WD EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES FOR MAC WINDOWS 10

This makes exFAT the best choice for any portable drives that store large files and connects to different computers. Its maximum file size is far beyond anything you would encounter in today's world. In contrast, exFAT has no practical limitations on file sizes or partition sizes. This isn't a major problem right now unless you have high-capacity drives, but will become more limiting as time goes on. Additionally, FAT32 only works on partitions that are 8TB or under. If you have files that are larger than this, FAT32 isn't a good choice.

The biggest drawback of FAT32 is that it only supports files up to 4GB in size. FAT32 and exFAT are the two main options for external devices today.

WD EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES FOR MAC WINDOWS 10

Read more: NTFS, FAT, exFAT: Windows 10 File Systems Explainedīecause you're more likely to use portable drives with more than one computer, file systems for these devices are designed to work across systems. Meanwhile, Windows uses NTFS (New Technology File System) for its internal drives, which other platforms can't write to natively. For example, internal disks in modern Macs use APFS (Apple File System), which Windows cannot read without additional software. While some are compatible across platforms, others aren't.

Unfortunately for compatibility's sake, there are many file systems in use today. File systems are responsible for separating a piece of data from what's next to it, controlling which users have access to what files, storing attributes of files, and much more. But how do these differ? Let's compare FAT32 and exFAT to find out.Ī file system is a way for a computer to organize the data on a storage device. When formatting an external device, like a portable hard drive, SD card, or USB flash drive, you'll usually have two main file system choices: FAT32 and exFAT. Thus, having to decide on a file system is often confusing. File systems are an important part of working with computer data, but their effects aren't immediately visible in most cases.

Wd external hard drives for mac