How to format a disk to NTFS using Mac OS X. Tuxera NTFS for Mac. Here because the link below has explained each and everything on how to make NTFS drive work.
Posted by Juno to on February 11th, 2018 External hard drive can be very convenient to help us to transfer files among computers. But it is not always so fluent to move files between Mac and PC, namely, between macOS and Windows.
The two different platforms have different default file system: the default file system on Windows is NTFS, while it is HFS+ or APFS on macOS. It should be noted that the HFS+ and APFS are not compatible with Windows and NTFS is read-only on macOS. In order to make our external hard drive seamlessly work on both Mac and PC, we need to format our drive to a file system supported by both platforms.
Three formats that can make external hard drive be compatible with Mac and PC Here are three formats we can choose to make external hard drive be compatible with both Windows and macOS: FAT32, exFAT and NTFS. We can choose the most suitable one according to our own needs. Following are the features of the three formats. FAT32 Pros: It can universally work with all versions of macOS and Windows, including a majority of recent and recently obsolete operating systems Cons: It doesn't support files larger than 4GB, drive partition larger than 32GB on Windows, or drive partition larger than 2TB on macOS. So FAT32 is suitable when we want to store files of relatively small sizes and the drive doesn't have a large capacity.
Otherwise, FAT32 is not the best choice for us. ExFAT Pros: The largest partition and file sizes it supportted are nearly unlimited by today's standards. Cons: It is not compatible with older operating systems. We must have macOS 10.6.5 or newer, and PC need to be Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 or newer. As most users have upgraded operating system, it is actually quite easy to meet to lowest operating system requirements of exFAT.
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So exFAT can be a very good option to share external hard drive between macOS and Windows. NTFS Pros: It is the default file system on Windows and has faster transfer speed, better performance than FAT32 and exFAT.
Cons: By default, NTFS is read-only on macOS. Actually, we can enable NTFS write support on macOS only with simple method. So read-only can't be a reason for us to give up using NTFS, especially when we have high requirements on transfer speed and performance of drives. This passage will offer easy methods to enable NTFS write support on macOS. How to format external hard drive for Mac and PC on Windows?
On Windows computer, we can follow the steps below to format an external hard drive for both Mac and PC. Go to Computer (or My Computer on Windows XP). Select the external hard drive from the list and right-click on it. Choose Format from the contextual menu. Choose format (NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT), and then set format information (allocation unit size, volume label and format option). Click 'Start' to format the external hard drive.
How to format external hard drive for Mac and PC on macOS? When we are using Mac, we can use the method below to make our external hard drive be compatible with both macOS and Windows.
Launch Disk Utility. Select the external hard drive on the left part of the window. Click the Erase on the top of the window. Complete related information, including name, format (Mac OS Extend refers to HFS+, MS-DOS refers to FAT32), scheme, and then click Erase button. How to mount NTFS external hard drive on macOS with read-write mode? After formatting our external hard drive to NTFS, only a can help us to mount the NTFS drive on Mac with read-write mode.
Here are two reliable NTFS for macOS software that can help. NTFS Assistant - the cheapest NTFS for Mac software in App Store NTFS Assistant is a handy NTFS driver for macOS software that can effectively mount NTFS drive as a regular drive with read-write mode. It supports macOS Mojave 10.14/10.13/10.12 and macOS 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
It is the cheapest NTFS for Mac software in App Store, and has very stable and effective performance. Step 1: Download NTFS Assistant from and install it. Step 2: Download and install on iBoysoft website to enable NTFS read-write access. Step 3: Launch NTFS Assistant and connect NTFS drive to Mac. IBoysoft Drive Manager - professional NTFS for Mac software is a professional Mac tool that can automatically enable write to NTFS drive on Mac. It supports macOS Mojave 10.14/10.13/10.12 and macOS 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7. IBoysoft Drive Manager is also a handy tool to manage external drives and network drives.
It offers a menu bar from which we can easily mount, unmount and remount network drives, external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, memory card, CF card, pen drive, etc. Tutorial to mount NTFS external hard drive on macOS with read-write mode with iBoysoft Drive Manager Step 1: Free download and install iBoysoft Drive Manager on Mac.
Which File System Should You Use? Before you format your USB drive, you need to think about which file system to use. File Systems are simply ways of organising data on a storage device (such as hard drives or SD Cards), and support for various file systems varies depending on your operating system. Windows 10 offers three file system options when formatting a USB drive: FAT32, NTFS and exFAT. Here is the breakdown of the pros and cons of each filesystem. Pros Cons Best Used For Fat 32. Compatible with all major operating systems.
