It’s recommended to use this format whenever you need to use an external drive with OS X only. Your internal Macintosh drive is also formatted in this format. OS X Extended is Mac’s native drive format. Note that ExFAT is only compatible with versions of Windows later than Vista. ExFAT is basically an extension of FAT that allows for larger file sizes to be written and more.

Most drives are formatted in MS – DOS (FAT) out of the box.ĮxFAT is for those of you who are finding it hard to use FAT with all the limits, especially the large file transfer issue. But apart from that, this will be the format you’ll want to use if you want a drive with cross-compatibility for quick transfers, or temporary storage. One of the major limitations of this format is that it’s not able to write files larger than 4GB, which can be quite a setback. MS-DOS (FAT) is the most popular format amongst external hard disks, as it’s both readable and writable by nearly all operating systems, Windows and OS X included.

The following are three main types of formats that you can erase your disk to: There are two places where you can format a drive in OS X: via Disk Utility and Terminal. Formatting an external drive on your Mac is pretty simple and straightforward, though it isn’t that obvious as it is on a PC.

But there are times where you might want to completely wipe a drive and/or set it up to be compatible with Apple’s Mac lineup only. Usually, most external drives ship in formats that are universally recognized amongst nearly all operating systems.

Disk utility format for mac and windows