Snow Leopard and exFAT?

Question

Snow Leopard and exFAT?

I have a USB external hard drive that I use with my Windows 7 computer that I also want to use with my Macbook Pro. Can Snow Leopard read and write to my external hard drive if I format it with the exFAT file system? Thanks.

MacBook Pro 15", Mac OS X (10.6.3), iPod 5th gen late 2006 30GB  iPod Shuffle 2GB  iPod Touch 2nd gen 8GB

Posted on Apr 24, 2010 5:55 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Niel

Level 10

726,863 points

Apr 24, 2010 6:02 PM in response to Community User

Can Snow Leopard read and write to my external hard drive if I format it with the exFAT file system?

No.

(51463)

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Answer 2

Jul 2, 2018 1:15 AM in response to Niel

Okay, thanks.

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Answer 3

_Eric_

Level 1

118 points

Apr 24, 2010 6:55 PM in response to Community User

Format it to NTFS then use MacFUSE and NTFS-3G to make it read/write compatible with Snow Leopard.

http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/
http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/

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Answer 4

Jul 2, 2018 1:15 AM in response to _Eric_

Ooh, even better, thanks!

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Answer 5

Entegy

Level 1

108 points

Apr 24, 2010 11:38 PM in response to Community User

For 100% compatibility, format the drive as FAT32. No extra software needed. However, no single file can be larger than 4GB (folders can surpass 4GB just fine). If this isn't a problem, go FAT32, otherwise NTFS+NTFS3G

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Answer 6

Jun 19, 2010 2:00 PM in response to Entegy

The exfat file system allows one on a windows 7 system to read and copy files greater then 4 GB to a drive that has been formatted with the exfat file system is why it would be better if the MAC OS was able to read and write to a disk that was formatted exfat. Also I have never been able to success
write to an NTFS disk using my MAC system even after downloading what was recommended above

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Answer 7

Jun 20, 2010 12:03 AM in response to dec_openvms

How to get windows xp to read and write to exfat drive

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955704

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Answer 8

Rshullic

Level 1

0 points

Jun 20, 2010 12:29 AM in response to Community User

More specifics on exfat internals at rshullic.word press.com where you also find links to the spec and a technical paper I wrote. However it is windows focused.

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