How to Format a Hard Drive For Both Windows and Mac

By Melanie Pinola 29 December 2015

Want to use one external drive for both your Windows PC and your Mac? One hurdle you’ll face is that, by default, these platforms use different filesystems. Windows uses NTFS and Mac OS uses HFS and they’re incompatible with each other. However, you can format the drive to work with both Windows and Mac by using the exFAT filesystem. Here’s how.

In this guide we’re using exFAT instead of FAT32, another filesystem that both Windows and Mac can read and write to, because FAT32 has a maximum 4GB file size limit whereas exFAT can work with files as large as 16EB (exabytes). exFAT also performs better than FAT32.

You can format the drive from either the Mac or the Windows machine. However, if you want to use part of the drive for OS X’s Time Machine backups, you should do this from the Mac, since there’s an extra step to make the drive compatible for Time Machine.

How to Format an External Drive in OS X

1. Connect the drive to the Mac.

2. Open Disk Utility. The easiest way to do that is hit CMD and the spacebar at the same time and type in Disk Utility to find the program.

3. Select the drive you want to format.

4. Click Erase.

If you don’t plan on using the drive for Time Machine, skip steps 5 to 11 below and continue with step 12.

5. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings: OS X Extended format and GUID partition map. These will format the drive in OS X’s HFS+ filetype so it will be compatible with Time Machine.

6. Click Erase and OS X will format the drive.

7. With the drive selected in Disk Utility, click Partition.

8. Enter the amount of space you want to set aside for Time Machine. In this example, we’re shrinking the Time Machine partition to 128 GB instead of allowing Time Machine to take up the whole drive.

9. Click Apply.

10. Select the new untitled partition so we can format it as exFAT for use with both Mac and Windows.

11. Click Erase.

12. Give the partition a name and select exFAT for the format.

13. Click Erase to finish.

Your exFAT-formatted drive or partition can now be used for both Windows and Mac. Note that using a drive frequently between Windows and Mac could increase the chances of file corruption, so make sure you have backups of the files on the shared drive and be extra careful about safely ejecting the drive before disconnecting it from your computer.

How to Format an External Drive in Windows

The instructions below are for Windows 10, but other versions of Windows from Windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exFAT for use with Mac as well.

1. Connect the drive to your Windows PC.

2. Open the Disk Management tool. You can do that by typing «disk format» or «disk management» in Windows search or going to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Create and format hard disk partitions.

3. Right-click on the external drive’s partition or unallocated space you want to format and choose New Simple Volume…

4. Follow the wizard to choose a volume size.

5. Assign a drive letter.

6. Choose exFAT as the file system in the Format Partition screen.

7. Give the volume a new name.

8. Click Next.

9. Click Finish.

Windows will format the drive as exFAT and you’ll be able to use the drive on both Windows and Mac.

How to use NTFS drives on a Mac

By Nate Drake 16 June 2019

How to work with Windows drives in macOS

Want to use NTFS drives on a Mac? In this guide we show you how to use those Windows-formatted drives in macOS.

The Mac versus PC debate isn’t going to be settled anytime soon but there’s no denying that Windows computers are more widespread. For this reason, many manufacturers of external hard drives and USB sticks pre-format their devices to NTFS.

This format was created for Microsoft and allows users to quickly plug their drives into Windows machines and work with files. As NTFS is proprietary, Apple would need a special license to use it fully on the Macs they sell.

Instead of doing this, macOS has been designed to read NTFS-formatted drives but not write to them. In other words, as a Mac user you can only open and view files on Windows drives: you can’t change them in anyway, nor can you copy new files to NTFS format disks.

In this guide, you’ll discover several solutions to this dilemma from formatting drives to a more universal file system to using third-party tools.

1. Format to FAT32

If you have an NTFS drive you can use macOS’ Disk Utility to reformat it to FAT32. This is simple to do and means the data on your drive/USB stick can be read and written on both Macs and PCs.

Be aware that the FAT32 format isn’t as efficient as NTFS: it only supports files sizes of up to 4GB. This may pose a problem if you’re using the drive to store high-quality videos. More information on FAT32 versus NTFS is available from Microsoft Support.

To get started, click the Spotlight icon at the top right of your screen and enter ‘Disk’ to launch Disk Utility. Insert your NTFS drive or USB stick and click to highlight the disk name in the white box on the left-hand side of the window.

Select the ‘Erase’ tab. Under ‘Format’ choose ‘(MS-DOS FAT)’. Enter a new name for the drive in the field above if you wish.

