Best format for external HD to be used with both Mac and Windows

Undervalued

Can anybody help please

I have a 1TB 3.5 in SATA HD which I want to put in a powered USB 3 housing to use with both my Mac (Monterey - can't be upgraded further) and PC PC (Windows 10 and maybe 11).

Am I right in thinking that the best format would be exFAT? Would it be best to format it initially from the Windows computer or from the Mac?

Not essential but could it also be read from an older iMac (High Sierra) which only has USB 2 ports so I realise it would be fairly slow?

Thanks

Newcad

I'd say FAT32 ( bearing in mind the older machine) or exFAT.

Most USB sticks that you buy will come formatted as FAT32 because it gives the best compatibility for different OS's and device ages.

Neil_Jones

I'd considering shoving it in a NAS enclosure, and connecting it to your network. it doesn't matter how the drive itself is formatted as any system under the sun that supports network drive access will be able to see it.

bob2302

Undervalued said:

Not essential but could it also be read from an older iMac (High Sierra) which only has USB 2 ports so I realise it would be fairly slow?

If it's a magnetic hard drive or low-end SSD, whether it's SATA2 or SATA3 doesn't make much difference.