Use external hd on osx and windows

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In disk utility is there a way of overwriting an external hard drive so I can use it on both mac and pc? I am trying to get all my friends data from his pc to my mac. Is there any way?
 

chscag

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Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Common file system for both the Mac and a PC is FAT-32, so yes, you can use that to move data between the PC and Mac. Just make sure that no single file is 4 GB or larger as FAT-32 can not accommodate file sizes larger than that.
 

Slydude

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M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
If you are just trying to get data from the PC to the Mac you can use NYFS formatting. The Mac can read NTFS (Windows) but not write to it without third party software or some Terminal geekery. With NTFS you won't need to worry about the 4 GB file size limit.
 

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