FAT 32 External HDD

theBigEEE Said:

”Thanks Littles … am I right that PCs cant’s see APFS? If FAT32 format is no good for Ventura, what is the best format for both PCs and Ventura? Is exFAT an option? Another?

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You are welcome.

Use exFAT:

Use an external drive formatted with exFAT would be seen on a PC and on a Mac in System Information… as a connected device, as long as it is mounted on both devices. You just wouldn’t be able to access it, if it is not mounted. As an example, get one of these drives off-the-shelf, and it would be seen: Seagate One Touch SSD. If formatted with APFS, then only the Mac would see it. If formatted with FAT32, only the PC would see it. Note that on the original packaging, Seagate

recommends that you format it with APFS, if you want to use it for Time Machine Backups.

theBigEEE Said:

”Thanks Littles … am I right that PCs cant’s see APFS? If FAT32 format is no good for Ventura, what is the best format for both PCs and Ventura? Is exFAT an option? Another?

———-

You are welcome.

Some Photos of Original Packaging:

theBigEEE Said:

"FAT 32 External HDD: I have a FAT 32 External HDD that can be seen by PCs and by my old MacBook Pro (I no longer have) but NOT by my new MacBook Air running Ventura (13.0). I have run 'diskutil list' and the computer simply does not see it. Is there a solution?"

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Use APFS for the Format:

For this to be seen by Ventura, you need to use APFS for the format. So, plug this in to a PC to extract the data. Once extracted, connect it to a Mac, and format it to APFS in Disk Utility.

All versions of MacOS can definitely see FAT32 devices.

Check the cable - try another one to be sure. Does the drive use an external supply?... make sure it's working.

Is the drive spinning? - you should be able to hear it.

Check System Information > USB to see if the Mac can actually see the controller. If it can then the drive should show up in Disk Utility, although it may not be mounted.