Which format should I use for my external hard drive?

Hi Filabaca:

If you want to use an external drive on both Mac and PC your options are:

1. Format the drive in Mac as exFat

2. Format the drive as NTFS in a Windows PC and use a program such as Paragon NTFS for Mac. https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Paragon NTFS for Mac allows you to use a drive formatted as NTFS by a Windows PC.

Here is an article showing the difference between FAT32, exFAT and NTFS. http://www.howtogeek.com/235596/whats-the-difference-between-fat32-exfat-and-ntf s/

Kim

The 4GB max file size is imposed by the FAT32 filesystem format, which is not present in ExFAT or NTFS. Note that most new external drives nowadays come from factory in MBR/NTFS format. Since NTFS is Microsoft-Proprietary and Apple does not want to have to go thru hoops to get a reliable long term licensing agreement to use it, OS X can only read non-password-protected NTFS volumes. Some drives advertise as being "universal" for Mac and Windows systems but that's a fudge. They come in MBR/NTFS and include some form of licensing for Paragon or similar to enable the Macs to write to the drive. If you go this route (NTFS and Paragon) be sure to read the fine print on the license: it may be time-limited or host-limited, which means you'll eventually have to shell out more cash to continue using after awhile or when you want to use the drive on another Mac.

ExFAT is sort of shrouded in mystery. It is Microsoft-Proprietary too but the company has sort of ignored it, not shown an aggressive zeal in pursuing any and all non licensed users like they do with NTFS. So it remains in a sort of legal limbo. From the technical point of view, it is more fragile than NTFS and harder to recover data from in case of damage but is the default for some flash cards such as SDXC.