External drives formatted in exfat on windows are best for delivering files between mac

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Level 1

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External drives formatted in exfat on windows are best for delivering files between mac

for transfer of files (mainly Word 2010 documents and Acrobat Adobe PDF)between my Windows computer and the Mac Mini I tried when I first got the Mac mini

To use the migration route what ethernet cables between computers–one a Mac mini the other hey Windows 7 PC– but there was a problem on the Windows PC that stopped it apparently..

However, several sites advised do use external drives and that it was best that the external drive (be it either a flash drive or a larger saeta drive ) be formatted in the ex-fat format on a Windows PC. I talked to an Apple support person but the Applesupport person never knew anything abou this. But it seems to work for me. However, I am new to Apple Macs. Does anybody have any advice or comments or experience relevant to This? The format fat 32 was supposed to allow ork but was limited to I believe files no more then 4 MB or gigabytes I forget which.

Does the above sound correct and are there any possible problems for transferring files between the two types of computers in this matter? Also, I'm interested in other ways the Transfer. I note bad that These are home computers in the same room.

Any advice, comments, or experiences would be appreciated in this area print thank you!

(FYI: I used enable dictation to write this– And made several errors and I try to correct them all. But if something looks weird please try to make sense of it because of all this dictation system that is the one that is labeled "enabled dictation "actually on the computer seems much better than Dragon NaturallySpeaking–it's not perfect.) Again thank you!

Mac mini (Late 2014), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), null

Posted on Jan 26, 2016 11:58 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 26, 2016 12:18 PM in response to bobhom

ExFAT works for both Windows and OSX.

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Answer 2

rccharles

Level 6

12,969 points

Jan 26, 2016 12:32 PM in response to bobhom

be formatted in the ex-fat format on a Windows PC.

This is fine. What works is good. ex-fat is supported by both os's.

You should be able to share folders between the two machines. Just need to get all your i's dotted and t's crossed.

For syncing folders, you can use dropbox.com or box.com

R

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Answer 3

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,258 points

Jan 26, 2016 12:40 PM in response to bobhom

ExFAT requires this patch from MS to work with Windows XP

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=19364

Mac OS can see hard drives and flash drives formatted in Microsoft Proprietary File Systems and If you need a windows/mac solution where the drive is directly connected to a Window PC (excluding Network of Wifi, and/or NAS) then File Allocation Table (FAT32) ,Extended File Allocation Table (ExFAT) or Windows Next Technology File System (NTFS) can be used, however ExFat does have the advantage of the 4GB limitation for a single file that Fat32 is restricted to and overcomes the inability to write on NTFS on Mac OS (w/o 3rd party tools or a cmd line hack that can cause irreparable damage). All 3 of these windows formats will not work with TimeMachine as either a repository or source, it will not work with File Vault and it will not keep mac permissions. If you are using a network drive, from your Mac to a windows system on your network it can remain in mac format and be shared over SMB or CIFS from the host computer to a PC.

if you are sharing a network drive from a windows PC TO a Mac the drive can be in any format and I would personally use NTFS over FAT32 or ExFat as NTFS is more secure and robust than the two older FAT systems and when networked the management is hosted by windows making read, write, delete limitations of OS X to be managed in Windows and permitted.

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