- #Mac os format usb drive for windows how to#
- #Mac os format usb drive for windows for mac#
- #Mac os format usb drive for windows driver#
- #Mac os format usb drive for windows software#
In a situation like this, you need to format your thumb drive to a suitable format to make it can be read and written on both Windows and Mac.Īll in all, when you want to use your thumb drive on Windows and Mac, you need to format the drive to a suitable file system that is compatible with both of these two operating systems. Perhaps, your computer at home runs macOS but other computers run Windows-based operating systems or vice versa. You use a thumb drive to store files to use them on your computer at home and in your computer/school/local library.
#Mac os format usb drive for windows for mac#
Why Do You Need to Format a Thumb Drive for Mac and PC?
![mac os format usb drive for windows mac os format usb drive for windows](https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2020/09/disk-utility-format-exfat-100858336-large.jpg)
#Mac os format usb drive for windows how to#
#Mac os format usb drive for windows software#
Was HFSExplorer good enough for your needs? Or are you planning to purchase paid software like Paragon HFS+ to have write permissions too? Did you find another solution for reading and writing to Mac hard drives on a PC? Let us know your experiences, thoughts, and opinions in the comments section down below. We hope you managed to read a Mac-formatted drive on your Windows PC without having to format it. Or you can use iCloud Drive in Windows and also from the Mac to share files between the two platforms seamlessly as well. This is obviously aimed at reading Mac drives on a PC, but if you’re simply looking to exchange files between Mac and Windows, you can share between Mac and PC using SMB networking as discussed here which is a great method for computers on the same network.
#Mac os format usb drive for windows driver#
Paragon’s tool installs a file system driver that allows you to access a Mac-formatted drive just like any other storage drive in File Explorer. If you’re willing to pay, you could purchase Paragon HFS+ for $20 which lets you read HFS formatted drives, and write files to the drive too, the latter being a major feature that HFSExplorer lacks. What about writing to Mac formatted drives from Windows? But one downside to HFSExplorer is that it is read only, whereas some users may need to write to the Mac drive from Windows as well. It just happens to be a free option that is open source. You could use FAT32 file system too, but the maximum file size is limited to just 4 GB which is not as usable in many cases if you work with larger file sizes.įor what it’s worth, HFSExplorer isn’t the only software that can read Mac-formatted drives. If you wish for Mac and PC compatibility, you’ll need to choose exFAT to access the drive on both operating systems.
![mac os format usb drive for windows mac os format usb drive for windows](https://iboysoft.com/images/summary/format-external-drive-for-mac-pc.jpg)
It’s important to note that if you format your drive using NTFS file system, you won’t be able to write files to the drive on a Mac unless you fiddle with drive UUID to enable NTFS support which is not generally recommended. That’s all there is to it, now the drive that was once formatted for Mac is now formatted for Windows PC instead (again, this erases the data on the disk to format the drive). How to Read Mac Formatted Drives on Windows PC If you’d like a solution to this issue, this article will cover how to use a Mac formatted drive on a Windows PC. But what if you can’t format the Mac drive, or what if you don’t want to? This is where the third party options come in. This is why it’s recommended to use the FAT file system if you’re going to be using the drive on both Windows and macOS.
![mac os format usb drive for windows mac os format usb drive for windows](https://www.anysoftwaretools.com/wp-content/uploads/lexar-file-system-windows.png)
![mac os format usb drive for windows mac os format usb drive for windows](https://www.cleverfiles.com/howto/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/format-usb-drive-to-fat32-macos.jpg)
The latest tech news, global tech news daily, tech news today, startups, usa tech, asia tech, china tech, eu tech, global tech, in-depth electronics reviews, 24h tech news, 24h tech news, top mobile apps, tech news daily, gaming hardware, big tech news, useful technology tips, expert interviews, reporting on the business of technology, venture capital funding, programing languageīy default, Mac-formatted drives using Apple’s APFS or HFS Plus file systems are not recognized by Windows, and as a result, you’re only provided with the option to erase the contents of the drive when it’s connected to the PC.