So I'm guessing by default, since I was ignorant and plugged the Seagate into the Mac first, either the Seagate by default or I unknowingly made selections to format the drive to a Mac type of file system which is why it's not being recognized by the Windows machine. Seagate Backup Plus Portable External Hard Drive Manual - how to get it to work with MacBook, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and any Ma. In fact, you are able to use NTFS formatted Seagate drive with Mac or HFS+ with Windows if you install certain third-party software. But here I’d like to discuss what kind of file system you should format Seagate to for Mac and PC. As mentioned in the previous part, NTFS and HFS+ are not suitable, you should format Seagate drive to other file. Give your Seagate Backup Plus a Name. You’ll find it useful to give your Seagate Backup Plus drive a. Store and access 4TB of photos and files with Seagate Backup Plus Portable, an on the go USB drive for Mac and Windows - Simply plug this external hard drive for Mac and Windows into a computer via the included USB 3.0 cable to back up files with a single click or schedule automatic daily, weekly, or monthly backups; Reformatting may be.
Summary :
Want to format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows PC? Do you know how to do this work easily? This MiniTool article will show you specific methods to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC, which are easy and safe to complete.
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As we know, external hard drives are widely used to backup data or interchange files among different computers. Well, is there an external hard drive that could be shared between Mac and Windows PC? Of course, there is. Actually, most external hard disks could be compatible with Mac and PC as long as you format them correctly.
Why Need to Format External Hard Drive for Mac and PC
To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between Mac and PC, you need to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC.
Currently, hard drives for Windows PC are always formatted with NTFS, while hard disks for Mac are formatted with HFS+. However, when we connect a NTFS formatted disk to Mac, Mac OS X doesn't allow us to write files to the drive neither edit files, though it can read a NTFS drive. Similarly, Windows OS will ask us to format the HFS+ formatted drive when we connecting such a disk, let along edit files saved on HFS+ formatted hard disks unless we resort to third party programs.
But luckily, there are file systems well supported by both Mac and Windows PC, and they are FAT32 (it might be called MS-DOS on Mac) and exFAT. As long as we format the external hard drive to one of these 2 file systems, it can be shared between Mac and Windows.
Further Reading
Both FAT32 and exFAT have advantages and disadvantages.
FAT32: FAT32 works with all versions of Windows, Mac OS, Linux, game consoles, etc.
However, single files on a FAT32 drive can't be larger than 4GB. If your external drive saves files larger than 4GB or you plan to save larger files to this drive, converting to FAT32 is not recommended.
In addition, a FAT32 partition must be not more than 32GB if you create it in Windows Disk Management. Of course, there is free partition manager that can help create a FAT32 volume up to 2TB, which also functions correctly.
Formatting Seagate For Mac And Pc
exFAT: exFAT has very large file size and partition size limits, which means it's a good idea to format your external hard drive to exFAT.
Nevertheless, a lot of users complained that exFAT is slow, and they highly suggest using FAT32 if you can avoid file size constraints.
Three Options for Accessing NTFS Drives on Mac
Paid Third-Party Drivers
Some paid third-party NTFS drivers for Mac can be used to access NTFS drives on Mac. They work well and they have better performance than the free solutions which will be mentioned in the following part. Paragon NTFS for Mac is such a driver.
Besides, you can also use the paid third-party file system converters to convert NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT which are compatible with both Mac and PC. MiniTool Partition Wizard is one representative.
Free Third-Party Drivers
FUSE for macOS is a free and open-source NTFS driver that can enable write support. But, this solution is slower relatively. And the automatically mounting NTFS partitions in read-write mode can be a security risk for your Mac computer.
Apple’s Experimental NTFS-Write Support
The Mac OS has an experimental support for writing to NTFS drives. Usually, it is disabled by default and needs some messing around in the Mac terminal to enable it.
It doesn’t work properly all the time and could lead to potential issues with your NTFS file system. For example, it had corrupted data before. Thus, we don’t suggest using this tool and we believe it is disabled by this reason.
Here, we recommend using the paid third-party tools since they are easy-to-use and can do good work for you.
Crazytalk animator 3 free. Then, we will introduce these three options for you in the following content.
The Best Paid Third-Party Driver: Paragon NTFS for Mac
Paragon NTFS for Mac can write, edit, delete, copy, or move files on NTFS volumes from your Mac computer. It offers a 10-day free trial. If you want to use it all the time, you need to pay for it.
With it, you don’t have to fiddle with terminal commands to mount partitions manually. Additionally, it can mount partitions automatically and safely. More importantly, it can code with the potential corruption. If you purchase a Seagate drive, you can even get a free download of Paragon NTFS for Mac.
