Cons of FAT format external HD, for use on Mac and Windows?

[ahmad0410]

Hi, I was thinking of reformatting my WD My Passport external hard drive to MS-DOS (FAT), so that I will be able to use it on both mac and windows.

Are there any cons, or stability issue that I need to take note of. I'm worried because the last time I switch from Windows, to Mac and to Windows again, I was prompted to reformat, that means all my files will be gone.

Appreciate any input.

 

[Seedbox]

Use exFat instead.

 

[samtang]

Only FAT32 format is supported by both Mac and PC.

FAT32 has only a few limitations. Those limitations include the following: All individual files must be smaller than 4GB in size to be able to be copied to this drive, and all file names must follow the Windows naming convention. That is, you can only use the letters and characters that are acceptable when creating Windows files. Apple/Mac allow for some extra characters when creating file names but these extra characters in the file names will not work with FAT32.

 

[epos]

You can use NTFS in OSX, read NTFS Write Support On OS X Mountain Lion

If the command look intimidating, try NTFS-3G + OSX Fuse. works for me in Lion and Mountain Lion with WD elements 1TB drive.

Further reading: Solutions for writing to NTFS drives in OS X.

 

[SiaoAngMoh]

Use exFat instead.

This

exFat or FAT64 doesn't have the file size limitations of FAT32, and it supports read/write on OSX and Windows 7 onwards natively.