Photo by Sharon Vaknin/CNET If you need to expand your storage space with an external hard drive and you use both Mac and PC, you'll likely run into a few obstacles. Hard drives advertised as being compatible with Windows and Mac OS may have misled you into thinking you could actually use one hard drive for both computers. You can, but not out of the box. Most external hard drives (HD) are sold in a format called NTFS, which is designed to work with Windows.
Macs read and write to a different format, called HFS+. Another format, called FAT32 is compatible with both OS platforms. Here's a look at how the different HD format types function: FAT32 (File Allocation Table) - Natively read/write FAT32 on Windows and Mac OS X. Maximum file size: 4GB - Maximum volume size: 2TB NTFS (Windows NT File System) - Natively read/write NTFS on Windows.
Feb 17, 2009 - tags: apple, hard drive, partition, time machine. Plug your USB external hard drive into your Mac. To use a Seagate 1TB external USB drive to backup my iMac and two windows machines connected via Airport Extreme.
Read-only NTFS on Mac OS X - Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and above but has proven instable. Maximum file size: 16 TB - Maximum volume size: 256TB HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, aka Mac OS Extended) - Natively read/write HFS+ on Mac OS X - Required for Time Machine - Maximum file size: 8 - Maximum volume size: 8EiB Isn't FAT32 the obvious solution? According to the list above, formatting your hard drive to FAT32 so that you can read and write on either OS seems like the obvious solution. The video and directions below will guide you through the process, but before you format your HD to FAT32, beware of these drawbacks.
FAT32 offers no security, unlike NTFS, which allows you to set permissions. If your HD gets into the wrong hands, that person will be able to access your data. The max size for any given file stored on a FAT32-formatted HD is 4GB. So, for example, if you want to store a 9GB movie, it will be impossible. In general, FAT32 drives are more susceptible to disk errors.
It's not a huge issue, but FAT32 is less efficient at storing files. Its large cluster sizes waste disk space, unlike the other HD storage formats. 2:55 If you've considered these issues and would still like to use FAT32, this video will guide you through the process of formatting your HD to FAT32 using a Windows or Mac PC: OK, what are my alternatives to using FAT32? The good news is, it's not FAT32 or nothing. The alternative solutions do require more tinkering, but if you do not want to risk FAT32's lack of security, choose from one of the following alternatives.
Option 1: Format to NTFS, and use NTFS-3G to read/write on Mac. If you keep your hard drive's out-of-the-box NTFS format for all the reasons FAT32 displeases, there's a workaround that will allow your Mac to read and write files to the drive. Is an open-source program that, when coupled with, will let you use your NTFS drive on your Mac. However, it is an open-source program, so use it at your own risk. Many have vouched for its success, but others complain about bugs.
The commercial solution, which will give you access to support and software updates, is. It's $20, offers Lion support, and you get a five-day trial to try before you buy.
Option 2: Format to HFS+, and use HFS Explorer to read/write on PC. Conversely, you can format the HD to HFS+ and use HFSExplorer for Windows to read and write to the Mac-formatted hard drive. To get started, you'll first have to format the hard drive from NTFS to HFS+. Here's how: Plug your HD into the Mac and open Disk Utility, which can be accessed by searching for it in Spotlight.
Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. Now go to the Erase tab. In the Volume Format list, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Then, click Erase at the bottom to format the drive. Please note that this will complete erase the drive. Any data you want to keep on that drive must be backed up elsewhere first.
Now that the hard drive is formatted to HFS+, on your Windows machine to get read and write access to the drive. This is an open-source program, so use it at your own risk. Alternatively, you can opt for paid software like instead.
Option 3: Create two partitions on your hard drive to use with each OS, separately. This solution is a little different than the previous two because instead of having one hard drive that works with both machines, you're splitting your HD into two sections, each dedicated to a different OS. For example, if you have a 1TB hard drive, 500GB of storage can be used with your Windows computer, and 500 will be dedicated to your Mac computer.
You won't be able to write to the Mac side from your Windows computer, and vice versa, but it's a good solution for people who want all the advantages each format has to offer for its respective system. Here's how to do it: Step 1: Connect the empty external HD to your Mac and launch Disk Utility. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the Partition tab. Under Partition layout, select '2 Partitions.' Now, drag the boxes to adjust the size of each partition. For example, you might want more storage for your Mac than you do for your PC.
Now, click on the top partition, name it 'Windows,' and change its format to MS-DOS. Then click the second partition, name it 'Mac,' and change its format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Give your settings a final lookover and click Apply. Step 2: Plug the hard drive into your Windows PC.
