This is a deal-breaker if you work with huge files. For example, you cannot save files that are larger than 4GB on a FAT32-formatted drive. Unfortunately, FAT32 is a very old file system and has some technical limitations.
It works with all versions of Mac OS X and Windows. The most universally supported way to format your drive is with the FAT32 file system. However, you won’t be able to move files in the other direction, from Mac to PC. So if you need to get files from a PC to your Mac, NTFS is a decent option.
Macs can read files on NTFS drives, but it cannot write to them. The native Windows file system is NTFS, which is only partially compatible with Mac OS X. This isn’t a good solution if you need your drive to work on any PC without installing software, though.
When you install MacDrive on a Windows PC, it will be able to seamlessly read & write to HFS+ drives. If you’re only going to be using your external or USB flash drive with certain PCs – such as at home or the office – you might be interested in a program called MacDrive. But while HFS+ is the best way to format drives for use on Macs, Windows does not support it. Mac OS X’s native file system is HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended), and it’s the only one that works with Time Machine. In fact, there are four ways you can format an external or USB flash drive to achieve varying degrees of compatibility between Macs and PCs. Since Mac OS X and Windows use totally different file systems, the way a drive is formatted can determine what type of computer it will work with. Need to access or transfer files between Mac and PC? As simple as this task sounds, it’s not very straightforward for inexperienced users. Learn a few ways to make your drive Mac and PC friendly. Now as I tried to watch those videos on QT 10.4 (and other 3rd party video players on my MAC), the videos failed to be played on all of those players on my MAC.If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive that you’d like to use on both Macs and Windows PCs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing.
In Finder, the MP4 files on the USB still carry the extension "mp4" but the icons in the "Preview Column" indicate "M4V" files. (2) Moved all my MP4 videos by dragging them from HD to the reformatted USB (i.e. (1) Reformatted an 33MB USB using Disk Utility 15.0 into exFAT and Master Boot Record So after considering the more recent second thread (QUOTE ".Set the format to.ExFAT if you wish to use it with both Mac (10.6 or later) and Windows.MBR is an old Windows partition scheme which can be used on both Mac and Windows" UNQUOTE), I have taken the following steps: The first thread may be out-of-date considering the reply was made in 2013. Re: How do I format external Seagate 4 tb HD "ExFAT"? from NTFS How can i change a video clip format that will play on a PC to play on my MAC
My Issue: I have not been able to find an article in Apple Support to address this specific objective. It makes sense to store them on an USB so that all my videos are on a single storage device which can be used on both MAC and PC. I would also like to play those videos on my friend's Windows PC during my visit to his home. My Objective: I have MP4 videos stored on my HD which plays well on my MAC. My System: Intel iMAC, retina 4k, late 2015 running on El Capitan OS X 10.11.6.