Option 1: Format to NTFS and buy this app for your Mac The alternative solutions do require more tinkering.

The good news is, it's not exFAT or nothing. OK, what are my alternatives to using exFAT? And the same can be said for a Windows HD, if you only plan on connecting it to a PC, then NTFS is the way to go. However, if you plan on only using a drive on your Mac and it has MacOS High Sierra or newer installed, you'll want to stick to Apple's APFS format. And if that's how you plan on using your drive, then you're right - exFAT is the way to go. It comes down to which OS are you going to use the drive with?Īccording to the list above, formatting your hard drive to exFAT so that you can read and write on either a PC or Mac seems like the obvious solution.

Natively read/write HFS+ on MacOS High Sierra and newer.

Required for local Time Machine backupsĪPFS (Hierarchical File System, aka Mac OS Extended).

Natively read/write HFS+ on MacOS up to Mac OS X Sierra.

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, aka Mac OS Extended)

Full NTFS support on Mac requires paid third-party app.

Natively read/write exFAT on Windows and MacOS.

But before I can dig into what makes sense when, look over this quick rundown of the different standards and which OS each one is compatible with. The file format standard you use for your external drive will depend on how you plan on using the drive.

Best external hard drives for mac cnet