If your external hard drive is not working as expected, or you need it to be in Mac-specific format, here’s how to set up your hard drive for use with Mac OS X: In addition, FAT32 drives usually come with the Master Boot Record partition scheme, which does not work with Apple’s CoreStorage routines, and therefore will not allow OS-supported encryption of the drive (among other customizations). For starters, FAT32 lacks journaling support which would help prevent data corruption, and lack of support for various filesystem permission. This format will work fine on Mac, but it does have some limitations. By default, most drives should work with both Windows and OS X unless specified otherwise.)īy default, if you got a new external hard disk and you have not done anything to it, it will probably in the FAT32 format.
Note: This guide is for those whose drive isn’t really working with their Mac, or those who want to set up their drive to work specifically work on OS X. When you first attach a hard drive to your Mac, it should automatically mount and be ready to use however before relying on it, you should consider taking a couple of precautionary steps to ensure that the drive continues to work as expected.
