry around with you at all times.
The Windows drive in your Dell itself will be in NTFS format. As standard a Mac can read NTFS but cannot format or write to NTFS. I have no idea what format the Lacie will initially come as but for arguments sake lets say it will be HFS+ which is the standard format used by Macs. As standard Windows cannot read or write to HFS+ drives.
It is possible to format a hard disk on a Mac (or a PC) as an ExFAT format. This format is both readable and writeable by both Mac and PCs. It cannot be used as a boot drive on either, nor can it be used as a Time Machine backup drive by a Mac. ExFAT is however fine for use as a transfer drive.
It is possible to get additional software for the Mac to allow it to format and read/write to NTFS volumes. See https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/ Toast mac os x 10 6 8.
It is possible to get additional software for Windows to allow it to format and read/write to HFS+ volumes. Seehttp://www.mediafour.com/software/macdrive/
Make External Hard Drive Compatible With Machine
Seagate a maker of hard disks have done a deal with Paragon Software as listed above. This deal means a Seagate drive comes already formatted as NTFS and includes a 'free' copy of the Paragon software to all your Mac to read and write to that NTFS drive. See http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/item/ntfs-driver-for-mac-os-maste r-dl/
I would be a little concerned over the above 'free' copy of the Paragon software in that a) is this still valid?, and b) is the version of the software up-to-date so that it still works in El Capitan on a Mac. Older versions of the software will not work in El Capitan.
A different approach you could consider is using Apple's 'Migration Assistant' software to transfer files over a computer network between the Mac and Windows PC. See Move your data from a Windows PC to a Mac - Apple Support and Windows Migration Assistant v1.0.5.7 the concern here is that this tool does not appear to have been updated for Windows 10, it may or may not work therefore in Windows 10.
Jun 22, 2016 5:21 AM Mac super duper natural.
Image Courtesy wonderhowto.comHow many times have we founds ourselves with a USB that only works with our computer and no one else! Often resorting to emailing that massive Powerpoint file 30 minutes later. Today, this is going to end as we have created a fantastic step by step guide on how to make your drive compatible for both Mac and Windows.
I bet you have seen many formats on your computer but understand that your Windows PC and Mac understand one format well and that is 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. If you know you'll be using computers running updated versions of these operating systems, exFAT is the clear best choice.
Make External Hard Drive Compatible With Mac And Windows
Format a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac
1. Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities).
2. Select your external hard drive or USB flash drive from the list on the left.
3. Click on the Erase tab. Select the format – Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MS-DOS (FAT32), or exFAT – then name the drive.
Mac Computer External Hard Drive
4. 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.
Now you are ready to conquer the Windows world!
Format a drive using Windows
1. Go to Computer (or My Computer in Windows XP).
2. Select your drive from the list and right-click on it. Choose Format from the contextual menu.
3. 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.
4. Click Start to format the drive.
Now you are ready to conquer!
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