Mac and PC Hard Drive Compatibility

Question

Level 1

4 points

Mac and PC Hard Drive Compatibility

Hi, I just purchased a new MacBook Pro that is running on Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.5. The computer I did use prior is a Dell XPS 13 running Windows 10. I have a 1TB Toshiba Canvio Slim ii external hard drive that I keep everything on. I know that in order for my Toshiba hard drive to be compatible with the new OS X, it must be formatted, but I will be loosing all of my data (total of 260gb). I want to know if this option will work for me:

I purchased a LaCie 1TB Porsche Design Portable Hard Drive along with my new computer. Am I able to format my LaCie hard drive to have it read/write on PC and Mac, then after it's formatted successfully, I plug it into my Dell computer along with my Toshiba hard drive, drag and drop my data from my Toshiba hard drive to my LaCie hard drive (using my Windows based Dell computer), then have everything on my LaCie hard drive ready to be read/written on both my new MacBook Pro (Mac) and my Dell XPS (PC)?

If not, what are my other options?

My main goal is to be able to use either one of these hard drives on both my Mac and PC without having all of my data erased.The trick is getting either one of these hard drives compatible to use for both my Mac and PC if I need to switch off from one to the other without loosing my data. Plus I want to be able to have all my data stored on only ONE of these hard drives and not both. I want everything in one place rather than in two separate places.

Thank you,

Ramin

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), null

Posted on Jun 22, 2016 2:02 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jun 22, 2016 5:21 AM in response to ayoujordan23

The Windows drive in your Dell itself will be in NTFS format. As standard a Mac can read NTFS but cannot format or write to NTFS. I have no idea what format the Lacie will initially come as but for arguments sake lets say it will be HFS+ which is the standard format used by Macs. As standard Windows cannot read or write to HFS+ drives.

It is possible to format a hard disk on a Mac (or a PC) as an ExFAT format. This format is both readable and writeable by both Mac and PCs. It cannot be used as a boot drive on either, nor can it be used as a Time Machine backup drive by a Mac. ExFAT is however fine for use as a transfer drive.

It is possible to get additional software for the Mac to allow it to format and read/write to NTFS volumes. See https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

It is possible to get additional software for Windows to allow it to format and read/write to HFS+ volumes. Seehttp://www.mediafour.com/software/macdrive/

Seagate a maker of hard disks have done a deal with Paragon Software as listed above. This deal means a Seagate drive comes already formatted as NTFS and includes a 'free' copy of the Paragon software to all your Mac to read and write to that NTFS drive. See http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/item/ntfs-driver-for-mac-os-maste r-dl/

I would be a little concerned over the above 'free' copy of the Paragon software in that a) is this still valid?, and b) is the version of the software up-to-date so that it still works in El Capitan on a Mac. Older versions of the software will not work in El Capitan.

A different approach you could consider is using Apple's 'Migration Assistant' software to transfer files over a computer network between the Mac and Windows PC. See Move your data from a Windows PC to a Mac - Apple Support and Windows Migration Assistant v1.0.5.7 the concern here is that this tool does not appear to have been updated for Windows 10, it may or may not work therefore in Windows 10.

Reply