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Question Transferring Files Between MAC and PC

C

Carbo

Diamond Member
My daughter needs an external HDD for storing and transferring videos and data between two laptops. Her personal laptop is a MAC. Her work laptop is a PC, (Hewlett Packard). Is this possible? Thank you.
 
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A few options:
1. If she only needs to move data one way, from PC to mac, then NTFS is fine. Mac can read NTFS but not write it.
2. Use 3rd party apps to let Mac read/write NTFS, or PC to read/write HFS
3. Format drive in exFAT or FAT32. FAT32 has file and drive size limits, so depending on size of external drive, choose the best one.
 
Any USB drive is fine for that. Formatting a drive with DRAM write cache (like HDDs and most SSDs have) in exFAT might corrupt the filesystem though on sudden removal, which can make folders or the entire filesystem inaccessible, and it might only be repairable on Windows. Just be aware of that.
 
You can also transfer files over a network. Depending on the speed, this may not be all that painful.
 
Might want to look into work laptop policy first. Most companies don't allow you to stick unencrypted storage devices on their hardware.
 
If the files are less than 4 GB in size, I recommend using FAT32. It’s the easiest and most drama free.
 
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