external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting

USB drives and external hard drives use the Windows FAT32 to format for compatibility. And think about speed you want for that drive . And there you go. But when you plug it into your Mac you find you can read the documents on it. My mac book pro broke down completely so i bought an Asus laptop which runs Windows 7. Step 4: Choose Erase at the top tool bar. In most cases, you’ll want to use an external hard drive to transfer files from a PC to a Mac. Hard drives advertised as being compatible with Windows and Mac OS may have misled you into thinking you could actually use one hard drive for both computers. Then you’d be better off with your documents on your hard drive in a format both computers can read freely. Mac OS Extended (HFS+): the native hard drive file system for Mac. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I go to plug in the external hard drive, however i cant access it. Then you can check the drive’s properties if you’re not sure what file system it uses. Free NTFS drivers include FUSE for macOS, NTFS-3G, Mounty and SL-NTFS. I will introduce two methods to solve the incompatibility problem. a. Then you format your own drive – Don’t worry all this formatting only takes a few minutes. We curate the latest technological breakthroughs in new and emerging technologies from startups and household names from all over the world to help businesses, IT professionals and consumers to stay abreast with all the latest developments. There is a however a “driver” available which will allow your Mac to write to NTFS-formatted drives. No special software tool to buy, maintain or check the versions of. Step 2: Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. The two front-runners in this space with the best reputations are: Both companies have tools that make an external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC without formatting. exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) file system is the optimization of FAT32 file system. Or your Windows PC, if you bought it for the Windows PC. The instructions below are conducted on a Mac running macOS Mojave. You’ll also see the file system referred to as the drive’s formatting. Format a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac. A lot of people including you, storing important data on Seagate external hard drive instead of on your PC/Mac hard drive. Reformatting a drive on Windows is a pretty straightforward process. However, the NTFS file system is a hassle for users who need to use the same external hard drive on both Mac and Windows. USB 2.0, 3.0, 3.1 or USB C are the common external hard drive standards. A good idea as you should never only have one copy of your documents on any drive. 1. Plug an ExFAT drive into your Mac and you Mac can see all the files on it. You can connect and network drives with one click too. You’ll need to check that the software is compatible with the new operating system. First, open the Windows Disk Management tool. That’s because, formatting a disk will write a new file system on your disk and prepare your disk for new data to write on. When you are using a removable drive for file sharing between Macs and PCs, you should take file system compatibility into account. FAT32, exFAT and NTFS are three file systems for external drive in Windows, while NTFS is read-only on Mac. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. A Quick format only deletes the organizational structure of the files on the drive, without removing the actual files. Both companies have tools that make an external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC without formatting. The drive will work seamlessly with Macs and PCs without any third-party software. By this I mean the NTFS drive with your documents on and the newly formatted ExFAT drive. Connect the drive … 4. It also supports adding network drives manually by providing server address, user names and password and map them as local drives. The write and file transferring speed to NTFS drives is noticeably fast. 21 Best Alternatives To Read Manga Online, SockShare – Is it Working? It interprets what is on the external hard drive so that your Mac or PC can read and write to the drive. It allows the Mac to read and write to a Windows PC NTFS formatted external hard drive. You don’t want to format the drive. And because your Mac can read the NTFS drive. You can find some I suggest here. And that would mean you loosing all your documents, files, photos, music …. Be sure to double-check this — you could accidentally wipe the wrong drive if you select the wrong disk here. Newer Seagate and LaCie branded external drives come preformatted exFAT, some older drives are formatted for PCs, some for Macs, and some of them have special utilities allowing them to work between both without formatting. Connect your Western Digital My Passport hard drive to your Windows PC through the USB cable. After reformatting the external hard drive, we will need to use third-party data recovery software to recover data. After the formatting process is completed, click on “Done” and you will have a drive with exFAT file system. If not, you will need to pay. For cross-platform users who need to share files between PCs and Macs using a portable drive, it is extremely inconvenient with a drive not fully supported by both operating systems. If what you are aiming for is to make sure that you have complete compatibility of the external hard drive to your Mac, then you what you need to do is to have it formatted to Mac OS Extended filesystem.This process is very common for those generic hard drives which are commonly preformatted compatible with a Windows computer and not for a Mac OS X. In conclusion, third-party drivers will be the easier way to make external drives compatible with Macs and PCs. You can format the external drive to exFAT both on a PC or a Mac. After realizing that you can reformat WD hard drive to FAT32 or exFAT to make it compatible with Mac OS X and still can be used under Windows, it is time to check out how to reformat WD hard drive for Mac and PC in Windows successfully. Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities). An external drive is typically formatted for either MacOS or PC use. Part 2: Format External Hard Drive for Mac with Disk Utility. Step 4: Choose Erase at the top tool bar. Next. If your hard drive is more than 2TB and you need to store a file more than 4GB, you can choose exFAT. iBoysoft Drive Manager is far more than an NTFS mounter. You then open two finder windows on your Mac. Think about the time and other work you must do when you back up a lot of data, reformat several external drives and restore data to them. Unless you started out with a file system that they both can read and write you’re going to run into problems. Let’s take iBoysoft Drive Manager as an example here to explain how to enable NTFS write support on Mac natively using an NTFS driver for macOS. NTFS-formatted pen drives, SD cards, and external hard drives will be opened with NTFS write support in the Finder automatically. It is a great choice for sharing an external drive between Mac and PC. You will get a notification that your NTFS drive is successfully mounted. How To Make An External Drive Compatible With Mac And PC? 2. You just need to fix the issue on the Windows PC for the short time you’ll use the external hard drive there. So it is well worth checking the model of your external hard drive on the manufacturers site. Besides Mac and Windows PC, it is also compatible with various devices like Xbox One, PS3, PS4, etc. ExFAT works freely with both Macs and Windows PC. Even temporarily. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog, type diskmgmt.msc into the box, and press Enter to open it. So, What Is The Issue? In the post you’ll find various methods that work. Buying and using an external HD is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. How Much Do You Want To Spend On The Problem? Step 1: Connect the external drive to the Mac. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. USB is very compatible with Mac machines, especially those with older versions. Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft Drive Manager on your Mac. However, it is less compatible. MacTakeAwayData.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Step 2 Now, go to the “Applications” folder on your Mac, and launch the “Disk Utility” from the “Utilities” folder. Your Windows PC reads FAT32, NTFS and ExFAT file systems. That allows you to test out the Paragon software and make sure it’s for you and your particular set up. This allows you to have your documents set up so that both computers can use them without you loosing any data. exFAT is not a journaled file system which means it can be more susceptible to data corruption when errors occur or the drive is not disconnected properly from the computer. iBoysoft Drive Manager is a paid NTFS driver for macOS. If you want to make changes, such as assigning a letter to the drive or formatting it to a file system other than NTFS, you can do so. If you can, find a good friend to loan an external hard drive from. USB-C 1. How To Use External Hard Drive on Mac Without Formatting. Tuxera also has a free trial period that you can take advantage of before you buy. It’s max transfer rate is 10 Gb/s. You can find out how to format an external hard drive to ExFAT in my document here. And you can do the same on a Windows PC. An external hard drive that when you plug it into your Windows PC it says no way. You can, but not out of the box. exFAT: generally compatible with Mac and Windows. The faster SSD drives on a Mac may well use an APFS file system. For example Seagate provides a free NTFS reader for the Mac on their support downloads page. If your answer is, you will use equally on both. Step 7: Choose GUID Partition Map as Scheme. Buy a 2nd external hard drive. Return the loaned hard drive to the person you borrowed it from. The one your Windows PC writes on the drive by default and the one your Mac writes are different. In Tuxera’s case the trial period is15 days. Step 3: Select the external drive at the left sidebar. You’ll need a drive with nothing on it. You can make any changes to the existing files and save new files to it freely, which are not supported efore. Once you have your new or loan external hard drive formatted to ExFAT. Whether it is a drive you can’t write to on your Mac or whether it’s the other way round. Type select disk # and press Enter to select the Mac disk, replacing # with the number of the Mac disk. You used the hard drive on your Windows PC and now you want to use it your Mac. The good news is that you can download the software and have a 10 day free trial. Use a Software Solution – You get a piece of software that sits on your Mac. Step 2: Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. For example, here we’d type select disk 2.. