Mac OS X and Windows can both read and write to disks in the FAT or ExFat format. Because Mac OS X Mountain Lion does not natively support writing to an external NTFS drive, you must erase your hard disk and format it using a compatible file system. Once formatted, you can connect your external hard drive to your Mac and transfer the data to the external drive. If your company switches between Windows and Mac computers often, keep an ExFat formatted disk available for quick file transfers.
Nov 15, 2019 By default, your Mac starts up from its built-in hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains an operating system compatible with your Mac. For example, if you install macOS on an internal or external drive, your Mac can recognize that drive as a startup disk. You can then follow the steps in this article to start up.
Hard Drive Formatting and Optional PartitioningStep 1
Connect the external hard drive to the Mac using the provided connector cable.
Step 2
Click the 'Go' menu, 'Utilities' and open 'Disk Utility' on your Mac.
Step 3
Select the external disk from the sidebar, and click the 'Erase' tab. Select 'ExFat' from the Format drop-down field. Click 'Erase.'
If you want to partition the disk to save any data already on the disk, click the 'Partition' tab, click the '+' button and drag the original partition to resize. Click the 'New' partition you created, and select 'ExFat' from the Format drop-down list. Click 'Apply.'
Step 1
Connect the external hard drive to your Mac.
Step 2
Drag the files you want to transfer to the external hard drive's icon on your desktop. If the hard drive doesn't appear, click the 'Finder' icon in the Dock and click on the external hard drive in the Devices section. Then, drag the files to the external hard drive's window.
Step 3
Drag the hard drive icon to the Trash when the files have finished transferring. Or, open 'Finder' and click the 'Eject' button next to the external hard drive. If you get a notice that a file copying operation is in progress, click 'Cancel' and wait for it to finish.
Step 4
Connect the hard drive to your Windows computer. Open the external hard drive by clicking the 'Start' button, 'Computer' and selecting your hard drive.
Step 5
Drag the files from the external hard drive onto the Windows computer if you want to save a local copy.
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January 2023
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