The instructions in the article below are designed to help repartition and format a hard drive.

The easiest way to format the drive to FAT32 or ExFAT is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility for FAT32, or both macOS and Windows' built-in tools, Disk Utility or Disk Management respectively for exFAT. For more information about what these limitations are please see Answer ID 20778: FAT32 File System and Partition Size Limits for Windows & macOS. This is a file system limitation that affects both macOS's and Window's, and the only workaround is to format the drive to exFAT.

FAT32 has several limitations, including a 4 GB per-file limit. Most WD Drives come formatted in the NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (macOS) format.įor a hard drive to be able to be read from and written to on both a Windows and macOS computer, it must be formatted to ExFAT or FAT32 file format. This is useful if a drive is being used under both Operating System (OS) to move files between the two environments. This allows the drive to be used on both Windows and macOS.*END How to format a Drive for Use on Both Windows and macoS Using exFat or FAT32Īnswer ID 50277: Format an External Drive as exFat using Windows for use on Windows and macOS Guided AssistĪnswer ID 50276: Format an External Drive as exFat using macOS for use on macOS and Windows Guided AssistĪ Western Digital external hard drive can be used on both Windows and macOS. SSD vs.This answer explains how to format a drive in the exFAT or FAT32 file system.How to clone a hard drive as a backup for your Windows computer.What is Google Drive? A guide to navigating Google's file storage service and collaboration tools.What is an SSD? Everything you should know about solid state drives.

What is a hard drive? Everything you should know about the computer storage device.You'll see the MacOS Utilities window choose 'Disk Utility.' Now you can choose to erase your startup drive, and choose 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' as the operating system. To get around that problem, hold down the Command + R keys when you turn on your Mac and let go when the logo appears. If you want to format your Mac's system drive, you can't do that when the Mac is running normally because the drive is in use by the operating system. Usually, you'll want ExFAT, which is the default for the MacOS. Select the drive you want to format and then choose “Erase.”Ĥ. At the top of the window, click 'Erase.'ĥ. In the pop-up window, choose the file system you want to use.

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