Today’s Question: I bought a new hard drive, and the setup document indicates it is formatted with “ExFAT” for compatibility with both Windows and Macintosh. Should I leave that as it is, or format the drive for my operating system?
Tim’s Quick Answer: I recommend formatting the drive for your operating system, meaning NTFS for Windows or APFS for Macintosh. It is very important, however, to keep in mind that formatting the hard drive will erase all data on it.
More Detail: While the ExFAT file system does enable you to use a hard drive with both Windows and Macintosh interchangeably, I don’t recommend using it because tech people like me consider it to be more prone to corruption and other issues. This is due in part to the file system not being journaled, which is a particular problem if the drive gets disconnected unintentionally. I therefore recommend using NTFS (Windows) or APFS (Macintosh).
Keep in mind, of course, that formatting a hard drive will erase all data on the drive. Therefore, you’ll want to perform this step before you use the drive to store any of your data. You can format the drive using Disk Management on Windows or Disk Utility on Macintosh, where it is also important to make sure you select the correct drive for formatting.
