If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive that you’d like to use on both Macs and Windows PCs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. Learn a few ways to make your drive Mac and PC friendly. Need to access or transfer files between Mac and PC?
It uses smart caching to keep data transfer as fast as possible and works with every OS X version since 10.4 (Tiger). NTFS for Mac costs $31, and you can download a demo first to see how it does. Paragon Software's NTFS for Mac 12 is another excellent choice. It includes several additional utilities for people who need to tinker or repair, to enable you to format drives with NTFS, check NTFS partition integrity, fix errors, and more. NTFS for Mac costs $19.95. How to Format an External Drive in OS X. Connect the drive to the Mac. Open Disk Utility.
As simple as this task sounds, it’s not very straightforward for inexperienced users. Since Mac OS X and Windows use totally different file systems, the way a drive is formatted can determine what type of computer it will work with. In fact, there are four ways you can format an external or USB flash drive to achieve varying degrees of compatibility between Macs and PCs. Let’s take a look at them: HFS+ Mac OS X’s native file system is HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended), and it’s the only one that works with Time Machine. But while HFS+ is the best way to format drives for use on Macs, Windows does not support it. If you’re only going to be using your external or USB flash drive with certain PCs – such as at home or the office – you might be interested in a program called. When you install MacDrive on a Windows PC, it will be able to seamlessly read & write to HFS+ drives.
This isn’t a good solution if you need your drive to work on any PC without installing software, though. NTFS The native Windows file system is NTFS, which is only partially compatible with Mac OS X.
Macs can read files on NTFS drives, but it cannot write to them. So if you need to get files from a PC to your Mac, NTFS is a decent option. However, you won’t be able to move files in the other direction, from Mac to PC. FAT32 The most universally supported way to format your drive is with the FAT32 file system.
It works with all versions of Mac OS X and Windows. Case closed, right? Well, not so fast.
Unfortunately, FAT32 is a very old file system and has some technical limitations. For example, you cannot save files that are larger than 4GB on a FAT32-formatted drive. This is a deal-breaker if you work with huge files. The other limitation is the total size of the partition. If you format your FAT32 drive in Windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32GB.
If you format it from a Mac running 10.7 Lion, the drive partition can be up to 2TB. Much better, except for that pesky 4GB limit. 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. Format a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac. Launch Disk Utility (Applications Utilities). Select your external hard drive or USB flash drive from the list on the left. Click on the Erase tab.
Select the format – Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MS-DOS (FAT32), or exFAT – then name the drive. 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. Format a drive using Windows. Go to Computer (or My Computer in Windows XP). Select your drive from the list and right-click on it.
Choose Format from the contextual menu. 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. Click Start to format the drive. I did exactly what you said to do in order to format a LaCie 160gb external hard drive to exFat for use on a Mac (OSX 10.7 Lion) and a PC (Windows 7). Unfortunately, now my Mac doesn’t “see” the hard drive anymore and my PC tells me the device is not working properly (error Code 43 in Device Manager). Before reformatting from a NTFS, the LaCie worked fine on my Mac and my PC “saw” it but I couldn’t access it.
It is connected via USB 2.0 and AC/DC power. Where could I go or what resource(s) is/are available for me to solve this problem? I heard using a firewire might help.
I just got a Seagate GoFlex Desk External Drive, and after reading your article, I tried to format it for ExFat but got an error: Invalid Option. Seagate tells me that they do not support ExFat. They say “Reformatting a drive in ExFAT is something that we don’t support. It can be an unstable format that can cause data corruption without warning.” Have you found that other hard drive manufactures say they don’t support this format for the same reason? Should I turn the hard drive back in, and get a different one, where the manufacturer supports this format. Is what Seagate says true?
I just got two Western Digital 3TB external hard-drives. I want to be able to use them on both Mac & PC. When i go to format it on my Mac, FAT32 is not an option, and every time i try exFAT i also get an “error: Invalid Option”. I then tried to do this on two other Macs & it still wouldn’t work, but then I tried it on a work-mate’s Mac today & it formatted in exFAT fine How unstable is exFAT? I don’t want to lose the media i store on this drive.
I don’t mind formatting it in FAT32, but it’s not an option when trying to format this hard-drive. Any suggestions? Is there a free formatting application that is good to use instead of using the “Disk Utility” on Mac.? I have an IMAC running OSX 10.7.5 I recently bought a Trekstor DataStation pocket light 500 GB external portable hard drive 2.5″ I need it to transfer 190 GB of video and audio files to give to an editor. I received it and a small paper inside said it’s not compatible with my IMAC.
Only to READ files. I’m not sure what system the editor will use and after reading all the comments above, I’m really hesitant to re-format the disc before moving the files onto.