Open the Start menu and search for Disk Management. Select the search result and the Disk Management utility will launch. In the left sidebar, you should see your hard drive and its partitions. Right-click the Windows partition and select Format. In the Format dialog box, under File System, select FAT32. Click OK and complete the format process.
With these three options you'll be able to take advantage of either platform's offerings, be it Time Machine support or security options. In the end, you may end up using FAT32 for its simplicity, but don't say I didn't warn you about the risks.
Mac computers, whether you have an iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or another Mac device, all have a finite amount of space. How you use it depends how quickly, or not, that space fills up and whether you need to add more space — either internally (such as upgrading to an SSD), or connecting to one or more external hard drives. One thing you may not know is that the Mac boot drive is already partitioned. In all fairly recent models, the boot drive contains a secret partition that includes the macOS Recovery System, some essential Mac first aid tools and an installer, should, for any reason, your macOS fail to install or reboot. Before we go into how to partition a Mac hard drive or SSD, let’s consider the benefits, and what you would need to do before partitioning a hard drive.
Benefits of making a partition in a Mac hard drive One of the main reasons for implementing a partition is to run more than one operating system, such as macOS on one and Windows on the other. Or you can run two versions of the same OS in both sides of the partition, all from a single disk. Each disk drive, with its own volume, is found and treat separately in the Finder. Once you know how to partition a hard drive on Mac, or how to partition an external hard drive on Mac, you can format and manage them separately, effectively giving you two computers within one.
Although, if you want to use the other volume to run an earlier version of your Mac — which you can, using Time Machine, the volume for that side has to be twice as large as the space it requires. What to do before partitioning a hard drive Before going ahead with a partition, it’s always useful to tidy your Mac up.
Most users find they have way more clutter and junk than they think. Between old folders and documents, images and videos, apps taking up space, hundreds of email attachment downloads and local iOS backups, many people find they have at least 62GB of junk they simply don't need. We recommend downloading, a powerful Mac cleaner, ideal for decluttering your Mac before creating a partition. How to partition a hard drive or SSD on Mac There are several ways this can be done. Use Boot Camp Boot Camp is especially useful if you want to run Windows on your Mac. With Boot Camp comes Boot Camp Assistant, a handy app for partitioning your hard drive space so that one disk drive can run and operate macOS, and the other, Windows. Following the on-screen instructions of this Mac app, you can partition your hard drive or SSD space to ensure that Windows will run smoothly on your Mac, almost as if it was operating on a native Windows PC or other device.
However, for those who don't want to partition Mac for that purpose, you can use Disk Utility. Use Disk Utility Disk Utility is another Mac application that will repair and, as needed, partition disk drive spaces. As a Mac partition manager, it is a useful app that sits within your Utilities folder, inside your Applications folder. Before starting a Mac partition exercise, it’s worth fully backing-up the folder you want to copy using Carbon Copy Cloner.
Another useful tool that gives you an instantly bootable copy of the drive you are going to partition, working on the assumption that if anything goes wrong during this process, you are going to lose everything that is on that hard drive. So with a backup, nothing can go wrong, and if it does, you can easily fix it. Before partitioning:. Clone the drive. Make sure the clone has worked and with your cloned drive you can boot this up from the startup menu.
Plug the clone in and go to System Preferences Startup Disk. Check the cloned drive works, and then you can partition without any worries. Now you are ready to partition hard drive on Mac, starting with the following:. Press Command-Shift-U or go to Utilities in the Applications folder. Double-click the Disk Utility application. In Disk Utility, select your Mac’s internal drive (or an internal SSD).
You should see two options: First Aid or Partition. Click Partition.
Click the ‘+’ below Partition Layout. Now a new Partition will appear, and you can change the size according to what you need.
Give this new drive a name. If it hasn't worked exactly as you want, you can always click Revert to unpartition hard drive on Mac. Or, once you are happy with the size, click Apply. You may also be asked to click a lock symbol in the bottom left-hand corner to confirm everything. But don't worry if you want to make changes down the road. Everything you have done is reversible, so you can change the size or repartition hard drive on Mac. Once the partition is done (which doesn't take as long as you might imagine) you will have a completely new hard drive or internal SSD, identical to your original, except without anything in it.
Upload anything you need, or use the cloned version to store everything that was in the original hard drive - which still exists - in this partitioned version. Within Disk Utility, you have the option of increasing or decreasing the size, erasing altogether (just remember to backup anything you need first), which will restore the space lost in the partition to your primary hard drive. Always backup before making any changes to a partition. And remember, before making a partition, clean up your Mac from all the junk it contains. The fastest and the safest way to do that is to use. Try it today to rid your system of unwanted files and enjoy improved performance. These might also interest you:.