Formatting an external SSD for Windows & Mac?

[Drewps5co0tt]

Hey,

If I want to use an external SSD for both Windows & Mac, would I format the drive in exFAT or FAT32 or something else? Also, I'm assuming I can just drag and drop files onto the drive as usual?

Thanks.

 

[ifrit05]

exFAT has been support since 10.6.something-or-another. Great choice for interoperability.

 

[Drewps5co0tt]

exFAT has been support since 10.6.something or another. Great choice for interoperability.

Thank you.

 

[winxmac]

If you are going to save 4GB file or larger, use EXFAT but if not, go with FAT32

Data recovery chances is higher on NTFS than EXFAT

Data recovery chances is higher on FAT32 than EXFAT although not as high as NTFS

 

[Drewps5co0tt]

Yes, but since I want to use for both Mac & Windows, wouldn't my only choice be EXFAT? NTFS won't read with Mac, right?

 

[arw]

Yes, but since I want to use for both Mac & Windows, wouldn't my only choice be EXFAT? NTFS won't read with Mac, right?

Partly right.
macOs can read NTFS, just not write to it without 3rd party tools (I prefer Tuxera NTFS).
If you don't want to install additional software and want to store files larger than 4GB, then exFAT is your only choice.
What @winxmac was implying is, that generally exFAT is not as robust against uncorrectable data corruption as NTFS. A.e. caused by improper disk eject, which is something that unfortunately Monterey and higher frequently suffer from when waking from sleep.