Hi All! I got a 2TB external drive to safely back up my files from my current dying laptop, a legacy unit MBP (office issued), and I would like to format it so that I can use it with windows, MacOS, and Ubuntu. I have to occasionally use windows and MacOS for work but since new MBPs are expensive, thinking of going back to the Linux route again until I can pony up the moolah for a new MBP but I will still be sharing the data in the new external hard drive with the two aforementioned OSes. I would like to use a format that can also work with big files as the current format in one of my current external drives (1TB) cannot work with files larger that 4GB! All advice and assistance is appreciated. Thanks in advance!
If all devices are on a network, consider a NAS. You get two main benefits. It is client OS agnostic and should work with any OS that can access shared folders over a network. More importantly, you have the option (recommended, in fact) to do disk redundancy like RAID. A NAS, if setup right, can also be accessed from anywhere where there’s internet, but only if you want to. Still another option is to use cloud storage like Office365/OneDrive or Google Drive for your work files. USB drives can still be used to make local system backups.
Hi oj88, the data on my MBP is not accessible by other computers in the office network. Our office network is kinda half baked in the sense that we can see each other but cannot actually share files for some reason. The only ones who seem to be able to work together, ironically, are the windows PCs. In any case, I'm just looking to save the data currently stored in my MBP before it decides to go to the big service center in the cloud
Hello, What's the best External drive for Mac? I'm currently thinking of buying a NAS or Samsungs' T7 or the sandisk.
My external drives are: 1TB LaCie for Time Machine back ups (now dying as well, cannot write to it anymore but can still read from it), 1TB LaCie Rugged Portable drive with the finger print security feature (will be reformatting this soon to ExFAT), my newest one is a 2TB Seagate Slim portable. Sandisk seems to be OK, haven't tried them yet but have been meaning to.
NAS drives are the best and cheapest solutions for personal backup, knowing that you just pay up once without any monthly charges compared to the cloud, just make sure there is redundancy and expandability when needed, may i suggest QNAP - ts-231k-qnap-2-bay-desktop-nas-annapurna-17ghz-quad-core-d3-1gb-2-x-2535-sata-2-x-gbe-3-x-usb30-i1328922616-s4858858231.html
