How to Format an External Hard Drive for Mac and PC: A Comprehensive Guide for 2024

Updated by

Sherly 

Written by

Tracy King 

Last updated on April 22, 2024

Are there external hard drives that work with both Mac and PC? Yes, all external hard drives can be formatted with a file system that is compatible with both Windows and macOS, making them usable with both Macs and PCs. In this article, you'll get a comprehensive guide to successfully using your external hard drive interchangeably between Windows and Mac systems. Let's get started.

How can I use an external hard drive with both a Mac and a Windows PC?

There are good reasons why people want external drives to work with both Macs and PCs:

• Use the drive with both a Mac and a PC.
• Transfer files flexibly between a Mac and a PC.
• Set up a backup disk for both Windows and a Mac.

Thanks to UTF-8, a Mac and a PC can now share the same external drive with no problems. Want to know how? Read on.

With that in mind, you can proceed to the next section to learn which format is best for an external hard drive for Mac and PC.

What is the best format for an external hard drive to use with both a Mac and a PC?

To make an external hard drive work with both a Mac and a PC, you need to format the drive with a file system that's compatible with both Windows and macOS. Which format is right for your external hard drive? Check out the details on the standard file system formats to figure out which one is best for you:

From the table, it's clear that both FAT32 and exFAT are compatible with both Mac and PC. But which one is better? Let's take a look at a list of differences between the two:

• FAT32: Limits file size to 4GB and is only compatible with devices with a storage capacity of 32GB or smaller.
• exFAT: Overcomes the 4GB file size limitation and supports large storage devices with capacities of 64GB or greater.

So how to choose the mobile hard disk format? Here are some suggestions from the editor:

1. #1. Check the size of your external hard drive.
2. #2. If it's over 64 GB, choose exFAT. If it's less than 32 GB, choose FAT32.

You may also like: You might be wondering whether NTFS or exFAT is better for an external hard drive on Windows. Click here to get the answer right away.

External Hard Drive Format: NTFS vs exFAT - Which Is Better?

Which format is better? It depends on your needs. You may need to format an external hard drive to NTFS or exFAT. Read on for details.

So, how do you format an external hard drive to work with both Mac and PC? In the next section, you'll learn just that.

Guide to Formatting External Hard Drives for Mac and PC

Note: If your external hard drive currently contains a lot of important data, make sure to back it up to another location before proceeding. For a step-by-step guide, you can follow this link: How to back up an external hard drive to the cloud.

Your drive should now be ready to format, and you can follow this guide to set up your external drive for use with both Windows and Mac computers.

Guide 1: How to Format an External Hard Drive for Mac and PC in Windows

• Applies to: Formatting an external hard drive on a Windows computer.
• Tools: External hard drive formatting tools, File Explorer, Disk Management, and DiskPart.

To simplify the entire process of formatting an external hard drive on Windows, we'll provide you with two straightforward solutions to help you get the job done.

#1. Format External Hard Drive with a Tool - Partition Master

Best for Beginners

tools Partition Master Free is a reliable and efficient tool that helps all Windows users format and set up storage devices for different purposes. You can freely format your device to NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, EXT2/3/4, and more in a hassle-free manner.

Here's how to format an external hard drive for both Mac and PC using this software:

Step 1. Launch tools Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card that you want to format and choose "Format".

Step 2: Specify a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and cluster size for the selected disk partition, and click OK.

<b>Step 3:</b> Click <i>Yes</i> in the warning window to proceed.

Step 4. Hit the “Run 1 Task” button on the top left to preview the changes and then click “Apply” to start formatting the external hard drive/USB/SD card.

What can Partition Master do for you?

• Create, format, extend, shrink, and merge partitions on internal and external HDD/SSD. • Convert NTFS to FAT32 or FAT32 to NTFS. • Convert dynamic disks to basic disks and vice versa. • Clone partitions and check for file system errors. • Convert data disks to MBR or GPT. • Change drive letters and labels. • Initialize disks as GPT or MBR.

If your external drive is currently formatted as NTFS and you want to switch to FAT32, you can actually just convert it from NTFS to FAT32 without having to reformat.

## Method 2: Formatting the External Hard Drive on a Mac or PC with File Explorer

If you prefer a Windows solution to format your external hard drive, File Explorer can do the job. Here's how to format a device for both Windows and Mac computers:

Step 1: Connect the external hard drive to your computer.

Step 2: Press Windows + E on your keyboard to open File Explorer.

Step 3: Right-click on the target external hard drive and select “Format.”

Step 4. Choose a new file system format for the external drive, such as FAT32 or exFAT. Check the "Quick Format" option, and then click "Start."

5. When you're done, click OK to close File Explorer.

Advanced users can also format an external hard drive for free using Disk Management or the DiskPart utility, in addition to Partition Master and File Explorer. If you're interested, check out the tips here for assistance:

Guide 2: How to Format an External Hard Drive for Mac and PC on macOS

• Applies to: Formatting an external hard drive, USB, or SD card for use with Mac.
• Tools: Disk Utility, Terminal

To ensure the safety of all data on your external hard drive, back up the data in advance. Here, we'll introduce a simpler way to help you format an external hard drive on Mac.

