Formatting Your USB Key. To start off with, you’re going to want to format your shiny new USB key. By default these things come pre-formatted using the MS-DOS (FAT32) filesystem as it is compatible under Mac OS X, Linux and Windows.
Any external hard drive will work with PCs or Macs, as long as the connectors are there (Firewire, USB, etc.) It doesn't matter how the drive is formatted out of the box, since you can re-format any way you like. Formatting can be done with the Mac OS X Disk Utility, found in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Here are your formatting options: (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive) • Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X • Required for or or backups of Mac OS X system files. [*]To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install [*]To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install • Maximum file size: 8EiB • Maximum volume size: 8EiB • • You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC) (Windows NT File System) • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives: • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion) • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode) • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: • Some have reported problems using (approx $36). • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability. • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS • Maximum file size: 16 TB • Maximum volume size: 256TB • You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems. Calendar software for mac free. (FAT64) • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later. • Not all Windows versions support exFAT.
• • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT • Maximum file size: 16 EiB • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB • You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See 'disadvantages' for details. (File Allocation Table) • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
[*]Maximum file size: 4GB. • Maximum volume size: 2TB • You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB. ____________________________________________________________ . After some test, i transferred a big file (1 giga) to the external hard drive 60 mb/s through usb 2.0 in NTFS format - speed increased gradually - big freeze about the end like 5 secondes which i couldnt do anything, clicking on hard drive but nothing happened then suddenly copy has succeed 25-30 mbs through usb 2.0 in exFat format - speed kept constant - not any freeze issue is that normal to get only around 30 mb per sec in exFat (through usb 2.0 because my usb hub only has 2.0 instead of 3.0)?
Click to expand.That is a normal (even fast) speed for USB 2.0. However you're right -- there may be a performance problem with exFAT under some conditions -- even using USB 3.0. It may be isolated to certain types of USB 3.0 devices.