HDD formatted as exFAT doesn't read on MacBook Pro m2

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HDD formatted as exFAT doesn't read on MacBook Pro m2

Hi there,

So I'm new to the Mac area I've been a windows guy my whole life so this might sound like an easy day to you guys anyways I connected my HDD to Mac when it was formatted NTFS and it got recognized perfectly but didn't read it so I had to search till I found that only exFAT works on both Mac and windows and so I did

Now when I try to connect it as exFAT it doesn't even see it at all unlike before

Thanks in advance 🙏

Beram’s MacBook Pro

Posted on Jul 27, 2023 6:08 AM

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Answer 1

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Servant of Cats

Level 8

41,383 points

Jul 27, 2023 11:36 AM in response to Nani-kix

Out of the box, Macs can read NTFS volumes, but not write to them.

The Mac should be able to read and write exFAT volumes, so I wonder if you are running into a security “feature” that Apple introduced recently that requires you to authorize directly-attached USB accessories.

Allow accessories to connect to Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Jul 28, 2023 5:32 PM in response to Nani-kix

Use Disk Utility on the Mac to erase the whole physical drive as GUID partition and exFAT. Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the physical drives appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. A few years ago I saw someone post links to several articles/posts which mentioned that Windows can use file allocation sizes which are incompatible with macOS (probably depends on the actual size of the drive/partition).

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