Click ‘Erase’ to continue. Read the warning carefully before proceeding, as this process will delete any existing data on the drive. From now on you’ll be able to move files to your drive and edit them in place from a Mac or PC.

2. Use a third-party app

The fact that macOS doesn’t support Windows NTFS drives out of the box has led to the development of a number of third-party apps, which are licensed to both read and write to Windows disks.

These can be particularly helpful if you regularly have to plug your drive into both a Mac and PC both use file sizes larger than that supported by the more universal FAT32 format.

One of the strongest contenders for macOS is Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon, which offers a ten-day free trial of its features. Once installed, the app will mount your Windows drives allowing you to change or remove files to your hearts content.

At the time of writing there doesn’t seem to be any freeware macOS programs offering NTFS write support, which may put off users on a budget.

3. Enable NTFS write support in Terminal

If reformatting your NTFS drive for Mac is not an option, you can enable write support for specific Windows disks using macOS Terminal. This is an experimental feature and could lead to data loss, so make sure to do a full backup of both your Mac and any data on the drive before continuing.

The main benefit of using Terminal in this way is that it’s quick to do and no third-party software is required. As this feature is still in the testing phase however, your files could become corrupted at anytime, so proceed with caution.

To get started, click the Spotlight icon at the top right of your screen and enter ‘Terminal’. Connect your NTFS drive, then enter the command:

This will open the list of drives recognised by macOS. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll to the very end and add the following line, replacing ‘NAME’ with the actual name of your NTFS drive e.g. USB1 (if you’re unsure what this is, simply open Disk Utility):

Press Ctrl+O to save the list, and then press Ctrl+X to exit NANO. Next, connect your Windows drive to the Mac.

Open Finder, then click Go’> Go to Folder, then type ‘/Volumes/NAME’ where ‘NAME’ is the name of your NTFS drive.

Click ‘Go’ to access your Windows disk. You should now be able to edit existing files and copy new ones here.

4. Use BootCamp

Bootcamp is macOS’ own built-in utility for installing Microsoft Windows on your Mac. The most recent version of macOS (Mojave) supports Windows 10. During the setup process, users shrink the size of their existing macOS installation to make room for Windows.

This allows you to boot both operating systems on your Mac. Once set up, Windows 10 will function on your Mac in just the same way as it would on a regular PC. This includes working with NTFS-formatted drives.

To get started, all you need is an internet connection, a valid Windows 10 DVD and a USB stick of at least 8GB. See our guide on setting up BootCamp for more details on how to get started.

Although BootCamp is easy to set up and use, you must purchase a Windows 10 license to keep using the OS after 90 days. You’ll also naturally will have to work with files using Microsoft apps instead of those designed for Mac like iMovie.

If you enjoy using the iWorks app however (Pages, Keynotes & Numbers), you can work with the online versions of these tools on a PC by accessing iCloud via your browser.

When using BootCamp remember that any files you save to the Windows 10 section of the hard disk itself can’t be accessed when you reboot into macOS and vice versa.

5. Move to the Cloud

If you only want to work or collaborate on a few files, why not ditch the drives altogether and place your files in the Cloud?

Online services such as iCloud Drive offer a generous free allowance (5GB) and allow you to immediately sync, edit and share files even if they were originally created for Windows and saved to an NTFS disk.

To take advantage of iCloud, simply open your Windows drive in Finder then copy and paste any files you want to work with to the location ‘iCloud Drive’. If you don’t see this is the side pane, open System Preferences > iCloud to check you’re signed in and that this service is enabled.

The Mac operating system will automatically sync the files to Apple’s servers. Once you’ve opened the files and made any changes you need, you can send a sharing link to others if you wish.

How to Format a Drive for Mac & PC Compatibility

You can format a hard drive or USB flash disk specifically so that it will be compatible with both Mac OS X and Windows PC computers.

Though this excellent cross-platform compatible ability is unknown to many users, it’s not a complex process, and if you frequently use both a Mac and Windows PC you will find this particularly useful because any data, media, or files stored on the the drive will always be accessible from any operating system. It only takes a few minutes to start and it’s extremely easy, and we’ll walk you through the entire process of formatting drives for Mac and PC compatibility in a few simple steps.

Remember, formatting a drive erases all data contained on it so back up important files before proceeding. Let’s quickly review how to format any drive for Mac and Windows PC compatibility with read and write support.

