Windows 10 uses the NTFS (New Technology File System), while macOS uses HFS+ (Hierarchical File System). So, what are we going to do exactly? The process involves splitting up a single external hard disk into multiple partitions to backup different operating systems. Backup Windows 10 or macOS (or Linux) Using a Single External Hard Disk Better yet, do the steps in this tutorial before you write anything important to the disk. Always back up your data before repartitioning or formatting a disk.

Some utilities can shrink or split partitions without removing your data, but even those carry a risk of losing your data or corrupting your drive. If you happen to have Linux in the mix, you can add it in, too, with little effort.Įditor’s note: Whenever you partition or format a hard drive, it wipes the data on the disk completely clean. In this article, I will show you how to set up a hard drive so it can be used by both Windows 10 and macOS by creating separate partitions for each OS. There is a relatively simple solution to this, though it takes a little prep work before you start using your hard drive.

But it’ll be much more convenient to have one hard drive to rule them all, particularly if you plan on connecting your hard drive to your network. True, you could buy two 1 TB hard drives instead of one 2 TB hard drive. This means that normally, they can’t share a common external hard drive. But what do you do if you have a mix of operating system platforms in your home? One of the challenges of a heterogeneous environment consisting of macOS, Windows, and perhaps Linux machines is that each operating system uses a different file system.

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