Now the files are on another TrekStor external drive that the camera guy lent me. I am not very technical and don’t want to screw anything up. Can anyone help? I do hope you can help me with this I was using my sisters Mac temporarily and before giving it back to her I copied all my files onto a thumb drive. Tonight I copied those files to the hard drive of my PC laptop and removed them from the thumb drive. For whatever reason I am trying to open a few of the files in a certain program, but it keeps telling me that the file I am trying to access is not supported.
Someone mentioned that maybe it has something to do with the thumb drive. I have no idea what to do and I am praying that I didn’t lose any of my files. Thanks so much!!
I’ve read too many posts from people having all sorts of problems using exFAT to consider using it. Maybe one day, but for now, “not ready for prime time!”. The best solution I found was: 1. Format your hard drive, or every partition on it, using NTSF. You’ll end up with a drive that is: – Stable, so your data is relatively safe (priority #1) – Capable of handling large files – Readable/writable in Win 7+ – But only readable in Mac OS X 2. Make the NTSF drive both readable and writable in Mac OS X. There are different ways to do that.
Method 1: Mac OS X is actually capable of writing to a NTSF drive, just not by default (don’t ask!). So you need to activate it: 1.
Go to “utilities” and start the “terminal” app. (enter your password if prompted) 2. Type (copy/paste): sudo nano /etc/fstab Press “return” Type: LABEL=TEST none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse Press “return”, CTRL+O to save, CTRL+X to exit the terminal. Unmount your drive, then plug it back in. It won’t show up anymore.
Back in the terminal, type: open /Volumes press “return” There’s your NTSF drive! Now you can do whatever you want with it in Mac OS X. (tip: create an alias of the volumes so you don’t have to go back to the terminal every time) Another free method: “EaseUS ALL-IN-ONE Partition Manager” software I’ve not tried it myself, but I’ve only heard good things about it. You can download it here:. Make sure to download the “free for home user” version. The other methods involve using 3rd party drivers such as: Paragon NTFS or Tuxera NTFS. They’re not free, but they won’t break the bank.
I hope this helps. Thank you so much for this easy to follow and understand explanation. I have OS X 10.7.5 running Lion. Bought the new Passport 1T today and even though the package says it can run on MAC OS X, when I tried to format with the company instructions it wouldn’t let me and stated “It will only run on 10.8 or above”. I looked at my old passport in Utilities and it was formatted as NTFS (Mac OS Extended) and wanted to follow the exact same since my old Passport has been excellent for my needs. I formatted the new Passport with NTFS and it works like a charm. Really appreciate how you explained everything in simple terms, so not only was I able to do the formatting, I also understand what I am doing and why.
I can now drag and drop files on to the new passport and they copy fast. Thanks a bunch. About MacYourself MacYourself was established in July 2008 by founders (and Apple enthusiasts) Ant and Frankie P., who wanted to create a tips & tricks site geared towards the average or new Apple product user. The name itself was an accident, shouted by Frankie P.
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I'm trying to install Windows Vista on my Mac Pro, second hard drive. I printed out the instructions for the Bootcamp process. I'm using a single partition drive and letting Bootcamp set up a second partition for Windows. Everything works okay, but it won't install. I get this error message: 'Disk 1 Partition 3 Bootcamp. Windows cannot be installed to this disk space.
Wiondows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS. What I should I do to correct this problem. I thought this would be a pretty easy process using Bootcamp on Leopard.
Thanks for the help. You know what, doing what you want, and how I install Vista, you pretty much can just skip the BootCamp Assistant and just boot from the Vista DVD and format the drive - unless you want say FAT32 partition (for sharing files, nice to have 20GB). You might want to format the drive in Disk Utility. YOu can choose GUID or force it to use Master Boot Record (DU Partitions: Options) Then create MSDOS (FAT32) partition(s). You'll need to reformat one to NTFS (3.1) in Vista DVD - no matter what. Especially with 64-bit version.
And, I sometimes had to format, then reboot before Vista would allow installing. (I hold off on entering activation code until I know it works).
Later, you can let Fusion or Parallels take over your Vista partition. Also, with Paragon Software's NTFS utility $39 you can read and WRITE to NTFS from within OS X. With MacDrive7 you can access HFS+ from Vista 32-bit (not x64) as well. Okay, this is getting more complicated than I think it should be.
Thanks for your help, guys. I read the pdf document, but I didn't read carefully enough page 13 about formatting the drive using the the NTFS system.
So I tried that and I got the message: 'Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation.' Hatter, your solution is a little confusing because I read that you shouldn't use the 64-bit version of Vista with Mac. I not sure I really need that version because I don't plan to use Vista that much. But I appreciate your feedback. Or supported?