How to Format a Drive for Mac & Windows PC Compatibility

This works with any hard drive, flash drive, SSD, USB drive, or just about any other storage type that is accepted by both a Mac and Windows machine, and the entire process is performed in Mac OS X:

Launch Disk Utility, found within /Applications/Utilities/

Connect the drive you wish to format for dual compatibility to the Mac

Click the drive name on the left side list in Disk Utility, and then click the “Erase” tab

Click the pulldown menu alongside “Format” and select “MS-DOS (FAT)”

Optionally, give the drive a name

That’s how you can make a drive compatible with both Mac and PC.

Remember, formatting a drive erases all data on it.

Note this approach to formatting a drive for Mac and Windows PC compatibility are the same on basically every version of MacOS and Mac OS X, but the screenshots may look slightly different depending on your OS version. The result is still the same however when it comes to formatting the drive.

Making the Drive Bootable & Compatible with Older Windows PC using MBR

If you wish to boot the drive on a PC, or to use it with older versions of Windows, you may also need to set the partition scheme to Master Boot Record (MBR) for full Windows compatibility. From within Disk Utility, do the following:

• Click the drive, then select “Partition” tab
• From the “Partition Layout” dropdown menu, select “1 Partition”
• Click “Options” and choose “Master Boot Record” as the partition type, then click “OK” and “Apply”

Drives format very quickly, though the total time taken will depend on the size of the drive.

Using FAT File System Format for Mac & Windows Compatibility

Once the drive is formatted it will be compatible to be read and written to on both a Mac and PC.

Simply connecting the formatted drive to a Mac or PC will allow the drive to be used on either operating system, so you can access and transfer files as needed.

The FAT file system is compatible with all versions of Mac OS X and macOS, Windows 95, 98, Windows XP, Vista, 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, and later it’s one of the most widely recognized and usable file system formats. You’ll even be able to use the drive on most Linux and Unix machines too, if you need to.

This widespread compatibility makes FAT an ideal file system to use for USB flash drives or external hard drives that are intended for use in environments with multiple operating systems.

The primary downside to using FAT32 is the file size limit, which limits files on the drive to being 4GB in size or less. If you require single files to be larger than 4GB, use exFAT instead, though you will lose some compatibility with older versions of Mac OS X and Windows.

Is NTFS Compatible with Mac?

The NTFS file system is another option to use for Windows formatted drives and volumes, but it has limited compatibility with Mac OS by default.

Mac users can mount and read NTFS formatted Windows drives, making NTFS compatible with the Mac on the reading and mounting front, but writing to an NTFS drive requires using either third party software or enabling NTFS write support on the Mac using an experimental functionality bundled on the Mac. This is less than ideal for most users however, so while NTFS is compatible with a Mac and Windows PC, if you want to do heavy file sharing between the two with a lot of reading and writing, you may be better off formatting a drive as FAT32 as discussed above.

What about HFS Apple File System?

HFS is the Mac file system. If you only intend on using the drive on a Mac it’s recommended to format for Mac OS X use only using the journaled file system. Just be aware that the Mac-only formats are typically not readable by Windows machines without some third party software on the PC.

Is APFS Apple File System compatible with Windows PC?

The APFS file system is built for modern Macs and MacOS versions, and is not compatible with Windows PC by default. There are some third party tools and apps that allow mounting and reading APFS drives on Windows, but support for APFS is not part of Windows by default. Therefore, if you’re looking for Mac and PC drive compatibility, you’ll want to format the disk as either FAT or NTFS.

Did you get your drive formatted to Mac and PC compatible? What file system did you use and why? Share your experiences and thoughts in the comments.

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42 Comments

Omg! Thank you SO much for posting this. I was having SO MANY issues! You rock!

The MS DOS FAT cuts the availability of space on the flash drive. I have a 16gb SanDisk that I wanted to put a movie onto. The movie was 8gb. It gave me errors and would not copy the file. Said format problem. So I reformatted to Apple (journaled) and had no more problems. But now, of course, a PC cannot read the flash drive. A POX ON MICROSOFT.

I don’t have that “MS DOS FAT” option in the list.

Well… So I’m running Mac OS X El Capitan and Windows 10 using BootCamp on my 2015 MacBook Air 13″ and I wanted a disk where I could put something in from the Mac and then reboot into Windows and take out that file.

I did all the instructions and re-formatted my Internal SSD with lots of space to spare on both my OS X system and Windows BootCamp. And after the instructions, I tried to boot into Windows. And then I see that is says something like: “Your PC needs to be repaired. Press Enter to try again.”

Читайте также:  Get all java windows

So that didn’t really go so well. Can anybody help me?

Thanks admin for the post finally i got worked solution.

What you can do in this case is to setup an FTP site on your PC and connect from the MAC. I’m doing this now and will show it on my website when complete.