All in all, it does its works well and gives you good user’s experience.
The Best Free Third-Party Drivers: FUSE for macOS
FUSE for macOS is a free solution to access NTFS on Mac. But it is less secure.
If you want to make automatically mount NTFS partitions in read-write mode on Mac, you need to temporarily disable the System Integrity Protection and replace one of Apple’s built-in tools with a binary that is more vulnerable to attack. Thus, your Mac is in danger when using this driver.
Seagate Mac To Pc Driver
However, you can use it to manually mount NTFS partitions in read-write mode if you never mind using the Terminal. This will be safer, but you need to do more work. You can go to google the steps and see how complex they are.
Apple’s Experimental NTFS-Writing Support: Don’t Do This, Seriously
Although we mentioned this method in our article, we still don’t recommend it because it is the least tested. It is just for educational purposes, and it is available on Mac OS 10.12 Sierra. Perhaps, it will be unstable forever.
How to Quickly Format External Hard Drive for Mac and PC without Losing Data
Another way to access NTFS drive on Mac is to convert the NTFS/HFS+ to FAT/exFAT. Then, the drive can be used on both Mac and PC.
There should be some important data on the drive. To keep it safe, you can choose this best NTFS/HFS+ to FAT/exFAT converter: MiniTool Partition Wizard.
How to Convert NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT Without Data Loss
To format hard drive for Mac and Windows without data loss, we suggest using MiniTool Partition Wizard and its 'Convert NTFS to FATS32' function. If you are a personal user, you can try its Professional Edition.
Step 1: Run MiniTool Partition Wizard
Download this software to your computer. Then, you can open the software and input the license key to the pop-out window to get its Professional Edition.
Step 2: Convert NTFS to FAT32 with This Software
After running the program successfully, we can see its main interface as follows:
Here, please select the NTFS partition of external hard drive and choose 'Convert NTFS to FAT' feature from the left action pane. If there is more than one NTFS partition, convert all of them one by one.
At last, click 'Apply' button to make the change executed.
When MiniTool Partition Wizard shows it applies the change successfully, the original NTFS will finally become a FAT32 partition.
By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for Mac and PC without losing any data. Then, you can share external hard drive between Mac and PC
You Can Convert NTFS to exFAT in 3 Steps
However, if you want to convert NTFS to exFAT to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC, 3 steps are required.
Step 1: Transfer Data out from External Hard Drive
You can choose to copy and paste those files to other external devices or internal hard disk of Windows, but it will cost much time. Instead, you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition to create a copy for your external drive, which is faster.
If there is only one NTFS partition on external hard drive, refer to the tutorial Copy Partition to get instructions. However, if there is more than one NTFS partition, view Copy Disk to get specific operations.
Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard
The Free Edition of this software also enables you to do this job.
Firstly, you need to delete the partition by using this software. Just open the software to enter its main interface. Then, choose the target partition and click 'Delete Partition' from the left action pane. After that, you should click 'Apply' to keep this change.
Secondly, the target partition will become unallocated. Here, you need to choose that partition and click on 'Create Partition' from the left action pane.
Thirdly, you will see a pop-out window. Here, you can choose 'exFAT' from the 'File System' setting option. At the same time, you can also set some other parameters for this partition, including 'Partition Label', 'Drive Letter', 'Size And Location'. After that, please click on 'OK'.
Fourthly, you will go back to the main interface. Then, please click on 'Apply' to save these changes.
Finally, an exFAT partition will be created on your external hard disk so that it could be shared between Mac and Windows PC
Step 3: Transfer Data back to External Drive
If you want to share files that you have backed up between Mac and PC, now please transfer these files back to external hard drive.
How to Convert HFS+ to FAT32 or exFAT without Losing Data
Besides, you can format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows by converting HFS+ to FAT32 or exFAT without losing any data.
Step 1: Backup Data in HFS+ Partition on Mac
Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on Mac. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step.
Step 2: Create a FAT32 or exFAT Partition on Windows PC
Some people may ask why create such partitions on Windows rather than Mac. That is because there are cases reporting FAT32 (MS-DOS) or exFAT partitions created on Mac did not work well on Windows.
Please skip to Solution 1: Format External Hard Drive to FAT32 to get steps to create a FAT32 partitions or go back to Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard to get operations to create an exFAT partition.
How to Make an Empty External Drive Compatible with Mac and PC
If there is no file saved on your external hard drive, how to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC?
It's very easy to share it between Mac and PC and you also need a Windows computer, a Mac machine, and the free partition manager MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
There are 3 solutions for this case, so please choose the one you like most to format external hard drive Windows 10/8/7.
