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To format a USB flash drive on Mac, Disk Utility is better a better choice.
#Best external hard drive format for mac how to#
It is your job to properly prepare for the inevitable by building a robust on-site and off-site backup system to protect a lifetime’s worth of great photography.So how to select a suitable tool to format your USB flash drive or external hard drive for Mac? For a quick guide, read the tips here: Hard drive warranties cover the cost of the hardware only. Sooner or later, all things electric will fail and no external hard drive manufacturer will ever compensate you for your lost data. It doesn’t matter how much you paid for your external drives. Most of all, please don’t forget to back everything up. See how to format an external drive for more details. Remember that any external hard drive, regardless of the brand or model, must be formatted properly for use with the Mac Operating System before you put anything on to it.

In my opinion, devices like the Drobo backup system are way too expensive and complex for my storage / backup needs. While I do believe that these high-end fancy systems have some value I don’t think that they are an appropriate choice for most photographers.

You might notice that I have not included any RAID drive systems, or multi-drive enclosures, in this list. Likewise, many Mac users might find a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter essential for connecting to a brand new Mac. If needed, look into adapters like this Amazon Basics USB Type C to USB 3.0 Adapter to use older USB 3.0 / 2.0 devices with a computer that uses a new USB-C port.
#Best external hard drive format for mac portable#
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Drive performance does not matter to me here since my backup software is scheduled to run automatically at hours when I am not awake or working at the computer. For my backup system, inexpensive USB external hard drives are just fine.

For my backup system, high-speed connectivity do not matter at all.
#Best external hard drive format for mac series#
The opposite is true though for the series of external hard drives that I use to protect my work. The read-write speeds that USB drive connections permit are less than ideal for professional-grade daily use for my primary image storage drive. USB does not compare to Thunderbolt in terms of real-world drive performance. Sitting around waiting for this external hard drive to do something is not a productive use of my day.

I am willing to spend a lot more for my primary photo storage disk because time is money. For my primary storage, for the drive that holds my Photos Go Here folder, I am willing to spend more for features like a faster rotational speed and Thunderbolt connectivity. For my primary image storage, meaning the copy of my images that I work on everyday with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic and Adobe Photoshop, drive performance matters. I use external hard drives for two very different purposes. Although any brand or model of external disk will suffice for image storage these devices are not all the same. For Mac users like me, external storage is often the only way to hold an image library that contains thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of digital images. External hard drives are an inexpensive way to store our digital photos.
