Another option, for those who use both Windows and Mac OS regularly, is to partition your hard drive and have a portion of the drive formatted for each OS. And when you have the latest M1 MacBook Pro, Air or iMac. Is your external drive a hard drive or solid state drive. There are tools available to use NTFS on a Mac (Fuse) or HFS on PC (HFSExplorer). And the version of the Mac operating system (MacOS) you’re running. Windows will not detect this file system without a third party utility. Only use this option if the drive will only be used in Mac OS. Two Internal Drives used for macOS, applications, and data: 121GB SSD formatted as APFS (64GB free) 6TB SATA Spinning Rust formatted as Journaled HFS+ (3. Mac OS Extended is the native solution for Mac users and has the max file size of any of them.It has a much larger max file size but is read-only on Mac OS X (unless you install a third party NTFS read/write utility). NTFS format is the file system Windows likes to use by default for internal drives running the operating system or used as a secondary storage drive.Older operating systems might require an update to properly read and write to a USB drive with an exFAT file system. It doesn’t have the 4GB file size limit and it’s compatible with most Windows and Mac operating systems. Please be noted that if you havent backed up the important files on your SD. To disable the SD card reader write protection, slide the lock up to the unlock position.

exFAT is the ideal file system for USB flash drives. Lets look at the best file system formats for your Macs external drive Open the Disk Utility app Be sure to choose the device, not the volume or volumes it. Find the lock button on the SD card adapter that is inserted by your SD card.It is the most compatible file system for older/modern computers (PC and Mac) plus gaming consoles and other devices with a USB port. Most USB flash drives will have a FAT32 file system out-of-box. FAT32 is a common option you’ll hear because it’s recognised by both Mac and Windows operating systems, but it offers no security and caps files at 4GB in size.The file systems most commonly used in USB flash drives are: When formatting your drive, it’s important to understand the different formatting options available for your ideal use.

Best format for mac external drive