Solution 1: Format External Hard Drive Windows 10/8/7 to FAT32
Since users are unable to create a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB in Windows Disk Management, they need to use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free.
Note: when you connect an external hard drive which is formatted with HFS+ with computer, Windows may ask you to format the drive. Please choose Cancel.
Please download and install this program on your Windows computer to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC.
Firstly, open the software to enter its main interface as follows. Here, please select the NTFS partition or HFS+ partition of external hard drive, and click 'Delete Partition' feature from the left action pane. If there are multiple partitions on the external disk, please select the disk and click 'Delete All Partitions' feature instead. After that, an unallocated space will be released.
Secondly, you can create one or more FAT32 partitions in unallocated space. Select the unallocated space and choose 'Create Partition' feature from the left side.
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Then, you should choose 'FAT32' from the 'File System' option in the pop-out window. Meanwhile, you can set properties for this new partition and click 'OK' to go back to the main window of Partition Wizard.
At last, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.
Solution 2: Format External Hard Drive Windows 7/8/10 to exFAT
Firstly, please delete the NTFS or HFS+ partition in either MiniTool Partition Wizard or Windows Disk Management to release unallocated space. Then, you can create an exFAT partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition by following steps introduced in the section Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Once a FAT32 or exFAT partition is created on your external hard drive, you can share it on both Mac and Windows PC.
Solution 3: Create One HFS+ Partition for Mac and One NTFS Partition for Windows
Alternatively, you can create 2 partitions on the external hard drive: one is for Mac, and the other is for Windows. As to size for each partition, it depends on your own demands. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows.
Step 1: Create a NTFS Partition and a FAT32 Partition
Please run MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, then delete all the original NTFS or HFS+ partition(s), and create a new NTFS partition as well as a FAT32 partition, and the latter will be formatted to HFS+ in Mac machine.
Then, select the external hard drive and choose 'Delete All Partitions' to create an unallocated space.
Here, select the unallocated space and choose 'Create Partition' feature from the left action pane.
Now, please specify partition label (Windows is recommended), partition type (primary or logical), drive letter, file system (NTFS), cluster size, and partition size (you can change the length of the handle to adjust partition size). Then, click 'OK' to continue.
Now, you can see a NTFS partition is created. Please use the same way to create a FAT32 partition labeled with Mac. At last, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.
Step 2: Format the FAT32 Partition to HFS+ Partition on Mac
Please go to Utilities → Disk Utility to get the window below:
Then, select the external hard drive and click 'Partition' tab on the top.
Now, find the FAT32 partition and format it to OS X Extended (Journaled), which is the desired HFS+. Finally, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.
Tip: You may receive the prompt 'The volume 'MAC' is not journaled. As a result it can not be resized'. Just ignore the message and click 'OK' button to continue.
After NTFS partition and HFS+ partition are created on your external hard drive, it can be shared between Mac and Windows PC.
Note: You might be unable to share all files saved on external drive since Windows doesn't support HFS+ partition while Mac doesn't support NTFS partition completely.
Bottom Line
Are you planning to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC? If yes, now try one of our methods to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC.
Should you have any problem, just feel free to leave us a message in comment part below or send an email to [email protected].
Format Hard Drive for Mac and PC FAQ
How do I make my hard drive compatible with Mac and PC?
If you want your hard drive to be compatible with both Mac and PC, you should format the hard drive to the file system that is supported by both of these two operating systems. FAT32 and exFAT can meet your requirements.
What is the best hard drive format for Mac and PC?
Although both FAT32 and exFAT are compatible with Mac and PC, exFAT is a much better choice because it has fewer limitations. For example, it has a larger file size and partition size limits.
If you formatted your hard drive to exFAT with Apple's HFS Plus, Windows will not recognize the exFAT drive. You can consider using a third-party partition tool to format your hard drive to exFAT.
Windows can only read a Mac hard drive that is formatted to FAT32 or exFAT using third-party software. If the file system of the Mac hard drive is HFS+ or APFS, the drive will become unreadable in Windows.
Both Microsoft and Sony are making a big deal about the storage technology in their upcoming next-gen consoles. And they should. They’re both using cutting-edge NVMe SSDs that are an order of magnitude faster than what we had in the Xbox One or PlayStation 4. But this hardware comes with at least one major drawback: It’s expensive. That’s why the Xbox Series X comes with only a 1TB drive while the PlayStation 5 has a 825GB SSD. And if you want more on Xbox, that’s going to cost you $220 for the Seagate Storage Expansion Card.
