WD External, which format will allow use in MAC & Windows?

Format A Hard Drive Using Disk Utility (which is in your /Applications/Utilities folder)

Choose the appropriate format:

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)

• Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
• Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! backups of Mac OS X system files.
  [*]To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
  [*]To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
• Maximum file size: 8EiB
• Maximum volume size: 8EiB
• Mac OS X: Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) volume and file limits
• You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC)

NTFS (Windows NT File System)

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
  [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
  • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon ($19.95) (Best Choice for Lion and Mountain Lion)
  • For Mac OS X 10.5 and later, including Lion, FUSE for OS X
  • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36), which is an enhanced version of NTFS-3G with faster performance.
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and later versions, but is not advisable, due to instability.
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
• Maximum file size: 16 TB
• Maximum volume size: 256TB
• You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.

exFAT (FAT64)

• Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
• Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
• exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
• Maximum file size: 16 EiB
• Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
• You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
  [*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
• Maximum volume size: 2TB
• You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.

for both win and osx - exFAT is the way to go.

As others have almost mentioned, for easy read/write on both Windows and OS X, you'll want to go with something in the FAT family. For your drive, it looks like FAT32 will be fine as long as you don't have any files over 4 GB (maybe videos?). exFAT is fine as well, but it won't work with Windows XP* (or Leopard). I'd stick with FAT32 unless you are affected by any of its limitations, since it's very widely supported--and while you may not plan on needing it now, it would also work served on an AEBS and can be easily read by most Linux distros.

NTFS is read-only on OS X (without third-party drivers) but works great on Windows, and HFS+ works great on OS X but has no support on Windows without third-party utilities, a free read-only utility or a pay-for read/write driver. So, while they're ultimately better file systems, I'd stay away from them for a shared drive unless sharing with another OS will truly be a rare occasion.

Long story short: try FAT32, maybe exFAT if you need something it offers (e.g., larger file sizes) and don't mind its compatibility limitations.

*EDIT: Thanks to costabunny below for pointing out that MS released an update (KB955704) to add exFAT support to XP. I think the patch for Leopard is called "Snow Leopard," however.

RMo said:

exFAT is fine as well, but it won't work with Windows XP

Click to expand...

Just a side note that xp can have exFAT support from microsoft. There is a exFAT update available in the microsoft downloads area.

I know his only as I had to do it on my little brothers xp laptop as he wanted to backup to my external hard disk and had some work files bigger than 4Gb.

Just for future reference of course .

(i don't know if there is a similar patch for Leopard)

Apologies for interfering to this discussion but my question is regarding WD.

There might be the answer lying in the discussion above but I am not really fluent in all those formatting things. Can somebody clarify a couple of things for me please?

I am going to use one of this eternal drives for backing up my Mac Book Pro and I want to use both the Time Machine and SuperDuper soft for this. I also want to keep all of my RAW photo files on the same drive and work on them using Lightroom on MBP. Do I need to create 2 partitions for this (one for backing up files and the other one for storing my photo files)? This my first question.

The other question is if I create a partition on the drive for my photo files how can I get them on the external drive from my old windows laptop? I reckon that just drag and drop wont work?

And my last question would be this – if I choose only half of the external drive for Mac partition can I use the other half of the drive for storing the rest of my windows files/documents/music? Or any suggestions on it. I am basically want to get rid from the windows machine eventually but there is 500GB of information. I just want to save on the drive just in case i will need it.

Many thanks for any help in advance.