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.

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.

Free download the best Mac disk formatting software - Super Eraser for Mac. Download for Mac Download for PC This mode ‘ Wipe Hard Drive ’ will help you format a selected hard drive/device and erase all data from it. You just need to select the hard drive you want to. Step 3: Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” in Format. A new window will pop up asking which file system you’d like to format the external drive to. By default, it’s the Windows NT File System (NTFS). Select the one shown below. Pro tip: If you want to use the external drive for both Mac and PC, you can also select “ExFAT”. The best disk format tool in 2021 comes out. They are third-party EaseUS format tool, HP USB disk storage format tool, HDD low level format tool and the built-in HDD formatter like File Explorer, Disk Management and CMD in Windows 10/8/7. Choose one of the six to format disk, USB flash, pen drive, SD card with ease. The Best Format for External Hard Drives. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with Mac and Windows computers, you should use exFAT. With exFAT, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. Free download the best Mac disk formatting software - Super Eraser for Mac. Download for Mac Download for PC This mode ‘ Wipe Hard Drive ’ will help you format a selected hard drive/device and erase all data from it. You just need to select the hard drive you want to format, and then click on 'Wipe Now' button.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Free Hard Drive Formatting Software

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

Best Free Drive Formatting Software Mac Free

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.

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.

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.

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.

After NTFS partition and HFS+ partition are created on your external hard drive, it can be shared between Mac and Windows PC.

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

1. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is the ultimate NTFS for Mac solution to mount NTFS drives in read-write mode on your Mac.

• Pros:
• 7-day free trial
• Support macOS Big Sur - macOS High Sierra
• Compatible with Apple Silicon M1 Mac
• Repair NTFS file system errors
• Erase NTFS volumes for data cleanup
• Format drive to NTFS

How to use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac for free

• 1. Free download this NTFS for Mac driver, install, and launch it on your Mac.
• 2. Connect the read-only NTFS drive to your Mac.
• 3. Write, copy, delete, and modify files on the NTFS drive smoothly.

Overall experience

Compared with other NTFS for Mac free drivers, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac tops the list. After free downloading this app and installing, it plugs and plays once NTFS drives are connected to your Mac.

Read Full Review

This small menu bar utility uses an intuitive interface, showing a list of detected NTFS volumes, a disk management tool, and some customizable options. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac makes it simple, fast, and efficient to write to NTFS drives on Mac.

With a 7-day free trial period, uses can copy and modify files on NTFS drives for free.

Additional features: iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is highlighted with simple disk management, including one-click to open volumes, clean NTFS volumes, repair NTFS file system corruption, unmount NTFS volumes, erase other disks to NTFS file system, etc.

Sum-up: User-friendly, plug-and-play, free version, and technical support make iBoysoft NTFS for Mac the best NTFS driver.

2. iBoysoft Drive Manager

iBoysoft Drive Manager is a handy Mac disk management tool, which not only enables NTFS read-write support on Mac, but also helps manage external drives and network drives on Mac.

• Pros:
• 7-day free trial
• Compatible with macOS 10.15- OS X 10.8
• Map network drives in Finder
• Fast data write and transfer speed
• Free technical support

• Cons:
• Has not updated to macOS Big Sur yet
• Not compatible with Apple Silicon M1 Mac

How to use iBoysoft Drive Manager?

• 1. Download, install and launch iBoysoft Drive Manager on your Mac.
• 2. All connected NTFS external drives will be automatically mounted in read-write mode.
• 3. Copy-paste, transfer, modify, and write to NTFS drives.

Overall experience

iBoysoft Drive Manager is handy tool for people whose NTFS external drives are read-only on Mac. With this software, mounting NTFS drives with write access lifts a disk insertion, simple and intuitive. It works with a wide range of storage types like USB flash drives, SD cards, and memory sticks.

