What to Format Hard Drive for Mac?

How to Format an External Hard Drive for Mac

Mac OS Extended Journaled is the best option for most Mac users since it is compatible with all Macs.
APFS Apple File System is only for newer Macs running macOS 10.13 or later.
exFAT is compatible with both PC and Mac.

What is the Best Format for a Mac External Hard Drive?

HFS+ Mac OS Extended Journaled is the best format for an external or portable hard drive youre only using on a Mac. Or sharing with a Mac. APFS is a format option for external drives on Macs running MacOS 10.13 or later.

What is ExFAT Format on Mac?

exFAT is the preferred file format for flash storage drives that you share between Windows and Mac. exFAT has no realistic file or partition size limits. It also doesnt require complicated ACLs and file attribution system like NTFS.

Should I Format my External Drive to APFS?

Optimized for allflash storage, APFS features strong encryption, space sharing, fast directory sizing, and improved file system fundamentals. If you intend to use your external drive to move files between Macs running different OS versions, it is recommended that you format your drive in HFS+ instead.

Choosing the Right Format for Your External Hard Drive

However, if youre working primarily with Mac computers , youre probably better off using HFS+, which stands for Hierarchical File System, for native support. Also known as Mac OS Extended or HFS Extended, HFS+ is an improvement on the HFS file system, by supporting larger files and using Unicode for naming files.

Which File System is Used in Mac OS?

Apple File System (APFS), the default file system for Mac computers using macOS 10.13 or later, features strong encryption, space sharing, snapshots, fast directory sizing and improved file system fundamentals.

What File System is Used on a Hard Disk in a Computer Running Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite?

Disk Utility on Mac supports several file system formats: Apple File System APFS: The file system used by macOS 10.13 or later. Mac OS Extended: The file system used by macOS 10.12 or earlier. MSDOS FAT and ExFAT: File systems that are compatible with Windows.

What Format should my Hard Drive be for Mac?

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.

Optional Formatting and Partitioning

NTFS—The native file system for Windows. macOS can read NTFS volumes but cannot natively write to them. Mac OS Extended HFS+ —An Apple file system optimized for macOS 10.12 and earlier. This file system remains the best option for external hard drives and is the only format compatible with Time Machine.

Does NTFS Work on Mac?

Apples macOS can read from Windowsformatted NTFS drives, but cant write to them out of the box. Here are a few solutions for getting full read/write access to NTFS drives. This could be useful if you want to write to a Boot Camp partition on your Mac, as Windows system partitions must use the NTFS file system.

How to Format a Hard Drive For Both Windows and Mac

Windows uses NTFS while Mac OS uses HFS, and they're incompatible with each other. However, you can format the drive to work with both Windows and Mac by using the exFAT filesystem.

Which File Format is Best for Mac and Windows?

exFAT is a good option if you work often with Windows and Mac computers. Transferring files between the two operating systems is less of a hassle, since you dont have to constantly back up and reformat each time. Linux is also supported, but you will need to install appropriate software to take full advantage of it.