Archive question - external HDD etc

[Supersadie]

Hi
Hiding under a bed I have several old laptops (all Windows) which I need to dispose of.
I thought about going through all the 'stuff' and archiving what I 'need', then wiping the disk, but I'm not very minimalist (understatement) and the time isn't worth the trouble. I do want to keep the stuff though, so
I am thinking to remove the hard drive and get rid of the rest. Thing is this:

1) If I get a case for the hard drives, will my mac be able to read the contents? I'm a bit confused about FAT32, NTFS and so on...

2) I have emails I'd like to keep, which were setup in desktop Outlook. I'm not sure whether the Mac will be able to open them. Think they're in pst files...

I have 365 on the Mac.
Hope someone knowledgeable can help.
Thank you.

 

[casperes1996]

1) If I get a case for the hard drives, will my mac be able to read the contents? I'm a bit confused about FAT32, NTFS and so on...

Read, yes. Write, no. Not without buying additional software. Though there is a piece of software for sale that lets you write to NTFS. But you can read them out of the box.

Beware though - if the drives are old they may be on the brink of failing. - And drives can't be archived forever without being rewritten. HDDs much longer than SSDs, but they can still lose the magnetic charge.

2) I have emails I'd like to keep, which were setup in desktop Outlook. I'm not sure whether the Mac will be able to open them. Think they're in pst files...

I don't know for sure - but I can tell you that you can probably see the contents even if the formatting isn't correct.

 

[Supersadie]

Read, yes. Write, no. Not without buying additional software. Though there is a piece of software for sale that lets you write to NTFS. But you can read them out of the box.

Beware though - if the drives are old they may be on the brink of failing. - And drives can't be archived forever without being rewritten. HDDs much longer than SSDs, but they can still lose the magnetic charge.



I don't know for sure - but I can tell you that you can probably see the contents even if the formatting isn't correct.

[doublepost=1528615577][/doublepost]That's it. I remember now about the read/write problem. Which format HDD can Mac write to? Is it compatible with Windows?
Finally, does the same apply to memory sticks?
Best wishes and thanks for advice.

 

[casperes1996]

That's it. I remember now about the read/write problem. Which format HDD can Mac write to? Is it compatible with Windows?
Finally, does the same apply to memory sticks?
Best wishes and thanks for advice.

The device is irrelevant. Whether it's a memory stick, a hard drive or an SSD doesn't matter.

Windows by default uses NTFS which macOS can read but not write to. The best file system usable by both operating systems is ExFAT

 

[Supersadie]

I saw that most memory sticks are FAT32 so they can be used with both devices. I presumably need software to format it.
Thanks for the info about ExFat. Perhaps I should use should use ExFAT for both to keep things consistent.

 

[casperes1996]

I saw that most memory sticks are FAT32 so they can be used with both devices. I presumably need software to format it.
Thanks for the info about ExFat. Perhaps I should use should use ExFAT for both to keep things consistent.

Both Windows and macOS come with built-in tools for formatting Drives. I forget what they call it on Windows, but it's Disk Utility on macOS.

Most somewhat recent memory sticks actually use ExFAT, not pure FAT.

If you format a drive as ExFAT with Disk Utility on macOS, beware; For some reason Windows doesn't always like ExFAT drives formatted on a Mac, but the Mac will gladly use ones formatted by Windows. That is if you use a GPT partitioning table at least. With a Master Boot Record it should also work the other direction