what format should i use to initialize drive for mac and pc

This is great for portable storage devices, as it allows them to squeeze out every ounce of storage for actual use rather than getting it tied up in system partitions.Īnother advantage is that it is supported by Macintosh as well. Just as FAT32, exFAT is a very space-efficient file format, requiring minimal system resources to function. It is an extended version of the FAT32 format, supporting storage up to 128 PB (unlikely to be breached by any storage device soon). The exFAT file format was released as the file system of choice for embedded systems. Something more like FAT32, but with a larger maximum storage size.Īnd Microsoft listened. Small storage devices, like USB drives or SD cards, suffered due to the large data overhead of NTFS and wanted something slimmer. Not everyone was enthused when Microsoft rolled out the NTFS file format as a replacement for FAT32. It might not be as secure as NTFS, but it does just fine for a portable storage device. It is easy to read and write on all platforms, including Windows, Macintosh, and even Linux.

With USB drives offering dozens of gigabytes in memory, FAT32 is no longer a viable choice.īut if you are looking to format an old pen drive that does not cross that mark, FAT32 can be a good choice. The reason it fell out of favor is simple it cannot support devices with more than 4 GB of storage. This is great, as NTFS is the most modern file format out there, offering improved security and reliability.

If you’re on Windows, your hard disk drive is probably formatted using the NTFS file system. As we will see, exFAT is the best for formatting a small storage device like a USB drive.

It combines the efficient, no-nonsense structure of FAT with modern drive capacities, allowing all manner of portable devices to manage their data with minimal overheads. Unfortunately, file formats like NTFS tie up too much of their limited resources without offering performance advantages. While this naturally makes them superior to FAT32, it also makes them too inefficient for portable storage devices.ĭevices like SD cards or USB drives need a simple file system to write to and do not have a large overhead.

File systems like the NTFS (New Technology File System) and HFS+ (Hierarchical File System), developed by Microsoft and Apple respectively for their own operating systems, are specialized to ensure the security and reliability of the data stored in the hard drive.

What format should i use to initialize drive for mac and pc