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What’s going on with that Seagate drive? Is it completely custom, or does it use some existing tech? And how can a hard drive possibly justify $220 for 1TB of storage?
Well, let’s get into all of that starting with this: The Seagate Expansion Card isn’t a hard drive. The new consoles do not use hard drives at all. That is an obsolete technology for gaming, and we’ve moved onto SSDs. I’m not gonna give anyone a hard time for conflating the terms, but it’s a bit like calling a Blu-ray disc a “floppy.”
Even an SSD doesn’t cost 22 cents per gigabyte these days, but again, Microsoft isn’t using a basic SSD. Thanks to AMD’s support for the fast PCIe 4 interface, the Xbox Series X uses a drive that is much faster than even the SSD you might have in your PC or Mac.
But we don’t have to take Microsoft’s word for it. Let’s take a look for ourselves.
The Xbox Series X Seagate Expansion Card teardown
Microsoft sent me a Seagate Expansion Card with the preview version of the Xbox Series X hardware. And the tiny add-on is reminiscent of memory cards that you might have used on your PlayStation or Nintendo 64. But it does have a few notable and telling differences.
The card has a plastic sheath that wraps around a metal chassis. And while the metal starts off looking attractive, it has a tendency to look somewhat greasy or lubricated. But Microsoft and Seagate didn’t use the metal for show. That exists for spreading and routing heat out of the storage device.
The superfast NAND storage in modern SSDs can run hot, and so can a PCIe 4.0 controller chip. Microsoft’s engineers designed this to shift heat out of those components and into the Xbox for dissipation.
Let’s take a look inside to see exactly how that works.
Opening the Seagate Expansion Card
As one of the first people in the world with an Xbox Series X, I felt a responsibility to share as much info as possible about the device and its add-ons. And since I’m a grown man with an iFixit kit, I took charge of the situation and opened up the Expansion Card.
Shoutout to Jon over at Spawn Wave for giving me some pointers about this process.
I started by removing the plastic sheath, which clips around the metal. I then was able to pry apart the two pieces of the metal casing. This revealed the PCB screwed into one of the slabs.
After removing those screws, I found the heart of the Xbox Series X expansion storage.
That is a cluster of SK Hynix NAND Flash memory alongside a Phison PCIe 4.0 controller. Each of those components has a dab of thermal paste to create a strong connection to the surrounding metal.
So yes, the metal is definitely acting as part of the cooling for the Seagate Expansion Card. Expect this part of the card to get pretty hot — that’s normal. By getting hot, the metal is helping to vent the heat from the chips into the Xbox, and the Xbox can then push that heat up through its vent.
As for the chips themselves, the Phison controller is a welcome sight. This is its E19T PCIe Gen 4 controller, which is an early industry leader in reliable and speedy performance.
The memory itself is an SK Hynix 1TB chip. I’m not an expert on NAND, but I believe this is SK Hynix’s new 4D NAND, which stacks its memory cells in 128 layers. This is how Seagate was able to get 1TB of storage space onto a single chip inside such a tiny form factor.
And all of this sits on a printed circuit board that uses the CFexpress connection standard. You can see that in the picture below:
See how that matches up with a typical CFexpress card:
Standard CFexpress can transfer data at up to 4GB per second, but it’s possible that Microsoft’s custom implementation is faster. But 4GB per second would give enough room for the Phison E19T controller, which maxes out at about 3.75GB per second for read/write speeds.
Just tell me when it’s going to go down in price
After this teardown, the price of the 1TB Seagate Expansion Card seems fair. SK Hynix is selling a 1TB NVME SSD with read/writes of 3,500/3,200 MB per second for $135 that uses its 128-layer NAND. But that is in a larger form-factor PCIe 3.0 NVME. So it’s likely using two 500GB chips, and it definitely isn’t using the PCIe 4.0 Phison controller.
The Seagate’s $220 price makes sense when you factor in the increased performance and what is likely a custom implementation of CFexpress.
But fair price or not, $220 is a lot of money. Is it going to get more affordable in the future? It should. One of the major benefits of SK Hynix’s 128-layer NAND is that it significantly brings down productions costs. As manufacturing continues, the price of that Flash should come down quickly.
It’s also in Microsoft’s own interest to ensure you have enough storage. It wants you to subscribe to Game Pass, which has over 100 games. It doesn’t want you worrying about storage — it just wants you downloading the next game. So expect prices to come down.
I think we’ll see a 2TB option in the next year or so. The PCB seems like it may have room on the other side for another cluster of NAND. Maybe that launches at $220, and the 1TB option drops to something closer to $170.
So I would wait to buy expansion until you are sure you need it.
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