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File transfer from external windows disk to Mac external disk

All my pics are on a external windows disk. My Mac can read them, but that’s it.

can I simply buy a external disk formatted for Mac and transfer all the pics with both drives connected to my Mac?

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 11.6

Posted on Oct 17, 2021 5:03 AM

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5 replies

Oct 17, 2021 2:15 PM in response to robertfromleeuwarden

In theory - Yes.


But most new drives are generally formatted by the Manufacture for the Windows type computers. That being either Fat 32 or maybe exFat - if that is the case - no issues as Apple Computers can Read and Write to these two file formats.


Should the New Drive come as Windows formatted as NTFS format, yes the drive can be Read in Apple macOS but the same issue will be presented in that the Apple macOS will not be able to Write anything to the drive. Then the Reformating process will have to be done to get Full Usage of the new drive.

Oct 17, 2021 6:03 PM in response to robertfromleeuwarden

If you need to share a drive between a Mac and Windows, then make sure to use Disk Utility to erase the whole physical drive as GUID partition and exFAT. If the external drive is only to be used with a Mac, then erase the drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled).


If you have an M1 Mac, then I've seen reports on these forums where some external drives don't mount properly (especially ones formatted with NTFS). Some of this may be due to the USB controller used by the external drive and part of it may be due to the NTFS volume. The details of the issue are not clear because I have not seen any in depth investigation into the issue.


It is best to have macOS manage the external drives. Installing third party software to manage an external drive typically causes problems.

File transfer from external windows disk to Mac external disk

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