Seagate Backup Ultra Touch 2 TB Format exFAT

Currently using a windows 10 laptop. Today bought a new Seagate Backup Ultra Touch 2 TB Hard Drive. As I saw it comes with default exFAT format. I format to NTFS suddenly. I am also planning to buy a macbook pro this holiday season. I get to know that NTFS can only be read in mac not write. So the only option is to make my hard disk exFAT again. But the thing is what allocation size I should set? The default windows 10 is showing 512k. I don't remember what was the factory set allocation size when it came out of the box from seagate. Please help me out!
Also I think allocation size of 512 will be too much, how about 128k?

 

It really depends on what kind of files you are planning to store. If you are storing lots of small files, go with a small allocation cluster size, like maybe 4K or 32K. The default cluster size on a 2TB drive should be 128K, so you cannot really go wrong with that. If you are storing mostly small files, going with a smaller cluster size will avoid wasting drive space on small files that occupy an entire cluster with a lot of unused space remaining in each cluster. Larger files can use a small allocation size, but doing so reduces drive performance. So, if you are storing mostly large files just go with the default allocation cluster size, which will increase the data read-write speed. This speed things matters more or a slow spinner mechanical drive than it does on an SSD.

You can read more here if you are not convinced or undecided.
https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/ntfs-vs-fat32-vs-exfat.html
https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/allocation-unit-size-exfat.html

 

I don't know how much things have changed on the Apple side, but several years ago whenever I had to move files back and forth between Windows and macOS, the only exFAT cluster size that worked reliably was 1024K. Anything else would result in corrupt files that couldn't be read on the opposite OS from where it originated (a file that was copied in macOS couldn't be read in Windows and vice versa).

 

That is really important to know. Having input from someone with Mac OS experience is useful to the OP. Thanks for sharing that.

It is not like he could not change it later, but knowing up front is better. Especially if files are already on it before you find out and you don't have enough storage space to move them elsewhere temporarily.

Not knowing could also be misleading and cause someone to think the drive is malfunctioning even if it is not.

 

I have set 128K for now and getting speed of 140 both reading and writing in 1GB Crystal Disk 7.0 test. I heard macOS default set as 128K and windows set for 512K. Please make me correct as I am not using mac right now.

My purpose to keep to keep backup of everything including photos, music and movies-shows collection. I am having around 250GB of music in mp3 and flac and around 100GB of JPG photos of my camera and iPhone. 500GB+ of shows and movies. Right now in windows laptop but will transfer it on HDD after deciding the final allocation size. So guys should I keep 128K (default mac I guess) or quick format to 512k (default windows).

 

You should be just fine how you have it right now now unless you experience the same issues that @saturnotaku mentioned with Mac OS. Maybe newer versions of Mac OS are different than what he experienced a few years ago, so you might want to research that. If nothing has changed, then you may want to be aware of what he encountered and change it to 1024K for Mac OS cross-compatibility. I cannot provide you any intelligence with respect to what works for Mac OS because I do not use it.

 

Anyone using Seagate Backup Ultra Touch latest model with a soft cloth body skin.
Please tell me what is the default allocation size of your exFAT HDD you received out of the box.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...cluster-size-for-2tb-exfat-hard-drive.821385/

According to him it 512K is so much and now Saturnotaku is suggesting 1024K

 

This is the speed I am getting with 128K exFAT format.

 

Well, any experience he has with Mac OS is 100% more than I have. Maybe post in a MacBook Owner's Lounge and ask if any current gen owners know if the same situation exists today as when @saturnotaku was still a Mac user.

That seems pretty typical for a mechanical HDD connected by USB. So, nothing looks too out of place to me.

 

Currently using a windows 10 laptop. I bought a new Seagate Backup Ultra Touch 2 TB Hard Drive.
As I saw it comes with default exFAT format. I format to NTFS suddenly. Because all my HDD were in NTFS.

I am also planning to buy a macbook pro this holiday season. I get to know that NTFS can only be read in mac not writable. So the only option is to make my hard disk exFAT again. My personal data is 250GB music, 100GB photos and 700GB of shows and movies.
But the thing is what allocation size I should set? The default windows 10 is showing 512k. One guy told me you must keep 1024K in macs otherwise it will get corrupted in using both mac and windows. I don't remember what was the factory set allocation size when it came out of the box from seagate. Please help me out!
Should I keep 128K or 512K?

 

If the majority of your files on average are 1MB or more, then 1024K might be OK, but personally, I'd feel better about something smaller.

Have you tried to format to exFat on your Mac using the Disk Utility? I think the exFat allocation size suggested in macOS might leave less room for error.

 

I called seagate and they gave me link to some paragon driver. According to him this driver will solve the issue to not able to delete or write and NTFS drive in a mac. What do you think? Is it safe and will not make my drive corrupted?

I don't own a mac right now. I have windows10 laptops at my home.

 

Sorry. I have no experience with that.

Do you know anyone that has a Mac? If so, maybe they could format it for you? Otherwise, see if you can do some research on videos or instructional web pages for formatting exFat on a Mac. If you could figure out what the default page size is used there, you could still format within Windows from the command line and use a size that seems to be the default on MacOS.

 

No! I don't have anyone right now who has mac and I don't wanna visit any friend's house due to pandemic situation. I called seagate and he told me that by default seagate recommends 128K exFAT and you can also use NTFS and play easily on macs with the paragon driver they sent me of link.

 

Sounds like 128KB is the way to go if you decide to go with exFat.

 

Yeah! I formatted to 128K exFAT. Hope it remains safe and don't get corrupted switching between mac and PC.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ow-on-my-computer.833913/page-2#post-11043621

I'm guessing this is the same drive.....

Mac/Win etc... it might be time for a NAS as they're both going to be able to R/W to the drive as they're typically formatted in EXT4 since it doesn't really matter which FS structure is used since Samba translates the data to be compatible with any source/destination by the packet not the type.