What is the best format for a Mac external hard drive?

By Popular lifehacks

What is the best format for a Mac external hard drive?

exFAT
The Best Format for External Hard Drives If you want to format your external hard drive to work with Mac and Windows computers, you should use exFAT. With exFAT, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years.

How do I format an external hard drive with Disk Utility?

Click the Go menu, select Utilities from the drop-down menu, and open Disk Utility. Choose your external drive from the left sidebar, and click Erase. Give your drive a name and select the file system you want from the Format drop-down. Click Erase, and the system will reformat your drive.

How do I format my external hard drive to NTFS on a Mac?

How to Format an External Drive for Mac (from NTFS to Mac OS Extended)

  1. Step 1: Open Disk Utility.
  2. Step 2: Highlight your external drive and click “Erase”.
  3. Step 3: Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” in Format.
  4. Step 4: Wait until the erasing process is complete.

How do I format a disk on Mac?

Choose View > Show All Devices. In the sidebar, select the storage device you want to erase, then click the Erase button . Click the Scheme pop-up menu, then choose GUID Partition Map. Click the Format pop-up menu, then choose a file system format.

How do you format a hard drive on a Mac?

Format Hard Drive (Mac) 1. Connect the external hard drive to the computer. 3. Open Disk Utility. 4. Select the external hard drive on the left-hand side. 1. Right-Click on the Windows icon in the lower left-hand corner. 3. Right-Click on the external hard drive in the Volume tab. 4. Click Format.

What is the best format for an external hard drive?

NTFS is the default file format for all modern versions of Windows. Only under specific circumstances should you consider formatting an external hard drive with another format. Some people find that it is best to format the drive with FAT32 because it allows for more possibilities and compatibility.

How do you format an external hard drive?

How to Format an External Drive. Connect your external drive to Windows and open up the Disk Management tool. Disk Management shows a list of all connected drives, including your internal hard drive. Right-click on the space representing your external hard drive, then select “Format.”. Choose either “NTFS” or “exFAT” for your file system,…

Which Mac file system is best for an external drive?

HFS+ (Mac OS Extended Journaled) is the best format for an external hard drive you’re only using on a Mac. Or sharing with a Mac. APFS is a format option for external drives on Macs running Mac OS 10.13 or later. But it’s made for Solid State Drives and does not support Time Machine backups.