The former is older and only supports capacities up to 2TB, but is compatible with older versions of Windows. However, you may encounter a Not Initialized error when connecting the device to your PC.Įven more, it wont have an assigned drive letter in File Explorer (This PC), and may not even have allocated space for saving data.
Windows 10 typically lists an external drive as Disk 2 along with the next successive alphabetic label if you dont have any other internal disk-based storage. On a PC, the process is less straightforward than what you see on a Mac, but its now easier than ever. We have guides for Windows and MacOS in case you need a helping hand.īut lets go through the important steps you need to know to quickly partition the drive while working on Windows. Make sure you back up anything important before beginning the formatting process. Its not the ideal solution we get it but it works nonetheless. If you want to save larger files, youll need to create a second, dedicated space using a format optimized for MacOS (Extended) or Windows 10 (NTFS). That puts you in a peculiar pickle, limiting any shared file between the two platforms at 4GB or smaller. However, this format doesnt support larger files, which can be problematic for transferring 4K videos and so on between Macs and Windows 10 PCs.
Its a simpler, universal method if every file you store is less than 4GB in size.
In this case, you can partition your drive so that part of it works properly with MacOS, and part of it works properly with Windows, avoiding the issues that can crop up.īoth computers have the necessary tools to help you partition a new drive once you have it connected. You can partition your hard drive, or divide it into different sections with different rules and functions. Today, if you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between the two is an often demoralizing task.
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