Best external hard drive for mac and pc 2017 how to#
Best external hard drive for mac and pc 2017 for mac os#
Best external hard drive for mac and pc 2017 mac os#
Best external hard drive for mac and pc 2017 password#
Best external hard drive for mac and pc 2017 Pc#

Best external hard drive for mac and pc 2017 how to#

If you have a PC, you can also find out how to format a hard drive on Windows.But with a slew of external drives available, how do you know which is the right external drive to buy? Should you opt for a faster, more rugged (and more expensive) external SSD instead of a portable hard drive made up of comparatively fragile spinning platters? To help you pick the best portable external drive for your needs, we meticulously test and review dozens of drives as they become available and publish our list of specific recommendations of the best portable SSDs and hard drives on this page.Д«efore we get to the picks, there are a few important things to think about, whether you need a drive for work, school or home use. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on a Mac. With exFAT, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with Mac and Windows computers, you should use exFAT.

Best external hard drive for mac and pc 2017 Pc#

But hey, if you got your Mac and PC within the past two decades, then itвЂ™s safe to say that FAT32 vs exFAT has a clear winner.

Best external hard drive for mac and pc 2017 mac os#

The oldest Windows OS that exFAT can work with is Windows XP SP3, while the oldest Mac OS is Mac 10.6.5 Snow Leopard. But since itвЂ™s new, itвЂ™s not compatible with older operating systems. Much like the previous version, exFAT also works with both Mac and Windows operating systems. Now, exFAT is the newer version of FAT32, and it solves most of the problems with the previous format. Although it can create a 2TB drive partition in Macs, it still has the 4GB file limit. Another disadvantage is that it canвЂ™t create drive partitions larger than 32GB in Windows. So if you get an error that says вЂњthe file is too large for the destination file system,вЂќ then itвЂ™s probably because the file youвЂ™re trying to move or copy to a FAT32 drive is over 4GB. One of the top disadvantages of FAT32 is that it can only accommodate files that are up to 4GB in size. However, itвЂ™s not very compatible with new technologies. One of the oldest file systems today, FAT32 works with all versions of Mac and Windows operating systems. So, when it comes to HFS+ vs APFS, it all depends on how new your Mac is. However, you need third-party apps to do that, and, at the moment, none of them are free. ItвЂ™s also possible to read and write APFS drives in Windows. On top of all that, APFS is also compatible with older operating systems that are still using traditional HDD (hard disk drives). So, NTFS vs HFS+ all depends on what computer you are using.

Unlike NTFS, which is partially compatible with Mac computers, HFS+ is not compatible with Windows computers at all.

Best external hard drive for mac and pc 2017 password#

In short, file and folder names in this file system are case-sensitive and will require a password and encryption. This format has all three features of the file systems above.

Mac OS Extended вЂ“ Case-sensitive, Journaled, & Encrypted.

This HFS+ has an extra feature that helps your drive avoid file system corruption during unfortunate circumstances. This means it jumbles up the data, so no one else can steal it from you without also having a key to un-jumble it. This HFS+ format asks for a password, and it encrypts your partitions. So if you have files or folders with the same name but use different capitalization, then youвЂ™ll need to get two different file paths. This format has a feature that treats file and folder names as case sensitive. Also known as macOS Extended, HFS+ actually has four file format subcategories. In 2017, however, it was replaced by APFS (Apple File System). It was first released with macOS 8.1 in 1998, where it replaced HFS as the default file system for Macs.

Best external hard drive for mac and pc 2017 for mac os#

Hierarchical File System Plus (HFS+) was developed by Apple for Mac OS X.

It can work with Linux operating systems.

You can store files as large as its partition size.

It can have partitions as large as 16 million TB.

However, you canвЂ™t write or delete files from a Mac.ДЄside from all that, NTFS has several cool features, including: And unlike HFS+, it can actually work on Mac computers too. Understandably, it is the default file system for Windows PCs. But contrary to its name, itвЂ™s a rather old file system that was developed by Microsoft decades ago and launched in 1993. NTFS is short for New Technology File System.