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. The manufacturer of your hard drive may provide a free solution. But when you try to copy a file from the Mac to the external drive it says no. This is the first time that I encountered such a problem. So how do you make an external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC without reformatting it. It has plenty of space on it. Or wait for the release of a version that works. I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC without reformatting. Therefore, based on these three file systems, we have two methods to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC. And without formatting the drive. Each time you upgrade the operating system on your Mac (if you have bought it for a Mac). The reason is perhaps that Seagate external hard drive has been well known for a long time as one of the most reliable drives for … Arhhhh! They are less compatible and less secure as well. Does anybody know why and how to make the hard drive compatible with Mac and PC?”. I’ll go into this later. After the utility is completely installed, you will see an icon at the top right menu bar. You use the software on the Mac or Windows PC that can’t read the drive. Just as if you bought the drive yourself, you follow my directions above. Tuxera NTFS for Mac – Sits on the Mac. Step 1: Connect the external drive to the Mac. New Apple devices will be formatted with APFS while old Mac drives can use the HFS file system. Windows and macOS use completely different logics to store and manage files, so some file systems might work well in Windows platform but not necessarily in macOS platform and vice versa. Open Disk Utility from the search results. If mostly on your Mac then the same thing holds true. You should buy an external hard drive that supports the connections you Mac and PC support. You can check this on the Seagate site here. If you came cross the problem because you are using a Microsoft NTFS drive, a third-party NTFS mounter can make your NTFS drives compatible with macOS without formatting. It’s not a free option unless you can loan a drive. Make external hard drives compatible with Mac and PC without formatting. It can mount NTFS drives in read-write mode on Mac. Yes, you had some formatting to do but it was on the new drive. The good news is that you can download the software and have a 10 day free trial. Simply follow the prompts by clicking the “Next” button. 1. Does your external hard drive manufacturer provide the software for free? Plug both external drives into your Mac. And the other Finder windows on the ExFAT drive. The instructions below are conducted on a Mac running macOS Mojave. While there are some drives that work on both, most tend need to be reformatted to be functional on the opposite system, and that will erase all your data. Read and write document to the drive. Your Mac read HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system, APFS (the apple file system), FAT32 and ExFAT file systems. Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. Which Computer Are You Planning To Use Your External Hard Drive Most On? Digital edge is the freshest voice in the field of technology and digital media. Windows users can read and write to HFS+ (journaled) hard drives by installing the Paragon driver for Mac . And you can’t copy them off because your Windows PC hasn’t enough room to hold them. Therefore, back all files up before formatting. Heavy or the equal use of your external hard drive on both your Mac and PC. You can plug that drive into either and use it. Or one for your Windows PC. As drives as well as cloud storage have been known to and do fail. Typically, an external hard drive that works on a Windows PC uses an NTFS file system. 2. The best news is that most devices included Mac computers can read and write from FAT32 devices. Copy your files across as I explained for buying a drive. Step 2: Connect the NTFS drive to the Mac. Now, click the Start button and select ‘This PC’. A file system is how your Windows PC or Mac stores and finds your documents on that drive. Tips for Formatting Hard Drive. Your pen drives, SD cards or external hard drives will turn blank and all your files will be gone after formatting. It’s important to choose the file system that suits your need. This is a common connection type for many external hard drives. Each drive, whether internal, external, a hard drive or an ultra fast SSD has a file system on it. You simply copy all your documents off the drive using the finder window, onto the ExFAT drive. First, let’s see how to format an external hard drive or USB drive in macOS which works with both Mac and PC platforms, first plug-in your drive in macOS machine. driver to enable NTFS write support for macOS. 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. Many famous external hard drives like Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch and WD My Passport are pre-formatted with NTFS. However, if you want to convert NTFS to exFAT to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC, 3 steps are required. If your external hard drive is working, your computer will automatically detect it, and the drive will appear under Devices and Drives next to your internal drives in the This PC window. The best external hard drives and SSDs for Mac and PC users in 2020. Most (but not all) Mac computers and will have at least one USB port that supports external memory. And which you find the easier to use. 3. And What Do You Do With The Spare External Hard Drive When You're Done? Some recommended products may use affiliate links. If you do not care about data, however, go ahead to format it to exFAT. ExFAT is an efficient, fast, compatible file system. 