Do you want to move data between Windows and Mac? Do you use an USB hard drive for this?
If yes, I am sure you wonder what is the best way to do it. If you format your drive in FAT32, you will face all limitations of this old protocol (e.g. max file-size of 4GB) … if NTFS you will get all the Windows options available but will be read-only for Mac… if you format it in Mac OS Extended you will not be able to use it in Windows. The solution is a to make a compromise and use exFAT.
exFAT is a newer format that FAT32 and is designed for flash-drives. It doesn’t offer all the fancy security stuff like NTFS and Mac OS formats but it can be used both on Windows and Mac and also is not limited like FAT32. A lot more details can be found on this How-to Geek article.
If you want to format your USB flad/hard drive in exFAT on you Mac you need to:
1. Open Disk Utility (Go -> Utilities or from Spotlight Search)
2. Select your external drive and click on Erase.
3. Name your drive and choose ExFAT format from the menu
4. This operation will finish a a couple of seconds. Click Done and start using your drive.
Have fun!