
- #Prepare an external usb hard drive for use with a mac how to#
- #Prepare an external usb hard drive for use with a mac install#
- #Prepare an external usb hard drive for use with a mac download#
- #Prepare an external usb hard drive for use with a mac mac#
Using a FAT32 formatted drive within the Macintosh environment is only recommended for a short period of time to transfer data.ĭata corruption will possibly occur when using FAT32 over an extended period of time in a Macintosh. Also keep in mind, that you will have a 4 GB file transfer limitation. See Document ID: 200895 for instructions. It is only possible to read FAT and FAT32 formatted drives in a Macintosh with OS 10.2 or earlier.
#Prepare an external usb hard drive for use with a mac mac#
You may also format your external drive into FAT32 for use between Windows and Mac computers.

This is the best solution Seagate offers for transferring data between Windows and Mac computers. See Document ID: 219103 for more information. The GoFlex line of drives includes an NTFS driver, which can make NTFS file systems usable in MacOS.

To use MacOS native backup systems like Time Machine, please check with their manufacturer documentation. Here are some examples:įile system compatibility between operating systems.See Document ID: 201413 for a list of programs by drive model.
#Prepare an external usb hard drive for use with a mac how to#
#Prepare an external usb hard drive for use with a mac install#
#Prepare an external usb hard drive for use with a mac download#
You can download it here.Tips and troubleshooting tricks for moving data between computers when your external drive is formatted for use within MacOS. While the above process will probably work for SD cards in most cases, the SD Association (the organization that develops SD cards) has a tool for properly formatting SD cards. Once you've chosen your desired settings, click 'Start' and watch the magic happen.


You can uncheck this if you want the current data to be harder to recover, but if you're very worried about someone recovering old data from the drive, you should format using a dedicated program. Quick format: This speeds up the formatting process by not overwriting the entire drive with zeros and checking the drive for errors.Volume label: This is what the drive will be labelled as.Allocation unit size: Just leave this at whatever is already selected.(Note that if you intend to put a motherboard BIOS on the USB stick, some boards only look for FAT32 volumes.) However, 32GB is the maximum drive size for FAT32, so Windows might give you an option for exFAT instead, which also has wide compatibility. FAT32 is the best option in most cases, as all operating systems can recognize FAT32 drives. Not every file system will work with every operating system. File system: This determines the way files are stored on the drive.