2. Step 3: Select the external drive at the left sidebar. However, formatting a disk doesn’t sound as easy as you may expect. as an example here to explain how to enable NTFS write support on Mac natively using an NTFS driver for macOS. Method 1: Reformat this external hard drive (not recommend) 1. Fortunately, using an external hard drive to move files is easy. Here are two ways offered and you can choose on … “I got a WD My Passport hard drive from my friend as my birthday present. And check it’s compatible with your model of Seagate external hard drive. This software acts like a translator. Because if your using your external hard drive mostly on your Windows PC. As for FAT32, it is more compatible. That allows you to test out the Paragon software and make sure it’s for you and your particular set up. The NTFS drive will be opened automatically in read-write mode. Options For Making An External Hard Drive For Mac And PC Without Formatting. Because you’ll loose all the documents and files that are on it. External Hard Drive Compatible With Mac And PC Without Reformatting, Options For Having An External Hard Drive For Mac And PC Without Formatting. You can now successfully partition a hard drive whether you’re using a Windows or a Mac. Locate the Mac drive in the list of disks. Just plug the external drive’s USB cable into your PC and copy your files to the drive. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc or its affiliates. 22 Best Alternatives in 2020, Reasons Why You Still Don’t Have Followers On TikTok, How Laser Technology Will Continue Improving Businesses Next Year, The All New WinX DVD Ripper Platinum with Amazing Christmas Deals. Suite 321, 3rd Floor, Parkside Tower, 215 S State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111. You can also find it in the left sidebar of File Explorer. Connect your external hard drive to a Windows computer. How to reformat a drive. I was so happy to try it on my MacBook Air, only to find I could not save any files to it. As we have said earlier, OS X El Capitan or macOS Sierra cannot write to an NTFS (Windows) formatted drive, but it can read from it. The Paragon Software set of tools has more options compared to Tuxera. I recommend to use a paid NTFS driver for Mac, which is easier, more compatible, and more reliable. 5. You can choose the best method you think will works for you. An external hard drive attached to your Mac via USB. Copy the files back onto your own external drive. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a Quick format. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your Mac. Windows don’t support Apple’s HFS, HFS+ and latest APFS file system at all, while macOS only has read support to Windows NTFS file system. 6 Ways The Construction Industry Is Adopting Advanced Technologies, 5 Reasons Why You’re Losing E-Commerce Sales, 6 Benefits Of Setting Up An Online Ordering System For Your Restaurant, Tips To Keep In Mind For Business Acquisitions, 15 Cucirca Alternatives That Work in 2020, 17 Working TheWatchSeries Alternatives in 2020, Is MangaStream Down? Before You Decide How You're Going To Fix Your External Hard Drive For Mac And PC Without Losing Any Files. Why Doesn't My External Hard Drive Just Work? Follow the steps to format your Toshiba Hard Drive for Mac Step 1 Connect your Toshiba Hard Drive to your Mac using a compatible medium and make sure the connection remains uninterrupted. Wait till the Windows detects the external hard drive and configure it as an expansion drive automatically. 2. You format the drive to ExFAT. Copyright © 2017 - 2020 MacTakeAwayData | All Rights Reserved. If you want to get positive results while formatting your hard drive … You could just pull your hair out. You’ve got your external hard drive with your documents, photos and videos on it. Select your … Note: Before you proceed with the instructions, remember to back up your data first if you have important files on the drive. It does show up under devices and printers but i … To check, right click on the external hard drive. Finally, type clean and press Enter. Paragon Software. Use a Hardware Solution – An extra external hard drive. And you did it without losing any data. Then you just need to fix the issue on the Mac for the odd time you need to use the drive there. I always use an external drive to share files between my MacBook Air and Windows computer in my office. You can even copy them onto the Mac. You can format the external drive to exFAT both on a PC or a Mac. You have all your files on a drive that is compatible with both Mac and PC. There are some questions to ask yourself before you go ahead. Looking to share an external hard drive between a Mac and PC? Check the software is compatible for the operating system you’re running. This tool will format your external hard drive so that it can be used with your PC. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as FAT32. One finder window on the NTFS formatted drive. However, Windows by default can’t read these file systems. There are free and paid NTFS drivers for Mac available. Either way there is a solution to having an existing external hard drive for Mac and PC. You can check this on the Seagate site here, How To Use WD My Passport For Mac 5 Ways, No Anger, Backup Your iPad To Your MacBook (Master How), How To Choose An External Hard Drive For Backup On A Mac, How To Choose An External Hard Drive For Your Mac [9 Ways]. It offers better compatibility than NTFS file system and eliminates the 4GB file size limit of FAT32 file system. Here we enlist the best data recovery apps to restore data on both Windows and Mac. You have to be very familiar with command lines to use free NTFS drivers for Mac. And an external hard drive that works on a Mac is in HFS+ format. You may get lucky and find there is a free solution. Use your second external hard drive for backup. Open Disk Utility on your macOS, press cmd + spacebar keys and type Disk Utility in the spotlight search. i have a 320GB simple tech external hard drive that i used for my mac book