How to share an external hard drive between Mac and Windows

Whereas utilizing a Home windows PC over a MacOS system (or vice versa) was as soon as pretty restricted when it comes to crossover, such towering partitions now not exist. Nonetheless although, if you happen to’ve ever needed to make use of the identical external hard drive with each Home windows and MacOS, you understand how massive of a burden this course of may be.

By the way, the time period “exterior onerous drive” usually refers to moveable storage units. They’re as quick as the best SSDs, however you’ll be able to join them to your pc utilizing a USB cable.

A course of referred to as ‘partitioning’ is offered with each Home windows and MacOS. While you partition a tough drive, you’re principally splitting its inner cupboard space into totally different sections. These sections can then be formatted to work with many various kinds of computer systems.

You’ll be able to partition a tough drive utilizing each Home windows and MacOS, and we’re going to show you easy methods to full the method for every OS sort.

It’s a cut up, area of interest state of affairs

A fast Google search could lead you to imagine you’re on the correct path by formatting your drive with Extensible File Allocation Desk, or exFAT. It’s a less complicated, common methodology if each file you retailer is lower than 4GB in measurement. Nevertheless, this format doesn’t assist bigger recordsdata, which may be problematic for transferring and so forth between Macs and Home windows 11 PCs.

In the meantime, the NTFS system utilized by Home windows 10 helps giant recordsdata, however this format can’t be learn natively by MacOS. That places you in a peculiar pickle, limiting any shared file between the 2 platforms at 4GB or smaller. If you wish to save bigger recordsdata, you’ll must create a second, devoted house utilizing a format optimized for MacOS (Prolonged) or Home windows 11 (NTFS).

With all that in thoughts, our information splits the exterior drive in half: One major part able to storing recordsdata bigger than 4GB, and a secondary part able to sharing recordsdata between MacOS and Home windows 11. It’s not the best answer — we get it — nevertheless it works nonetheless.

Earlier than digging in, choose a major format you’ll use essentially the most: MacOS Prolonged if you happen to primarily use Mac with a secondary exFAT partition, or NTFS if you happen to primarily use Home windows 11 with a secondary exFAT partition.

Lastly, formatting deletes all information saved on the drive. Be sure to again up something vital earlier than starting the formatting course of. We have now guides for backing up Windows and backing up MacOS in case you want a serving to hand.

Partition the drive on Home windows 11

We have now a full information on how to partition a drive in Windows, however let’s undergo the vital steps it’s good to know to shortly partition the drive whereas engaged on Home windows. The method is much less simple in Home windows than what you see on a Mac, nevertheless it’s now simpler than ever.

Step 1: Proper-click on the Begin button and choose Disk Administration on the Energy Person menu.

Sometimes, exterior drives are formatted out of the field. Nevertheless, you could encounter a “Not Initialized” error when connecting the gadget to your PC. Which means it’s not formatted accurately to work with Home windows. It received’t even have an assigned drive letter in File Explorer (This PC), and will not even have allotted house for saving information.

Should you see an Initialize Disk pop-up window, it supplies two codecs: Grasp Boot Document (MBR) and GUID Partition Desk (GPT). The previous is older and solely helps capacities as much as 2TB, however is appropriate with older variations of Home windows. GPT is a more moderen format supporting bigger capacities however isn’t appropriate with older variations of Home windows.

Choose the partition model and click on the OK button to proceed. Should you by chance closed the pop-up, right-click on the listed disk and choose Initialize Disk on the pop-up.

Should you didn’t get the pop-up warning, transfer on to Step 2.

Step 2: Proper-click on the unallocated house, and choose the New Easy Quantity possibility on the pop-up menu, as proven under.

Step 3: The New Easy Quantity Wizard begins. Click on the Subsequent button.

Step 4: Since we’re creating two partitions, divide the listed bodily quantity in half. Sort that quantity into the sphere subsequent to Easy Quantity Measurement in MB and click on the Subsequent button to proceed. In our state of affairs, we’re dividing a 1TB SanDisk Extremely solid-state drive.

Step 5: Enable the Wizard to assign a drive letter, or manually assign the letter utilizing the drop-down menu. Click on the Subsequent button to proceed.

