How to Make External Hard Drive Compatible with Mac and PC Without Formatting

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As you may know, there is a viable neutral foundation called the exFat file system. One of the most convenient options is using an external drive in exFAT format, which is excellent for Mac and PC. External hard drives configured as ExFat systems can be easily shared between Max and Windows without issues.

Data and files can be freely transferred from one to another operating system. Buying an external hard drive that is previously configured with ExFAT. Like the Seagate, Expansion SSD is designed with ExFAT and can be leveraged directly.

Make External Hard Drive Compatible with Mac and PC Without Formatting using ExFat.

ExFat is also the best option for compatibility with Linux, but this requires some additional software. Change disk consent and read-only permission options. Select Send, Share, and Other Permissions to know who can erase or make changes to documents or programs duplicated on your external driver drive.

If approval along these lines is replaced by you or someone else, you will see a message stating that the document has only been perused or that you do not consent to any further storage changes you have made to this data. In this situation, you can peruse an external hard drive even though it is not a hard drive by right-clicking on the disk symbol for additional options and selecting “Get Data” to see the plate data.

NTFS document framework assumes you cannot write Drivers Drive. That may be why no one peruses tDriverd drive, but you can try the concomitant arrangement without further formatting and get around this.

Partition of an external drive for Windows and Mac. It’s best when you agree to divide your extern drivers’ drive into different sections for PC and Mac. You can partitDrivehe Drive for different dedicated file systems. It is the perfect option if you have a larger external hard drive.

Another alternative is to use a time machine or another technique to back up your Windows extern driver’s Drive. Reformatting the extern drivers Drive with Mac’s operating system framework and the developer’s HFS document framework is all considered. At this point, the retained information can be resetDrivehe the drive. Sponsored and re-established records are stDrivein drive using a document framework that Mac fully imports, whether or not they originally came from the PC.

This way, you can run it entirely on your Mac without having to change your Mac’s working arrangement so that the external disk drive works properly on your Mac. However, sometimes this arrangement does not work for everyone. You may need to utilDrivehe the drive you are using with your PC sporadically. Anyway, luckily it’s not a work of art. Several utilities allow your Mac to write to mounted NTFS media.

A few drives come with various easily downloadable programs and software and offer the same compatibility. But the question is when to update the working framework of your Mac or PC. Will the product still be viable? Sometimes not.

File operating systems

Windows to Mac: The Go Flex line of desk external hard drives incorporates NTFS drivers, making it easy for Mac operating systems to understand the NTFS document framework. That is an excellent arrangement that Seagate drives provide for moving information between Mac and Windows PCs. You can also set your external driver’s Drive to FAT32 for easy use on Windows and Mac.

Understanding hard drives designed as Fat32 and FAT on a Mac with OS 10.2 or earlier is straightforward. Utilizing FAT32 arrayed drives within the Max climate is suggested for a short period of information movement. Data degradation may occur when using FAT32 for an all-inclusive period on your Mac.

Likewise, remember that you may be subject to a 4GB document movement limit. Do not use NTFS array drives. For non-GoFlex drives, Mac OS X 10.3 Panther and later versions work with NTFS-designed volumes. But it only works for perusal. You can easily copy or duplicate information from an external hard drive but not copy it. For FAT32, it is recommended that the volume and segment size of tDriverd Drive not exceed 32 GB.

ExternDriverd Drive not showing in the disk management window 10 – How to fix it?

Occasionally, you may encounter such a problem and wonder how to fix the external drive not showing up in Windows 10. You can fix the software if you install the Chrome VPN extension and download the correct file.

Possible causes of this problem include improper or incorrect hardware connections, raw disk or missing drive letter, outdated or damaged drivers, incompatible file system, extern drivers Drive not assigned, disk failure, physical damage, etc. So, depending on the possible cause.

Below are some methods you can easily apply to fix the problems.

Method 1: Check the hardware connection

You can check if the external driver’s drive is properly connected, plug the USB cable into another USB port, or connect it to another PC to see if it is recognized. If it still doesn’t show up on your system, try other fixes below.

Method 2: Assign a drive letterDrivehe Drive

If the external stern drive letter is missing or conflicts with another drive, it won’t appear on your PC. In Windows Disk Management, you can check if a drive has been assigned a drive letter and assign or change a drive letter.

  • Press Windows + X and select Disk Management.

You can see all the disks found in Disk Management are listed. You can right-click E Drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths if your external hard drive is listed but has no drive letter. Then click the Add button and select the appropriate drive letter or the Change button to change the drive letter.

Method 3: Update or Reinstall Device Drivers

Due to driver issues, Windows 10 errors may not appear on external hard drives. You can update or reinstall the device driver by following the steps.

  • Press Windows + X and select Device Manager.

In the Device Manager window, you can expand Disk Drives and check the status of your external hard drives. There is a driver problem if there is a yellow or red mark next drive he Drive. You can install the latest driver by right-clicking on the extern driver’s drive, clicking Update Driver, and selecting Search automatically for updated driver software.

Alternatively, you can uninstall the driver by selecting Remove Device. Restart your computer to reinstall the driver automatically.

