Posted on 3 Apple

How to determine the file system of an external drive on a Mac

The MacBook is a great file management machine and supports multiple external drives. However, you need to know the type of your file system in order to properly manage them when needed. So, read how to detect external file system on Mac and learn more about it.

What is a file system in macOS?

The file system is the amount of storage added to a Mac. By knowing the Mac file system format, you will be able to learn more about storage and know what to do if any issues arise.

Disk Utility on Mac currently supports the following file system formats:

  1. APFS (Apple File System): APFS is the default file system format for macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and later. It is optimized for flash drives and solid state drives.
  2. MacOS Extended (HFS+): Although this file system format has been replaced by a newer one in macOS, it is still useful due to its stability and compatibility with a wide range of Macs.
  3. exFAT: A cross-platform file system format developed by Microsoft, primarily for transferring large amounts of data between Mac computers and Windows computers.
  4. FAT32: An older file system format primarily used on Windows computers with limited support on macOS.

Now that you know about the different Mac file system formats, let’s see how to determine the file system of a drive connected to a Mac.

How to determine the file system of an external drive using Finder

  1. Connect an external storage device to your Mac. Here I am using a flash drive.
  2. Open Finder.
  3. In the left pane, under Locations, right-click the drive name.
  4. Select Get Info.
  5. You can see the file system next to Format.

How to find the Mac file system using Disk Utility

  1. Launch Spotlight (cmd + spacebar) → find and open Disk Utility.
  2. Select a drive.
  3. Now you can see the file system format under your external physical volume name.

Know about the Mac file system format 💾

Determining the file system of a disk on a Mac is a much simpler and more straightforward process. I hope this guide was easy for you. However, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

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