![]() NTFS is native to Windows, and most hard drives are preformatted for this file system. If you plan to use your drive for File History backups on a Windows computer, and you use only Windows, stick to NTFS (New Technology File System).So how do those five file systems differ, and which one is right for you? Non-Linux computers can use five main file systems: NTFS, HFS+, APFS, exFAT, and FAT32. If you use a Mac, the likelihood that you’ll have to reformat the drive is higher. But if you buy a drive secondhand or if you plan to switch between operating systems, you may still need to reformat it for use on Windows. If you need to switch your drive to a different filesystem, follow the instructions on our guide Changing the USB Filesystem.If you buy an external drive-such as one of our recommended portable or desktop hard drives, portable solid-state drives, or USB 3.0 flash drives-you may need to reformat it to work with your operating system of choice, since different operating systems use different file systems to process data.Īlthough it’s true that any drive is compatible with both Windows and macOS once it’s formatted properly, most drives come preformatted for Windows out of the box. The filesystem is displayed in the dialog that pops up:.Right-click on the drive in question, and choose Properties from the resulting menu:.Make sure the drive is connected to your PC and shows up under My Computer or This PC:.To identify the filesystem used by a drive is fairly straightforward: While NTFS is almost always the filesystem uses for local drives (notably the main C:\ drive for the Windows installation), USB disks and external hard drives can be formatted in FAT32, NTFS, or even exFat. ![]() The two primary filesystems in use in the Windows world are FAT32 and NTFS. There are a number of different formats that can be used, depending on the purpose and platform – for example, Windows PCs use one format while Macs and iPhones use another. While when you browse the contents of a disk, CD, or USB, you see files and folders, that information must be encoded into a sequence of zeros and ones in order to be stored on a physical disk. ![]() This guide will show you how to identify the current filesystem used by your device. Many guides for creating a bootable USB, such as those used to run PC recovery software or to update the system BIOS or install Windows require that the USB stick to be used is first formatted as FAT32. ![]()
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