You'll need to use the Disk Utility to perform the formatting. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Connect the external hard drive to your Mac.

Step 2. Open the "Applications" folder, then click "Utilities" and double-click "Disk Utility" to launch it.

Step 3: Select your external drive in the left sidebar, then click “Erase” from the top menu.

Step 4: Choose the format you want (like MS-DOS (FAT)) for your external drive and click “Erase.”

Be patient, and you'll end up with a new external drive that works with both Macs and PCs.

Additional tip: How to make an external hard drive compatible with both Mac and PC without formatting

Can I format an external hard drive to work with both a Mac and a PC? Indeed you can.

There are two methods to make your external hard drive work on both Windows and Mac computers.

#1. How to Convert an NTFS External Hard Drive to FAT32 on Windows

If your current external hard drive is formatted with the NTFS file system, you can use a reliable disk conversion tool to change it to FAT32. For example, using the free Partition Master tool, you can seamlessly convert your NTFS external hard drive to FAT32 without losing any data, all done straight from your Windows computer.

Thus, it breaks the limitation of FAT32 on Windows computers, which means you can safely convert large external drives from NTFS to FAT32. Here's how:

Step 1: Right-click on the partition of the target device and choose “Advanced” > “Convert to FAT.”

Step 2: Once the scanning process is over, click on the “Start” button to begin the NTFS to FAT32 conversion.

Step 3: Click “Apply” to save all changes.

#2. Backup your data, delete the volume, and create a new FAT32 or exFAT partition on an external drive

If your external hard drive is currently formatted in a way that's incompatible with both Windows and macOS, you could try the following:

Step 1: Back up all important data from the external hard drive to a separate secure location.

You can copy the files from the external hard drive to another secure location, or use a reliable and free backup software tool, such as Todo Backup Free, to efficiently back up all the content on the drive in one go.

Step 2: Delete the existing volume, and create a new FAT32 or exFAT partition on the external drive

On Windows:

Connect the external hard drive to your computer and open Disk Management. Right-click on the existing volume on the external hard drive, and select "Delete Volume..." Then, click "OK" to confirm.

1. Right-click the "Unallocated" space on the external drive and select "New Simple Volume." 2. Next, assign a new drive letter to the partition and set the file system to FAT32 (for less than 32 GB) or exFAT (for more than 64 GB), then click "Finish."

On a Mac:

Connect the external hard drive to your Mac and open Disk Utility. Select the partition on the external hard drive, then click the “Partition” tab at the top. Disk Utility will list all existing partitions on the drive. Select it, then click the “-” icon to delete the partition from the external hard drive. Click “Apply” to confirm. After that, select your external hard drive in the left panel, click “Partition,” then click the “+” icon to create a new partition on the external hard drive. Enter a new name for the external drive, set the format to MS-DOS (FAT) or exFAT, then click “Apply” to complete the process.

You have now successfully set up your external hard drive to be compatible with both Mac and PC without having to format it. You can now use this external hard drive for file transfers, data storage, and as a backup disk for all your important files on both Mac and Windows computers.

Conclusions

On this page, we provide you with 5 methods to format and set up an external hard drive for both macOS and Windows operating systems.

On a Windows computer, you can use the Partition Master Free tool to format the external drive to FAT32 or exFAT so it will work on both Windows and Mac computers.

On a Mac, you can use Disk Utility to format the drive so that it's compatible with both Windows and Mac.

Frequently Asked Questions About Formatting External Hard Drives for Mac and PC

If you still have questions about formatting an external hard drive for use with both a Mac and a PC, check out the answers below.

How can I make my external hard drive compatible with both Mac and PC without reformatting it?

1. First, back up your data on the external hard drive. 2. Connect the external hard drive to your Windows computer. 3. Safely back up any crucial data to another secure location. 4. If the external hard drive is formatted as NTFS, use a tool like Partition Master Free to convert it to FAT32. 5. Alternatively, delete the existing partition and create a new volume, formatting the external hard drive as FAT32 or exFAT.

2. Can I format the drive for Mac and PC?

Yes, you can format the drive for both Mac and PC.

1. First, connect the hard drive to your Windows computer. 2. Backup any important data. 3. Install and launch the Partition Master tool. Right-click on the target hard drive and select "Format." 4. Set a new format for the hard drive - choose exFAT or FAT32, then click "OK," and finally "Execute Task" to format the drive, making it compatible with both Mac and PC.

If you need to format a hard drive for use on a Mac, check out this guide: How to Format a Hard Drive for a Mac.

3. Is exFAT compatible with both Mac and PC?

Yes, exFAT is a newer file system format that comes after FAT32 and can be used on both Windows and Mac computers. If you have an external hard drive with a large capacity and want to use it on both a Mac and a PC, you can format the disk to exFAT as described above.