Step 6: Choose a file system. Since your major PC is Home windows 11, use NTFS. Additionally enter a quantity label (drive title) — we used “Home windows 10,” although you’ll be able to label this partition with something. Click on the Subsequent button to proceed.

Step 7: Click on the End button to finish.

In Disk Administration, the exterior disk ought to listing one new quantity — “Home windows 10” in our instance — and a second portion with unallocated house.

Proper-click on that unallocated house and repeat step 1 to step 6. This time, nevertheless, select exFAT because the file system throughout step 6, which you’ll use to share recordsdata with MacOS. Notice that you simply don’t must specify a quantity measurement.

The end result ought to look one thing like this:

Partition the drive in MacOS Sonoma

Partitioning an exterior drive in MacOS isn’t fairly as troublesome. Assuming that your exterior drive has no partitions, you’ll need to create two. If the drive already has a Mac-friendly partition, you’ll be able to skip forward to step 5.

Chances are you’ll first see an “initialize” error as a result of the drive’s file system isn’t “readable.” Click on on the Initialize button on the small pop-up display screen to create your first appropriate partition and start at step 5. If the error doesn’t seem, begin with step 1.

Right here, we used the identical SanDisk SSD, though MacOS pulled the Seagate USB adapter’s title somewhat than the drive’s precise title (the adapter got here from an exterior Seagate drive). Notice that the next directions additionally apply to Catalina — the one actual variations are the visible adjustments to the UI and the way inner volumes are listed.

Step 1: With Finder highlighted, click on Go on the menu bar adopted by Utilities on the drop-down menu.

Step 2: Double-click the Disk Utility icon within the following window.

Step 3: With Disk Utility open, your drive seems below Exterior situated on the left. Click on Erase, situated on the app’s high toolbar, as proven under.

Step 4: Within the following pop-up window, enter a reputation. Choose MacOS Prolonged (Journalist) because the format and GUID Partition Map because the scheme.

Step 5: Click on the Erase button to make these adjustments.

Step 6: As soon as full, your drive ought to have a single partition. Spotlight the drive once more in Disk Utility after which click on Partition listed on the high as a substitute.

Step 7: On the next pop-up (it received’t transfer), click on the small Plus button situated below the blue pie chart so as to add a second partition.

Step 8: A second portion seems, slicing the pie graph down the center. Enter a quantity title (we selected Home windows) and choose the exFAT format.

Step 9: Click on the Apply button so as to add the brand new partition.

Step 10: Click on the Partition button in an extra pop-up window to finish the method.

Step 11: Click on the Completed button to complete.

The end result ought to look one thing just like the picture under. Notice that two icons representing every drive ought to seem in your desktop, as proven.

It’s good to say that the exFAT file system isn’t 100% dependable, so that you may wish to hook your onerous drive as much as a Home windows pc and create a secondary Home windows partition to NTFS. The Home windows part incorporates our in-depth rationalization of this.

Ultimate notes

As you’ll be able to see, partitioning a tough drive isn’t a sophisticated course of, whether or not you’re utilizing Home windows or a Mac. It’s also possible to select to put in a paid software like Paragon’s Microsoft NTFS software or the free and open-source Tuxera in your Mac to allow NTFS to learn/write assist.

Are you able to share an exterior onerous drive between Mac and PC?

Sure you’ll be able to. For one of the best outcomes although, you’re going to wish to partition your exterior onerous drive for optimized read-and-write efficiency for each Home windows and MacOS.

As our information signifies, if you happen to’re primarily utilizing Home windows, you’ll wish to have the Home windows portion of your exterior HDD formatted for NTFS with a secondary exFAT partition for Mac compatibility.

If a Mac is your on a regular basis machine, use the MacOS Prolonged format, with a secondary exFAT quantity for Home windows.

Is exFAT for each Mac and Home windows?

Sure it’s. The Extensible File Allocation Desk (exFAT) format is without doubt one of the O.G. formatting strategies, nevertheless it’s greatest used for recordsdata lower than 4GB.

Remember the fact that even with third-party software program, some options like Time Machine received’t work accurately with an NTFS file system.