For older devices – In the off chance that you’re using the disk with another device that doesn’t support for exFAT, then select the older FAT option.
Time Machine backup – Are you using the drive to back up your Mac with Time Machine? Then format the drive to HFS+, which shows up as Mac OS Extended in the Disk Utility GIU.
Portable drive – Are you keen on making a portable drive to use with your Mac and Mac computers alone? Format your drive to HFS with the Mac OS Extended option.Your next step, however, can vary depending on what you want to do with the blank drive: Once you plug in your drive and open Disk Utility, highlight your drive in the sidebar and click Erase, as shown in the instructions above. Click Erase, and then choose exFAT in Format.Įxternal hard drive ‘read only’ issue? Here’s a quick fix.Select the USB drive in the menu found on the left.You can easily format a USB drive or external hard drive as exFAT instead of FAT32. As a rule of thumb, format your drive as exFAT if you are fairly sure that you won’t have a file smaller than 4 GB. Speed – Generally, exFAT drives are quicker at writing and reading data compared to FAT32 drives.
exFAT, however, has no limitations on file sizes as well as hard drive sizes, making it the better option for those who are using a portable drive that stores massive files, such as 3D projects.