can i access files from mac external drive on pc

Currently, some support for Microsoft Windows exists but it is very limited and based on only viewing the data and not being able to access it.īoth the Windows 10 and Mac OSX operating systems can read files from a FAT32 drive.

Its design is an overall upgrade of the Hierarchical File System format, or HFS. HFS Plus, or HFS+, was proprietarily designed by Apple for the OSX. The last version of NTFS released by Microsoft was with Windows XP in 2001 which means that PCs have not really seen any update on their file system architecture in a decade and a half. Windows 2000 also saw a greater popularity than Windows NT.Īfter the launch of Windows XP, the FAT32 system was considered antiquated and was used mainly for flash drives in order to more easily transfer data between PCs that ran with the NTFS format and older PCs that still ran FAT32. The 2000 version also ran optimally on the NTFS format. Windows NT was the first Microsoft operating system that got the opportunity to introduce to the world the New Technology File System, more commonly known as NTFS. On File System Architecturesįile Allocation Table, otherwise known as FAT, was one of the most used file systems architecture in the early ‘90s. Nevertheless, the bridge between the two operating systems can be achieved with an external hard drive for Mac and PC formatted as exFAT. Mac OSX runs data in the HFS+ format, while Windows manages its data with the NTFS format. However, an external hard drive for Mac and PC is usually subject to the same data management restrictions imposed by the operating systems. Additionally, the Mac and PC may not always be so physically near to each other.įor now, the best solution available for portable terabytes of data transfer remains the almighty external HDD. While most of them are available for free, not many users are willing to trust programs that directly affect their hard drives. The very different types of data management would require users to install at least one third party program on each operating system. They could create a network between the two. However, uploading terabytes of data means hours, if not days of time, not to mention the monthly cloud storage fees. Presently, companies or professionals backing up, migrating, transferring, or unifying their data from one operating system to the other do not have many alternatives. The two companies have been friendly rivals for decades now and one of the main reasons why users had to pick a side and stick to it was due to the entirely different way that the two very different operating systems read data. In this article, the TechExploring team will pass the bridge between two operating systems and delve into the reaches of how to best format external hard drive for Mac and PC.Īpple and Microsoft do not always see eye to eye when it comes to software technology or even data administration.

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Can i access files from mac external drive on pc