virtualbox.org

I'm trying to create/install a Kali Linux VM on my Mac OS 10.11.6, from the latest ova file I downloaded from their website.
To avoid overburdening my MacBook, to store the VM I'm using a 500GB external hard drive (of which I only use 85GB as of now, so this leaves plenty of room).
But I get a "VERR_FILE_TOO_BIG" error message :
According to the advice given at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/366 ... nce-in-ova, I should reformat my external drive as NTFS (its format is currently MS-DOS FAT32).

This solution does not look great to me as I read at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/366 ... nce-in-ova that the compatibility of the Mac with the NTFS format is limited and NTFS is "less than ideal for most users" (note : I'm using an USB dock so this may mitigate the problems).

Also, all the methods I've seen to reformat the drive involve erasing everything first, so I seem to be forced to accomplish the additional cumbersome task of making a backup of my already used 85GB on another drive before reformatting. Is there an easier way ?

Files on a FAT32 partition can't be larger than 4GB.

exFAT would be another choice, which I believe is a more common choice than NTFS on OS X hosts, for external drives.

You don't need to erase a drive before reformatting it, as reformatting, by definition, erases the drive anyway. Obviously you should back up anything on the drive you don't want to lose.

I hope that's a USB3 drive, because running a modern OS from a USB2 drive is not likely to be a happy experience.