Q: Is there any difference between Mac OS Extended Format and ExFat?
Is there any difference between Mac OS Extended Format and ExFat? I read in a blog that the ExFat was a good way to format an external drive because it avoided many of the pitfalls of the other formats, as long as it is supported by the operating system. I tried to format my new Seagate drive, and got an invalid option error. I was able to format it in Mac OS Extended format. Can you please tell me if this is similar to ExFat. Thanks.
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
Posted on Jul 13, 2012 12:15 PM
The Mac OS format can only be natively read to and written to by a computer running the Mac OS. This creates a problem if the user wishes his external, or other drive to have seamless compatibility between two different OS's, such as Windows and Mac. Yes, there are software solutions that enable a Windows PC to work with a drive formatted as Mac OS, but it gets complicated if you wish that drive to have compatibility "on the fly" with any PC you may encounter.
It turns out that the format known as ExFAT is able to be natively read by both a Mac and a PC, without running any additional drivers on either machine. ExFAT also doesn't have some of the limitations of FAT32, which both OS's will also read/write.
ExFAt is not perfect though. Formatting the drive as Mac OS Extended has some advantages on a Mac. First, it is the only format that permits all functionality of the Mac OS, such as using the drive for Time Machine.
ExFAt is often thought of as the best middleground for an external partition/drive that needs to have easy cross platform compatibility between a Mac and PC running Vista or Windows 7.
Posted on Jul 13, 2012 4:17 PM