Method 4: Run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter

Another solution to fix external hard drives not detected or not recognized by Windows 10 errors is to troubleshoot hardware and devices. You can open the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter window by pressing Windows + R, typing msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic in the Run dialogue box, and then pressing Enter.

Method 5: Create a new partitionDrivehe Drive

If your newly purchased external driver’s drive is not assigned and doesn’t have a partition yet, it may not appear in Windows 10 File Explorer. You can follow the steps below to create a new partition and make it recognized by your computer.

  • Press Windows + X and select Disk Management.

Suppose the extern driver’s drive is unallocated or marked as uninitialized. In that case, you can initialize the disk by right-clickingDrivehe the drive, selecting Initialize Disk, and then selecting the MBR or GPT format. Next, you can right-click on the unallocated area and select New Simple Volume.

You can quickly create a new partitionDrivehe Drive in the New Simple Volume Wizard window by selecting a file system such as NTFS.

Method 6: Run CHKDSK to Check and Repair Disk Errors

If the disk has logical errors or is corrupted, you may get an error that Windows 10 detects your external driver Drive but does not open it. You can use the Windows CHKDSK utility to check and fix errors on your disk.

  • Press Windows + R, type cmd, then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to run the command prompt as administrator.

Then type the CHKDSK*: /f /r and replace “*” with the drive letter of your extern driver drive. Press Enter to run CHKDSK to check and fix disk errors.

If you want to recover data lost due to disk failure or corruption, you can try MiniTool Power Data Recovery, an accessible data recovery program.

That’s it.

How to Format an External Hard Drive in Windows 10 in 2023?

Since we are about formatting an external hard drive, the supported operating system is Windows 10. However, before formatting the extern driver’s drive, double-check if there are any critical files on the river drive.

If you have one, prepare a proper backup before proceeding with the external hard drive formatting process described below.

First, connect your Windows computer arrived drive

So, to format an external hard drive, you need to connect it the same way you do with your Windows 10 PC. So, if your extern driver’s drive is compatible with your Windows computer, it will immediately connect and appear under the Devices/Drivers section.

Second, use the format option.

When the extern driver’s drive appears in the system, you must right-click on the tDriverd drive and select the Format option from the list of options. You should checkDrivehe Drive displays a memory graph, so you know if it is already empty and has some files in it and whether it needs to be backed up or not.

Third, choose a file system.

Although many of us don’t see it or think it’s crucial, choosing a file system while formatting an external hard drive is essential. As the default selection, Windows always chooses the New Technology File System (NTFS). However, if you want the same extern driver’s drive to work on your Mac, use the Extensible File Allocation Table (exFAT) instead of NTFS.

Fourth, again choose format options.

One of the essential things when formatting an external hard drive is to choose a format option: Quick or Normal. Regular format options are not displayed in the Format Drive dialogue box, so uncheck the format options.

Also, sometimes choosing a format option depends on the files or dataDrivehe drive. Your external hard drive will be formatted if you choose a quick D drive. Otherwise, the extern driver’s drive will be entirely and thoroughly formatted. Crystal Clean External Hard Drive Format!

Final thing

After narrowing down the formatting options for your extern drivers’ drive, click Format and complete the process. When you’re done, tap OK, and you’ll see a message your external hard drive will be successfully formatted.

Now that you’ve formatted your extern driver’s drive, you’ll want to keep it compatible with both PC operating systems. To do this, partition the extern driver’s drive. That way, some drives will work fully with Windows OS, and others will work in a way compatible with macOS.

Partitioning an external hard drive in Windows 10

A determining part of the external hard drive Drive is also compatible with macOS. Let’s see how to partition an external drive on Windows 10 PC without further ado.

  • Go to the search options (Windows icon) and type “MSC.”
  • Tap the drive Drive (already connected) to follow the process and select Shrink Volume from the list of options. (If you don’t see the option, reformat the extern driver’s drive and select the type as NTFS).
  • If volume reduction is available, click the same volume and enter the amount of memory in megabytes for which you want to Drive shrDrivehe.
  • After entering the memory size, press Shrink, and the command will spDrivehe Drive into two parts (one completely unallocated).
  • You can now see the unallocated space in the Disk Management window, so right-click on the same space and tap New Simple Volume.
  • Follow the prompts to enter the partition size on which to create the allocated space.
  • Click Next and select the alphabet for the new (yet partitioneDriverd drive.
  • In the next step, you will be asked to choose the file system format, and since we are talking about Mac, we will go with exFAT (an upgraded version of FAT32).
  • Click on the Quick Format option and go through the format process to drive as clean as possible.
  • When the new extern driver’s drive is successfully formatted, it will open automatically, and you will know it was a successful operation.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you have found this article helpful. If you have any questions, you can ask in the comment section.

YAM

Hi, I am YAM, a tech content writer. I have written about the latest technology, gadgets, software & apps for over 5 years. I love to learn, read & try new gadgets and Tech. I founded 10techno to help you find the best Tech Gadgets and techniques for Making your choice easily without hassle.