In other words, you can look at files saved on the drive, but you can't save any new files from your Mac. If you keep your hard drive's out-of-the-box NTFS format, you'll be able to read the drive when it's connected to a Mac, but you won't be able to write to it. Option 1: Format to NTFS and buy this app for your Mac The alternative solutions do require more tinkering. The good news is, it's not exFAT or nothing. OK, what are my alternatives to using exFAT? And the same can be said for a Windows HD, if you only plan on connecting it to a PC, then NTFS is the way to go. However, if you plan on only using a drive on your Mac and it has MacOS High Sierra or newer installed, you'll want to stick to Apple's APFS format. And if that's how you plan on using your drive, then you're right - exFAT is the way to go. It comes down to which OS are you going to use the drive with?Īccording to the list above, formatting your hard drive to exFAT so that you can read and write on either a PC or Mac seems like the obvious solution. Natively read/write HFS+ on MacOS High Sierra and newer.Required for local Time Machine backupsĪPFS (Hierarchical File System, aka Mac OS Extended).

Natively read/write HFS+ on MacOS up to Mac OS X Sierra.

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, aka Mac OS Extended)

Full NTFS support on Mac requires paid third-party app.

Natively read/write exFAT on Windows and MacOS.

But before I can dig into what makes sense when, look over this quick rundown of the different standards and which OS each one is compatible with. Now your storage device should be able to work with the Mac.The file format standard you use for your external drive will depend on how you plan on using the drive. (You can read more about the available ones for Mac and which one might be right for you on this Apple support page.)

Choose the file system format you want.

Select the storage device you want to erase and reformat.

Click View on the top left of the screen.

Select the Go menu at the top left of the screen.

This method can also work with external storage devices of other types. If you want to save what is on the hard drive, you will need to move it to another storage device. NOTE: This method requires that you erase everything on the external hard drive. Erasing and Reformatting an External Hard Drive However, you can reformat it using the Mac’s Disk Utility.

If you’re using an external hard drive, these often need reformatting because they may have different filesystems that might not work with a Mac.

Format hard disk mac