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Possibly the best solution to using a hard drive with both Windows and Mac without the use of third-party software is creating two partitions on the drive, one for Windows and one for Mac. Oct 13, 2017 - If you have a USB drive, and you plan to use it on both a Mac and PC, things. Hard disks and flash drives are formatted for Microsoft Windows.
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Want to pay it forward? Consider donating to the Electronic Frontier Foundation! They give you stickers! Hey all I got a Seagate External Hard Drive so I can back up my first laptop which runs on Windows Vista- yes, I know it's the worst operating system but it's a long story as to why I am still using it. I am planning to get a Macbook next month and would like to eventually back that up onto the drive as well. I would like to format it to be fully compatible with Mac as well from the get-go before transferring anything at all since formatting it erases everything from the drive Since I don't have a Mac right now, is it possible to format this drive for both operating systems using Windows Vista? The steps I found online for Vista weren't very helpful at all since I heard using 'partition' is particularly helpful and that step isn't available for the Vista section: I went so far as to the 'format' step for the drive but wasn't sure if I should just format it to eXFat for it to work for both or follow these steps below.The author recommends that we do it on PC first, but the steps seem like they are for Macs.
So confused: 'The optimum choice is to format it ExFAT, but do so on the PC, not the Mac. Alternatively, you can make two partitions - one for the Mac; one for the PC. Partition the drive using GUID when you make the two partitions. Format one using Mac OS Extended, Journaled.
Format the other on your PC using NTFS if you won't need to write to it from the OS X side or use ExFAT if you do. Drive Partition and Format. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.' S ID and size) from the left side list.
Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) you will use for Windows from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to MSDOS. Click on the Erase button.
When you connect the drive to your PC reformat the PC volume to either NTFS or ExFAT.' TLDR; How to format Seagate external HD using Windows Vista and the 6 steps above? The author recommends that we do it on PC first, but the steps seem like they are for Macs. So confused The guide you quote does indeed recommend formatting it as exFAT in Windows but then they also provide an alternative solution if the first solution proposed does not work for you, the steps that follow are connected to that alternative solution, not to the initial suggestion of formatting the drive with exFAT.
Just follow the instructions in the Seagate guide you linked to and format the drive as exFAT. That is all you need to do.
The exFAT filesystem will work on both Windows and OS X. Its not an alternate per se. The author literally start the sentence with the word 'Alternatively'.
The author's first suggestion is just formatting the entire drive as exFAT, then he suggest an alternative solution which is to have two partitions where as you say it is pretty much necessary to start with the OS X partition. But the instructions for doing that is part of the authors explanation for his alternate solution, OP seemed to be confused as he thought the instructions were connect to the first suggestion of just formatting the drive as exFAT, which they are not, and that confusion is what I tried to clarify in my comment, nothing more. If you simply want to have a data drive that can be shared across Mac and PC just format the drive in ExFAT.
External drives come partitioned, you simply want to reformat it with an ExFAT partition. Just make sure you are using SP1 or later in Vista to enable ExFAT.
However, for backup purposes, you want to create two partitions because you wont be able to use Time Machine on an ExFAT parition. If you are just looking to backup certain files, you can use a third party backup software to backup to an ExFAT drive.
However for full system image backups or anything involving Time Machine, you want to use HFS+ (aka Mac OS Extended, Journaled.) The author recommends that we do it on PC first, but the steps seem like they are for Macs. So confused: what he is saying is that, if you want to use exFAT on the entire drive, format it on PC (no longer relevant with new versions of OSX) but if you want to use two partitions do it the following way. If this is the case, you want to partition the drive on a Mac.
This lays it out clearer: To be perfectly honest, i would simply buy another drive for Time Machine backups and avoid sharing it with the PC or even anything else. You should buy a drive 2-3 times your expected amount of data. (ie, if you plan to use 250GB of a 500GB drive, get a 500-750GB dedicated to Time Machine) ALL THAT being said, if you only want to backup documents and certain folders, use a third party backup tool instead of Time Machine and rock on with exFAT. I am a total noob with technology guys. I have no idea what Time Machine, SP1, HFS+, and partitions are. Time to google and hopefully it isn't confusing.
Why would you want to partition it instead of just doing it the easy way by just formatting it to exFat? Even though multiple people are suggesting eXFat, I still wouldn't be able to do full system back up with it unless I use this HFS+ thing? Sorry if these questions are dumb. Again, I have no knowledge on these types of things. Thank you so much.
Video editors will often find that they need to share files between a PC and a Mac. Use these steps to format external hard drives for both operating systems. Top Image via As a video editor or, you will often need to share files with others. Eventually you will find out that you may not be working on the same operating system (OS) as others. If you work solely on a Mac, but need to send files to someone working on a PC, your external hard drive needs to be set up for both operating systems. Let’s take a look at the different types of formats, and which are best for video production. Formatting the Hard Drive A vast majority of video production will be done on a Mac or Windows operating system, so we aren’t going to cover Linux.
Hard drives set up for use on Windows machines only will often use, while Macs will use. That said, if you are using both a PC and Mac in the workflow, you’ll need to use a different format. Image from You may be using only Macs or PCs in your own office, but you will also need to take into account what type of machines your client is using. If you need to send them RAW files or an edited sequence, you will need to make sure the external hard drive is set up for both operating systems. To do this, you will need to use either or formats.
This will allow you to use the hard drive on both a Mac and PC. FAT32 is often used among general users, but FAT32 has limitations that can affect filmmakers. FAT32 has a maximum file size of 4 GB per file. The limitation affects both Mac and PC users. A single high resolution file can easily go over 4 GB, so Fat32 may not the best format. The best format for video production is exFAT.
The maximum individual file size for exFAT is 16 EB. 1 EB, or exabyte, is 1 billion GB. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes — FAT32 can suffice. Format Hard Drive (Mac) 1. Connect the external hard drive to the computer.
Click Go on the top tool bar, and select Utilities. Open Disk Utility. Select the external hard drive on the left-hand side. Click the Partition tab. Change the Partition Layout from Current to 1 Partition.
Click Options, Select Master Boot Record, and click OK. Name the hard drive with a name of your choice.
Click the Format drop-down menu. Select exFat (or MS-DOS FAT for a FAT32 format). Hit Apply, then click on Partition.
Formatting Hard Drive (Windows) Image from 1. Right-Click on the Windows icon in the lower left-hand corner. Select Disk Management. Right-Click on the external hard drive in the Volume tab.
Click Format. Name the hard drive. Select exFAT (or FAT for FAT32). Naming and Labelling Hard Drives If you will be using multiple external hard drives on a project, you’ll want to make sure to keep them organized.
This includes the way you name the drive and how you label it. One of my personal tricks is naming all drives after an actor. For instance, one project had several external drives, all of which were named after different characters — Mugatu, Megamind, Lord Business, and Ron Burgundy.
Another project used characters — Forrest and Woody. Remember that external drives should be used temporarily — and all footage should be backed up elsewhere. To make sure everything is copied correctly. There are plenty of ways you can label your drives. You can simply use some masking tape or gaff tape, and then write the name of the drive.
You can also use, which are the awesome stickers featured above. You easily put them on your external drive to keep track of them. If you are a parent, like myself, you can also use any stickers you have lying around the house. I recently had Kermit the Frog and Optimus Prime hard drives. No matter how you label your hard drives, just make sure you keep track of them.
You never know when you will need that footage from a three-year-old project. Got any hard drive organizational tips to share with the community?