Tips for Using exFAT for macOS and Windows?

[iStorm]

I've been using a Mac for about nine months now, and also still use a PC/Windows 10. I finally got around to getting a 2TB external hard drive to reformat as exFAT so that it can be used for both systems. It will mainly be used to back up files and transfer files from one system to the other. Are there any tips or tricks I should know before I get this drive formatted and put files on there for good?

A couple things I've read so far, which could very well be outdated by now are:

1. Format the drive using Windows.
   • I've noticed the Mac will put a hidden EFI partition on the drive (whether using Disk Utility or the diskutil command), so I'll most likely be following this advice and format it using Windows 10.
2. Format using an allocation unit size/cluster size no larger than 1024KB.
   • Is there an ideal allocation unit size/cluster size to use? Windows will format it using 512KB (524288 bytes) by default, and the Mac will use 128KB (131072 bytes) by default. I'm used to using the default 4096 bytes on my NTFS drives. Is it safe to use 4096 bytes for exFAT as well? Or should I stick with 128KB or 512KB...or something else? (I'm not particularly fond of the larger unit sizes since smaller files could take up more space, but wasn't sure if there was a reason for the larger sizes when using exFAT.)

Are there any other tips that would be helpful, or is there something I should be doing differently? I realize exFAT isn't journaled and using NTFS or HFS+ would be "better", but I'm not really interested in using a third party driver at this time (unless you can convince me otherwise).

 

[dwig]

#1 - seconded. Format using Windows if at all possible. Also, if errors should occur after significant use, only use Windows tools to "repair" the drive's files and format.