Mac computers have excellent compatibility and a high degree of ease of use, making it very simple to connect an external hard drive. However, if you don't know how to open the external hard drive or what format the external hard drive should use, then this will become a difficult problem for you to use the Mac computer. This article will introduce you how to open an external hard drive on a Mac, and discuss what format should be used for a Mac external hard drive.
1. Where to open the external hard disk of mac
After connecting the external hard drive to the Mac computer, you can see the external hard drive icon on the desktop.
Figure 1: U disk displayed on the desktop
If it doesn't appear on the desktop, you can go to the "Finder" application, find the external hard drive in the left menu, and double-click to open it.
Figure 2: Finder opens the U disk
In addition, you can also find the "Disk Utility" application through "Utilities" in the "Applications" folder, which allows you to view and manage your external hard disk.
Figure 3: Disk Utility
2. What format does the mac external hard drive use?
Mac computers support external hard drives in a variety of formats, including FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, and APFS. However, different formats have different characteristics, so choosing the right format is very important to protect your data and improve your work efficiency.
Figure 4: File system
If you are a Mac computer user, you may have encountered this problem: when you try to copy a file from a Mac computer to an external hard drive, you may encounter the prompt "This disk is read-only". This is because the Mac computer uses the HFS+ or APFS format to format the hard drive by default, and these formats are not supported by Windows systems. Therefore, if you want to use an external hard drive for sharing files between Mac and Windows, you need to format it as exFAT or NTFS.
Figure 5: Read Only
However, it should be noted that Mac computers only support reading NTFS-formatted external hard drives by default. If you want to write to NTFS-formatted external hard drives, you need to install third-party software, such as Tuxera NTFS for Mac or Paragon NTFS for Mac, to solve this problem.
Paragon Ntfs For Mac 15 download: https://souurl.cn/s84CCB
Figure 6: Tuxera NTFS for Mac
Tuxera NTFS for Mac is a software that enables Mac computers to read and write external hard drives in NTFS format. It has the characteristics of high speed, stability and security, which allows you to easily read and write external hard disks in NTFS format on Mac computers.
Tuxera NTFS for Mac 15 download: https://souurl.cn/fIerPb
Figure 7: Free Download Trial
Installing Tuxera NTFS for Mac is very simple. You only need to download the installation package from the Tuxera NTFS for Mac Chinese website, and then follow the prompts to install it. After the installation is complete, you can use the external hard disk in NTFS format.
Figure 8:
Tuxera NTFS for Mac
Tuxera NTFS for Mac also has many other advantages. It supports all NTFS versions, including NTFS 3.0 and NTFS 4.0, allowing you to read and write the latest version of NTFS format on Mac computers. Plus, it lets you safely write to NTFS-formatted external hard drives on Mac computers without corrupting the file system.
3. Summary
This article introduces where to open the Mac external hard drive and what format the Mac external hard drive uses. Choosing the right format is crucial to data protection and work efficiency. For those users who need to share files between Mac and Windows, it is recommended to install Tuxera NTFS for Mac third-party software to solve the problem of Mac computers reading and writing NTFS format external hard drives.