Read Full Review

This NTFS for Mac app will stay in the menu bar silently until detecting newly plugged hard disks. From its drop-down box, you can open, mount, unmount, and disconnect all NTFS volumes with a simple click. Then, you'll have full access to NTFS disks as you use APFS and HFS+ on Mac.

Other Highlights: Besides being an NTFS driver, iBoysoft Drive Manager also can manage and map network drives. It means your network volumes will be mounted as local drives so that you can access it directly in the Finder.

Sum-up: You can enjoy this NTFS for Mac software for free within 7 days, and then you'll know iBoysoft Drive Manager can definitely satisfy your needs of an NTFS driver on Mac.

3. Mounty for NTFS

Mounty for NTFS is a NTFS for Mac free software to make NTFS drive write support on your Mac.

Best Free Disk Formatting Software

• Pros:
• 100% Free
• Support macOS 11 - Mac OS X 10.9
• Fast and free download for full version

• Cons:
• Not compatible with Apple Silicon M1 Mac
• Rather slow write speed
• Unstable and>Supported OS Auto-mountTransfer SpeedPriceModern InterfaceOthers highlightsiBoysoft NTFS for MacmacOS 11 - macOS 10.13YesFastFree trialYes1. Support M1 Mac
  2. Clean NTFS volumes
  3. Format to NTFS iBoysoft Drive ManagermacOS 10.15 - OS X 10.8YesFastFree trialYesMap network drives in FinderMounty for MacmacOS 11 - OS X 10.9NoSlowFreeYesN/ANTFS-3GmacOS 10.10 - OS X 10.6NoSlowFreeNoN/AFUSE for macOSmacOS 10.15 - OS X 10.6YesSlowFreeNoN/ASL-NTFSmacOS 10.12 - OS X 10.6NoSlowFreeYesN/AParagon NTFS for MacmacOS 11 - 10.12YesFastFree trialYes1. Format to NTFS
  2. Support M1 Mac Tuxera NTFS for MacmacOS 11 - OS X 10.4YesRelatively slowFree trialYesCheck NTFS drives
  

  Why you need free NTFS for Mac Driver?

  NTFS is a file system developed by Microsoft, the competitor of Apple. It's for Windows platform, especially used in the system drive. That's why you use Boot Camp to run Windows on Mac but find you can'tmount BOOTCAMP partition with read-write access.

  Up to now, Mac operating systems, including macOS Big Sur/Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra/Sierra and Mac OS X El Capitan, only provide NTFS read support but no NTFS write support.

  How to Enable NTFS Read-Write Support in macOS Big Sur?

  The read-only NTFS drive is still one of the most annoying problems. Check NTFS for macOS Big Sur solution in this post. Read more >>

  Business is business, but for users, you need Mac to write to NTFS drives. Users want Windows NTFS file system to be fully compatible with macOS or Mac OS X. Sure. That it. You need NTFS for Mac free software to share NTFS drives between Windows and Mac.

  • How to write to NTFS Drives on Apple Silicon M1 Mac

  • What does the Latest MacOS Update and Apple Silicon Transition Mean to you?

  People Also Ask

  Q: Is NTFS for Mac free?

  A: NTFS drivers generally cost $20 around, but there are four completely free NTFS for Mac software:

  1. 1. Mounty for NTFS
  2. 2. NTFS-3G
  3. 3. FUSE for macOS
  4. 4. SL-NTFS

  Q: How can Mac read NTFS for free?

  A: Mac can read NTFS drives for free by default. All you need to do is to mount the disk in Disk Utility by:

  1. 1. Connect the NTFS drive to your Mac for automatically mounting.
  2. 2. Open Disk Utility if the NTFS drive is not mounted.
  3. 3. Select the NTFS drive and click on Mount.
  4. 4. Mac reads the NTFS drive for free then.

  Q: What is the best NTFS for Mac?

  A: There are three best NTFS for Mac software:

  1. 1. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac
  2. 2. Paragon NTFS for Mac
  3. 3. Tuxera NTFS for Mac