I have inherited three Macs. I was planning to use them but now I am convinced that Apple is interested in creating compatibility issues, worse that microsoft, so I am switching to Linux.

I am a Mac and a PC user, and i want my HD to be under pass word protected . I do not like encryption, how do i do it

Can I reformat just one partition or must I do the entire external hard drive?

the entire drive
Make Sure you’ve selected the Drive (NOT THE PARTITION)
(you may have to select View/Show all Devices, instead of Show Only Volumes in order to see the Drive instead of the partition)
Click Erase

Wanted to copy a large video file so needed to use exFAT. Result: ‘Volume Erase failed with the error: Couldn’t unmount disk.’

Any solutions to this problem?

I’m looking to do this as I want to use my external hdd on windows and mac, but what’s this thing about a partition?

Do I need to do this and if I do (so all the bases are covered), does it have any disadvantages?

How can I password encrypt my external hard drive when it’s format is MS-DOS so it can securely work on a PC and Mac?

To format a hard drive for compatibility of both Mac and windows you can use FAT32 format which has both read/write capability on win/Mac respectively. Although we know its limitation of 4gb file size only. Means if one want to transfer movie or any stuff greater than 4gb it can’t be done in this format. So, after an hour research I am able to find three solutions for it:
1.If moving files one way, from Mac to Windows, use HFS+.
To move files from Windows to Mac, use NTFS. if moving files both ways, use either.
2.Chosse either FAT32 or exFAT for gaining compatibility in Pc as well Mac.
3.Create two partitions on your hard drive to use with each OS, separately. You can create,delete,format,resize boot camp partition,repartition without any data loss, can make bootable DVD by Stellar partition manager. I found this tool really easy to use and efficient.

dear B watson
How about NTFS fir with Mac and PC compatibility ?
any short fall on this formate ?

Thanks! I appreciate the help!
– Curtis

[…] they’re a little nerdy, but sometimes that’s just what you need, as in this case: a dead-easy how-to guide to formatting a USB drive (or USB key or flash drive or thumb drive or whatever you may call it) for use on both a Mac and a […]

Zfs for os x was killed when some licensing issues arose.

MacOSX needs to get full NTFS support.
Windows needs to get HFS support.

Both need ext3, and ext4 support.

Seriously, how can we have a modern OS without supporting modern FS?

No, why should an operating system support the file systems of other operating systems? HFS+ can be used for Mac volumes, NTFS can be useed for Windows volumes and Ext3 and Ext4 can be used for Linux volumes. There should be no need for Mac OS X to support NTFS, Ext3 and Ext4 and there should be no need for Windows to support HFS+, Ext3 and Ext4.

I say “there SHOULD be no need” and I’ll explain why:

In my opinion it’s absolutely ridiculous to use a file system which was designed for an operating system from the last century on our external media. FAT was never designed for external media and it’s outdated. There should be a file system which is designed for external media and supports large files and large volumes, just like all other modern file systems.

FAT was designed by Microsoft and is patented by Microsoft. Every who wants to use FAT has to pay Microsoft. Almost all external devices you buy (hard drives, USB key, flash cards, etc) are pre-formatted as FAT (because it’s the only file system which works on almost every device they have to use FAT), so some money goes to Microsoft for almost every external device you buy. They have to pay Microsoft to use FAT.

Almost every device supports FAT. Almost every device you buy (a Mac, a NAS, a router which has a USB port to connect a hard disk to, a digital camera, a radio which can play songs from USB or flash card / simply put: every device which can read from a hard disc, USB key or flash card) has to buy a license at Microsoft to be allowed to use FAT and and additional license to be able to use NTFS.

I’ve been wondering for years now: Why didn’t they develop a file systems for external devices, just like they did with CD’s? I can burn a data CD (MP3 files on a data CD) and it just plays everywhere: in my car, in my DVD player, in every operating system. Every device just supports it. Why didn’t they do the same with external devices.

In my opinion it’s ridiculous to use a file system from the last century, which was designed for an old operating system and which is patented by Microsoft. They should have introduced a completely new, open and completely independent file system which is designed for external devices and is free to use by everyone.

Could Ext4 (and coming newer versions) be a perfect candidate for this? It supports very large files and (as far as I can see) isn’t licensed by anyone in particular. The only problem that persists is that it’s supported by nothing but Linux.

It’s always nice to have a standard. It’d be great if there were only a very limited amount of different batteries, different cables and whatnot. But there aren’t. I always have to think of this particular XKCD comic when talking about this 😉 http://xkcd.com/927/

Mac OS is about having their clients live in a crystal cage.