How do I reformat HDD for mac please?

My experience:
I'm a video editor -- all Mac at home, and all PC at work.

I format any drives that I intend to use in both places -- this includes thumb drives as well as 250gb or 2tb externals -- as ExFAT, via Disk Utility on the Mac.

This way I can load generic material that I take from job to job (video backgrounds, sound effects, etc.) at home and then just connect the drives to the PCs at work.

It also allows me to copy samples of the work I've cut -- many times well over 4gb -- from the PC's and bring them home to archive & use for my sample reel, created on my Macs.

So far I've had no problems.

BTW -- a DVD is 4.7gb, and a dual layer is, I guess, double that. So it it's full and you want to copy it to a drive, you'll have a problem unless it's formatted as ExFAT.

exFAT is the newest format, and was devised to allow the device to be used (read and write) by both Mac and PC. Unlike the old FAT format, there is no 4GB file size limit.

I have been using this format for more than two years with video files with both Macs & PCs (me working on a Mac and collaborators working on PCs) without any issues. I really can't see why anyone would use any other format nowadays.

Ok, noted for future use, thanks!

I have been using this format for more than two years with video files with both Macs & PCs (me working on a Mac and collaborators working on PCs) without any issues. I really can't see why anyone would use any other format nowadays.

Click to expand...

It's (exFAT) still a non journaling file system and like its little brother (FAT-32) is prone to errors that are non recoverable. NTFS and HFS+ are journaled file systems which allow for better error recovery. You've been lucky so far...... ;D