NTFS has long been the default Windows file format, which makes it an incredibly useful choice if your primary machine runs any Windows. Unless your new hard drive was factory formatted for use with a Mac, it’s likely formatted NTFS. The list is longer than you’d think, with terms like “APFS (Case-sensitive)” and “Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)” to choose from.Here’s help to choose the right hard drive format whether you use a Windows PC, a Mac or both. They format this drive as an exFAT partition for cross-compatibility with Mac and Windows.So you’re using Disk Utility to partition your new hard drive when you’re presented with a choice of potential file systems. For example, you might want to do this if you use a flash drive to store data files you need to use on your Mac at home and when using a Windows-based computer at school or your local library.And with a shock-absorbent casing, it can take a few drops from 2m. Format a disk for Windows computers in Disk Utility on Mac In Disk Utility, you can format an external disk that you can use with both a Microsoft Windowsbased computer and a Mac.
Which Format Should I Use For External Hard Drive And Windows Install A ProgramAPFS, or “Apple File System,” is one of the new features in macOS High Sierra. Should I reformat this drive to exFAT or just keep it as NTFS and install a program like Tuxera or.What does all this mean, and which should you choose? Basically there are three main options:RELATED: What's New in macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Available Now I'm be using this hard drive for both my Mac and Windows rigs. Now, I'm in limbo as to the format I should have on this drive.Mac OS Extended: Best for Mechanical Drives, Or Drives Used With Older macOS VersionsMac OS Extended was the default file system used by every Mac from 1998 until 2017, when APFS replaced it. And forget about reading an APFS drive from Windows: there aren’t even third-party tools out there for that yet.APFS also isn’t compatible with Time Machine at this time, so you’ll have to format backup drives as Mac OS Extended.Other than that, there’s probably no reason not to use APFS at this point, especially on solid state drives and flash memory. If there’s an older Mac you need a drive to work with, APFS is a bad choice for that drive. 2016’s macOS Sierra was the first operating system capable of reading and writing to APFS systems, meaning any Mac using an older operating system will not be able to write to APFS-formatted drives. Let’s dive into a bit more details about the top three choices below, and then explain a few of the sub-options.So what’s the catch? Reverse compatibility.Case Sensitivity mostly determines whether the file system sees capital letters as different. And unless you really know what you’re doing, and have a specific reason for wanting it, you shouldn’t use case sensitivity when formatting a drive.To be clear, you can use capital letters in file names either way. So despite the disadvantages, ExFAT is your best option for cross-platform hard drives.RELATED: How to Read a Mac-Formatted Drive on a Windows PC Case Sensitive: Avoid Unless You Know Why You Want ItAPFS and Mac OS Extended both offer a “Case Sensitive” option, but macOS does not use this setting by default. Sure, you could read a Mac formatted drive on Windows or read a Windows formatted drive on a Mac, but both solutions either cost money or are unstable. It’s not a particularly optimized file format—it’s far more vulnerable to file fragmentation than APFS or Mac OS Extended, for one thing, and metadata and other features used by macOS aren’t present.But formatting a drive with ExFAT offers one huge advantage: both Windows and macOS computers and both read and write to this format. Encryption Protects Your Files, But Might Affect PerformanceWe’ve told you how to encrypt your macOS hard drives, but the fastest way to get this done is enabling encryption when you first format the drive. There’s not many benefits to turning it on, but all kinds of things might break, and dragging files from one to the other might mean data loss. Presumably, a case-sensitive file system was just seen as less user-friendly.Today, enabling case sensitivity could break some Mac apps that expect a case-insensitive file system.Our recommendation is to avoid case sensitivity for both APFS and Mac OS Extended unless you have a specific reason for wanting it. UNIX-based systems are generally case sensitive and Mac OS X was the first Mac operating system based on the UNIX standard, so this is a little unusual. The file system sees the file names as identical, even if they look different to you.Macs used case sensitivity at the file system by default in the 90s, but this changed around the time of Mac OS X’s launch. Other Options: MS-DOS (FAT) and Windows NTEagle-eyed observers will notice a few more options than what I’ve outlined above. Reading and writing will be slower on an encrypted drive, but we think it’s generally worth it—especially on portable Macs, like laptops. Do not encrypt a drive unless you can remember the key, or unless you have somewhere secure to store it.The other potential downside to encryption is performance. Epoccam driver for macThis is the main type of drive used by Windows systems, and it’s probably a better idea to create such partitions on a Windows system.We’ve already told you the difference between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS, so check that list for more detail about these and other options. Windows NT Filesystem might be offered depending on your setup. You almost certainly do not. Only use this if you absolutely need compatibility with Windows versions older than XP SP2. MS-DOS (FAT) is an ancient reverse-compatible file format, a precursor to FAT32.
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