On a Mac Pro it verges on 'criminal' to use 32-bit versions that don't see more than 1.9GB RAM or use your full potential. It has been working fine. When you see that message 'unable to find.' Just means reboot the DVD with 'c' and proceed.
This time it should accept the NTFS partition. In the past, pre-Leopard and BootCamp 2.0, I actually would have to remove the drive with OS X totally for Vista to install. In one case, erase OS X partition and restore it later. I have lots of backups.
Vista x64 is the only version that supports GUID and EFI. SP1 now brings official support for both.
'When you see that message 'unable to find.' Just means reboot the DVD with 'c' and proceed. This time it should accept the NTFS partition.' Okay, tried this, and still didn't work.
What the heck am I doing wrong? I've never had this much problem installing anything on a Mac. Everything I've read makes the process seem so simple, but it's not happening on my computer. I even tried reducing the size of the Vista partition to 15GB instead of 32 because I read somewhere that a lesser size would create a FAT32 and would enable me to exchange files between Leopard and Vista. Any more ideas?
Has anyone figured this out yet? I tried installing Vista Ultimate 64-bit on my new 8-core Mac Pro, but I too am getting the dreaded 'Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation' no matter how many times I reformat the selected partition and reboot. I am trying to install it onto a completely separate internal drive, located in bay 3. (Bay 2 is empty but I'm saving that one for a future audio/video drive) The Installer shows 'Disk 1 Partition 1' at 200MB (for the Boot Camp partition) and the 'Disk 1 Partition 2' for the rest. The latter is the one I keep trying to format and install, but can't get it to work. There's an article at about this error message, but in their work-around, they want you to click 'New' in the Advanced Options, and my 'New' is grayed out. Then I tried deleting the big partition, but it won't say Unallocated Space, and if I try and reformat then I get an error.
Nice going, Microsoft. Oh wait, I should expect no less from them. Sigh Any solutions out there? I have the exact same problem, I got a new 8 core Mac Pro with 2 HD. I was planning to install Windows on the second drive but kept getting the 'Windows cannot find system volume.'
I tried every combination and workaround I could find (including those in this thread) and the ones on the various Windows support sites but nothing worked. I finally gave up and tried to install on the HD in Bay 1 (drive 0), so I used bootcamp assistant to split the disk 0 (bay 1) that has my mac partition with a Windows Partition, followed the instructions for bootcamp and it worked as expected! No more errors. So I wonder if there is something about those secondary drives that Windows does not like (I read somewhere it could be a problem with the SATA driver) Since I still want to have my windows and mac on the 2 separate drives, I wonder if swaping them - putting disk in bay 2 in bay 1 and the one in bay 1 in bay 2 and putting Leopard on what was the drive 1 instead of drive 0 and windows on the old drive 0 - could help.
I have not tried it yet since I'll have to re-install Leopard from the disks and need to backup the system first. If I try I'll post back the results to this thread.
For now it looks like your only option is to split your primary HD with a windows partition and not use the separate internal drive. You did a lot more than I tried.hehe. I'm going to try something similar to what you want to try. What I'm going to attempt next is just remove all drives and insert the Windows drive into Bay 1 and install Vista 64. When I'm done I'll go ahead and return all drives to their original bays (Mac OS X to Bay 1, Windows back to Bay 3, Time Machine drive in Bay 4).
Hopefully it will be nice when I hold down that option key afterwards. I'm just wondering if the Windows drive will be blessed with 'disk0' during installation and end up confused when it changes back to 'disk1' (or 'disk2' whenever I fill up that last bay). I'll try this over the weekend and report my findings. Format in Disk Utility as MSDOS (FAT32). You can even create multiple partitions.
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When you get to the Vista part of choosing the partition (ie probably says 'BOOTCAMP') that is FAT. You have to delete it and create a new partition, same size. Vista Ultimate 64 is good for dual cpu and more RAM. And works fine.
A base install of Ultimate yesterday took 24GB. Allow room for pagefile, temp files, data, and installing applications.
SP1 will require 15GB of temporary space for the update. That makes for at least 40GB.
Restore points are good to have and take a couple GB each (?) plus I never like to get a partition with any OS to less than 40% free space for moving things around and such. The confusion might just be my writing style. Well I finally got it to work using my method as described (and hatter's recommendation to format using FAT in DU). I put my Windows drive in Bay 1 and left everything else out. I have no 200MB boot camp partition.
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit installation went without a hitch, as well as software updates and the boot camp drivers off the CD. I do get some restart/shut down freezes, but doing a hard reset usually fixes it. My only issue is that there's no Windows disk in the Mac OS X Startup Disk. Am I just gonna have to live with holding down Option when re-booting? (The Windows Boot Camp startup disk works fine on that end.).
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