can you use a windows-formatted external hard drive w mac?

[lip5016]

can you use a windows-formatted external hard drive w mac? i assume you'd be able to just throw it into disk utility and re-format it Mac OSX Extended..

just want to make sure bc it's a little confusing on amazon if i need a *MAC* external hard drive or if i can just get any external hard drive (regardless of what operating system it's listed as for being) and just re-format for Mac?

thank u!

 

[fat jez]

You can just reformat a windows drive. The Mac specific versions may come with extra software or are white, but the hardware is the same. You could even partition it for half Windows and half HFS+ if you wished.

 

[hallux]

What he ^^ said.

My TM drive is a standard WD My Passport drive, not a Mac version. I just converted it to GUID and formatted a partition as Mac OS Extended. The other partition is just ExFAT for the rare occasion I might need to make something available to a Windows computer - though I no longer have a PERSONAL Windows computer but I do still have family members using Windows.