Less memory usage. Cannot handle single files larger 4GB.Limited partition size (up to 32GB). Removable storage devices such as USB Flash Drives. Devices that need to be plugged into a variety of operating systems. NTFS. Can create partitions larger than 32GB. Can read/write files larger than 4GB.
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Supports on-the-fly file encryption. Limited cross-platform compatibility. Internal hard drives.
Windows system drives. ExFAT. Provides an unlimited file and partition size. You may need to install drivers to get exFAT compatibility on Linux. External hard drives. Flash drives if you want to work with files larger than 4GB. Now, let’s take a look at some ways you can format your USB drive on Windows 10.
Method 1: Format USB Drive using File Explorer This is the easiest way and simply requires you to plug in your USB Drive, open the Windows File Explorer and right click your drive to view a number of actions that you can perform. Clicking the “format” option will open a new window where you can configure the available options before formating your drive. I will be going with the NTFS file system because I need cross-platform compatibility (Windows and Linux), and I may need to transfer files larger than 4GB on occasion. As for allocation size, it all depends on what you want to do with your drive. If you have a large drive (such as a 500GB hard drive), a large allocation size such as 32 kilobytes will make your device faster, but storage space may fill up quicker. For small drives, such as 4GB or 8GB flash drives, a smaller allocation size will help conserve space.
I’m going with 4kb (4096 bytes) as my allocation size because I work with small files most of the time, and my flash drive is just 16GB. The volume label is simply the name of your USB Drive. You can name your drive anything you want. Once you have selected the options, you can click the format button to begin the formatting process. Ticking the “Quick Format” checkbox means that your drive will not be scanned for bad sectors. If you have a malfunctioning drive, you might want to uncheck that box for a more thorough scanning.
A success message will be displayed on the screen once the formatting is completed. Method 2: Format USB Drive Using Command Prompt Another method of formatting your USB drive is by using Diskpart, a command prompt utility. All commands given below should be entered without quotes. A full screenshot of the steps is shown below.
Search for the command prompt on the Start Menu or just type cmd. Right-click the command prompt icon and select “Run as Administrator.” 2. Once the command prompt opens up, type in the following command. You forgot to mention that an USB drive is built with the same hardware as Solid State Disks (SSD).
Every write action to an USB drive will shorten its live as all drives build on SSD technology. So this goes for the SSD drives themselves, the memory cards like the SD Card in your camera and phone and the USB drive. quote Even if your drive is healthy, you may still want to format it to get rid of the contents there.Quote No you don’t want to format the drive! Just don’t put sensitive data on a stick If there is nothing wrong with the stick don’t format it as a format touches EVERY bit on a drive it will shorten its live time more than normal write actions. quoteTicking the “Quick Format” checkbox means that your drive will not be scanned for bad sectors. quote Completely wrong.
I don’t know where you get your information from but when checking this checkbox the format tool will only overwrite the File Allocation Table. Where this is and how it is done depends on the format chosen. Checking this box does NOT overwrite the whole disk and data can (with special tools) be retrieved still!
Remove the checkbox to do a full format where every sector is overwritten. Even now it is possible with those special tools to retrieve data. If you want to be sure all data is destroyed you must overwrite each sector with the Hexadecimal value FF at least 2 times. Concerning Method 2: For most people DON’T DO IT! The risk is to big you pick the wrong drive and desctroy you main installation and have nothing but an empty PC left. The method does not give more than the first method.
If you can’t fix the USB drive with method 1 take a hammer and destroy it. They are to cheap to bother hours of work on. First method come out with a pop up saying Windows(10) can’t format the flash drive.
Method 2 while trying to Create Partition Primary a warning text says it can’t. The text reads:”No usable free extend could be found.
It may be that there is insufficient free space to create a partition at the specified size and offset. Specify different size and offset values or don’t specify either to create the maximum sized partition. It may be that the disk is partitioned using MBR disk. Partitioning format and the disk contains either 4 primary partitions, (no more partitions may be created), or 3 primary partitions, (no more partitions may be created), or 3 primary partitions and one extended partition, (only logical drives may be created).” The 16 G flash drive is used as memory for the cell phone.
I used my Flash Drive to run MemTest for RAM thinking i had a faulty RAM. Turns out i had insufficient RAM. Left my 16GB Flash Drive with 48MB space after deleting MemTest. Tried option one first and did not fix the problem.(It would not let me select a bigger capacity).
Then did option 2 and it fixed the problem and i now have14.4GB of usable drive space. It took ten minuets to perform both options to be up and running almost straight away. Instruction clear as day and easy to follow. Put the hammer away.
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