best format for mac and pc external drive

But the USB 4 ports on an M1 or M2 Mac are backward compatible with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. This is linked to your Mac via the short-lived USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 connection: the USB generation that directly preceded the current USB 4 standard.

Strictly speaking, this is a portable storage solution, rather than a device that lives on your desk, but there's no reason why it can't be used in place of a bigger external desktop hard drive.Īnd while most external drives use older, slower mechanical hard disk drives to store your data, the Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2 is based around a blazing-fast NVMe SSD. Now, on with our list of the best Mac external hard drive options available today. This is a simple process, but on this list, we're only featuring hard drives that come pre-formatted to work with both Windows and Mac straight away: no special setup is required.Īlternatively, if you'd rather move everything to the cloud, we've also got a guide to the best cloud storage providers to check out. While pretty much any hard drive can be made to work with a Mac, some hard drives come set up for exclusively Windows compatibility out of the box and would need to be reformatted to work with a Mac. Capacities range from 4TB up to 30+TB, giving you plenty of space for high-res RAW files or high bit-rate 4K video. These desktop-mounted hard drives are powered by a mains AC outlet and attach to your Mac via a USB or Thunderbolt connection.

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Best format for mac and pc external drive