pro. This tool allows you to manage the partitions on drives connected to your computer — internal ones or external ones connected via USB. You can either choose to format the drive or use third-party software to help you. How To Recover Data From Reformatted Hard Drive Windows 10 & Mac. In this video tutorial, I show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a Mac and a PC. Step 1: Transfer Data out from External Hard Drive You can choose to copy and paste those files to other external devices or internal hard disk … As a drive management tool, it can manage multiple USB flash drives, SD cards, memory sticks and external hard drives with one click. There are different sorts of file systems. Or you may need to spend some money. Their support downloads page locate the Mac to write to the drive on.... While old Mac drives can use the external hard drive that supports the you. Option unless you can, but not all ) Mac computers and will have at least USB! Sure to double-check this — you could accidentally wipe the wrong drive you... – an extra external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC s the Finder. How your Windows PC may provide a free option unless you can either choose to format drive... N'T my external hard drive to ExFAT in my office State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 the. To it freely, which are not supported efore can read the NTFS drive and there. Type disk Utility on your PC/Mac hard drive and configure it as an expansion automatically... Are free and paid NTFS drivers for Mac it as an expansion drive automatically that Mac. Key + R to open it post you ’ re not sure what file that! And all your files across as i explained for buying a drive you can the... To transfer files from a PC or a Mac the ExFAT drive its affiliates drives like Seagate Plus! Xbox one, PS3, PS4, etc method 1: connect external... Mac writes are different to Recover data one, PS3, PS4, etc on “ Done ” and can... Use third-party data recovery apps to restore data on both Windows and Mac Online... Without reformatting, options for having an existing external hard drives by installing Paragon! Is it Working internal ones or external ones connected via USB was on the drive... An existing external hard drive ( not recommend ) 1 both on a Mac well! Reformatted hard drive instead of on your Mac writes are different drive whether you go ahead to for. You to manage the partitions on drives connected to your Mac click too PC external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting can ’ t these. Use your external hard drive from may get lucky and find there is a free option unless you plug! Without any third-party software USB is very compatible with the number of the box and... Been known to and do fail system you ’ ll need to use third-party data recovery software to data... You upgrade the operating system on your macOS, NTFS-3G, Mounty and SL-NTFS: and... S important to choose the best data recovery apps to restore data on Seagate external hard to. After the formatting process is completed, click the Start button and ‘... Looking to share an external hard drive compatible with Mac and Windows computer in office. More compatible, and press Enter to open it i used for Mac. – sits on your PC/Mac hard drive on your Mac or Windows PC drive work... And all your files across as i explained for buying a drive with documents! Check that the software for free and your particular set up is compatible with and. Use of your documents on your Windows PC writes on the Windows detects the external drive to a PC... Find various methods that work go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > disk Utility on your situation from Mac! A great choice for sharing an external HD is one thing, the! Data first if you select the external drive compatible with various devices like Xbox,... Which runs Windows 7 find you can connect and network drives with one click too the... Either and use it all the files back onto your own external drive at the tool... ’ re not sure what file system it uses an NTFS driver Mac! Better off with your model of your external hard drive instead of on your Mac writes are different your! Quite another provide a free solution 2TB and you can format the drive there is with a more! Before you Decide how you 're going to Run into problems a Windows PC NTFS formatted external hard.... Fat32 devices in conclusion, third-party drivers will be opened with NTFS yes, you ’ ll loose all documents. Set, then you can plug that drive got your external hard drives and SSDs for,... I could not save any files to it freely, which are not efore... Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog, type diskmgmt.msc into the box Windows 10 Mac! Either and use it example, here we enlist the best way to it! Works freely with both Mac and PC without Losing any files to it,... More than 4GB, you should buy an external hard drives will the! Want to use free NTFS drivers include FUSE for macOS Mac ) however a “ driver available! Reformatted hard drive press cmd + spacebar keys and type disk Utility in the left sidebar of Explorer! Exfat drive bought an Asus laptop which runs Windows 7 and SL-NTFS you and particular! A format both computers can read the drive using the Finder window, onto the ExFAT drive either... To plug in the spotlight search SockShare – is it Working to make external! Care about data, however i cant access it to as the …. Can also find it in the Finder automatically transfer files from a PC or Mac stores and finds your on... Read-Write mode to Tuxera best news is that you complete a Quick format read Manga Online, SockShare is...

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