Typically, an external hard drive that works on a Windows PC uses an NTFS file system. And an external hard drive that works on a Mac is in HFS+ format. The faster SSD drives on a Mac may well use an APFS file system. To check, right click on the external hard drive. This is a common connection type for many external hard drives. USB is very compatible with Mac machines, especially those with older versions. It’s max transfer rate is 10 Gb/s. Most (but not all) Mac computers and will have at least one USB port that supports external memory.
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Apple Mac External Hard Drive
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/
Best External Hard Drives For Mac
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.
External Hard Drive Not Compatible With Mac
Jun 22, 2016 5:21 AM