ExFat not mounting

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Level 1

4 points

ExFat not mounting

I have 2 exFat (on a Windows machine) formatted WD 8TB HDD's, that won't mount. Also my clients 4TB HDD doesn't show up in Finder.

SSD's also formatted exFat by the same Windows machine do however show up. Some bright mind in the support app tried to convince me exFat is not supported by Mac, but I'm pretty sure that's not true (or did I miss something going into the M1 era?

Disk Utilities does show the drives, but I cannot perform the first aid or mount the disk from there.

I'm using a fresh MacBook Pro M1 Max.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Dec 17, 2021 12:20 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Dec 17, 2021 1:16 PM in response to FaderFlip

This may be your problem. The following includes:

https://www.seagate.com/support/kb/how-to-format-your-drive-exfat-on-macos-big-sur-and-later/

When using between macOS and Windows, drives should always be formatted on macOS because not all Windows allocation unit sizes (block sizes) are supported by macOS which will prevent the drive from mounting

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Answer 2

FaderFlip Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 17, 2021 3:43 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks!

I choose ExFat because it’s supposed to be suitable for both mac and windows, but appearantly that was too good to be true.

After moving some TB’s around and formatting on the Mac it seems to work fine now!

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

124,076 points

Dec 17, 2021 2:55 PM in response to FaderFlip

An ExFAT drive formatted on Windows 10 21H2, and one formatted by Disk Utility as ExFAT only share the same formatting name, but the contents of the devices are different, as Windows writes some Windows-specific files to the device. This may have a bearing in Disk Utility and the Finder mounting confusion.

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Answer 4

ku4hx

Level 7

23,694 points

Dec 17, 2021 12:58 PM in response to FaderFlip

My experience is yes they are supported but it depends on which machine you use to format it as to Apple reading it. I haven't used ExFAT in so long I just don't remember which and have no idea if that still applies..

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ExFat not mounting

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