Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Simply connect the external drive via thunderbolt, usb, firewire or esata to your computer, turn on the power and then use the native disk utility of the operating system or a 3rd party program. It has many powerful features, such as migrate os to ssd, clone disk and so on. Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. How to format or partition an external hard drive on mac.
For most reasons to erase, you should erase the disk, which also erases all volumes on that disk. How to get back data from formatted external hard disk. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. To format external hard drive on mac, all you have to do is plugin your hard drive and launch disk utility. It is not as complicated to reformat an external hard drive for use with mac os x as it may look. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with. In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. Exfat if you are going to use it for both mac and windows. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep. Connect the hard drive or usb key to the mac launch disk utility, located in applications utilities locate the drive name from the left hand side of disk utility and click on it. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods.
The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers.
Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. Want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. To format your external drive hard drive in windows which works with both platforms, first plugin your drive with windows machine. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Thus, the professional partition manager minitool partition wizard is recommended. Here provides you two methods to formatting external hard drive for mac and pc. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on your mac. Choose the external hard drive s partition or the unallocated space you want to format, select new simple volume. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of windows. It is the reliable disk formatting tool for windowsmac. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac. Connect the external drive or the usb drive to the mac. The following is based on the latest version of macos. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. So, if you want to use an external hard drive on both windows and mac, you need to format it to a filesystem that is compatible with windows pc and mac. Understanding hard drive partitioning with disk management. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the partition tab. Open the start menu and search for disk management.
Open disk management tool by rightclicking on start menu icon and then select disk management. Here, we will introduce you to how to format hard drive in windows 10 with windows builtin disk management tool, a partition manager, and command lines. Format mac hard drive with time machine formatting an external hard drive with time machine is as easy as formatting it with disk utility. During the last several years, i ve used a few external drives, including a 500gb wd my. Thats often the norm because theres rarely ever a need to format. Format external hard drive for mac reformat external. How can i format this drive in windows 7 home premium. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. In all likelihood, youre more acquainted with formatting an external hard drive than your macs internal one, arent you. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. What to do when your external hard drive wont show up.
This builtin tool can help you format your portable hard drive to exfat or fat32. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Not like it is grayed out and cannot click on it, it just isnt there. The quickest way to do this is a simple spotlight search.
Trouble formatting external hard drive macrumors forums. During the last several years, ive used a few external drives, including a 500gb wd my. Paragon disk wipe allows you to create a bootable usbflash drive or external hard drive that will help you to completely erase a whole hard disk, a separate partition or just clean free space. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. Formatting your toshiba hard drive for mac is important, as it makes the hard drive best suitable for the mac by formatting it with the osspecific file system and drivers. Thus, formatting an external hard disk does not erase the data present on it, only address tables of the portable hard drive is cleared. Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc.
Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Because mac os x mountain lion does not natively support writing to an external ntfs drive, you must erase your hard disk and format it using a compatible file system. While its convenient to purchase the hard drive that will work with your computer right out of the box, most external hard drives can also be reformatted so youre not limited to your initial choice. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on mac. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. It is professional partition magic which is designed to optimize partition and disk use. Format usb flash driveexternal hard drive and permanently wipe data on macos catalina.
Proceed based on whether youre erasing your startup disk or some other disk. This is because the drive has been initialized for windows nt file system, ntfs for short, and ntfs is primarily for pc use. In an attempt to format from a pc i found the drive and tried to format. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk. How to format a hard drive with ease in windows 1087. The hard drive is already formatted in mac os extended. Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive. So, if you have accidentally formatted or reformatted a removable hard disk drive which holds your important data, then do not be panic. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected directly to. Formatting a hard disk drive hdd in an external hard drive enclosure is done the same way like an internal drive. Time machine, however, gives you the possibility to create an automatic backup of the data on your hard drive before formatting it.
Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. This tool allows you to manage the partitions on drives connected to your computer internal ones or external ones connected via usb. Which mac file system is best for an external drive. Tips for formatting hard drive if you want to get positive results while formatting your hard drive on mac or pc, then consider following these steps.
Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. The disk utility gives no options for formatting under the erase tab. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. Some external hard drives need to be plugged into an outlet to work. If your external hard drive is readonly on mac because it was formatted with microsoft ntfs file system, you can free download iboysoft ntfs for mac and feel free to copywriteeditdelete and transfer files on this drive without formatting it. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. Formatting external hard drive microsoft community. Since formatting will erase all the existing data on your hard drive, make. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. Open the disk management tool by rightclicking this pc manage disk management.
Fortunately disk utility, built right into macos, can help. The volume scheme under the partition tab is also all greyed out and unclickable. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities. If the external hard drive is pre formatted for mac, disk management will list 3 partitions and you will not be able to delete the health efi system partition because its a protected partition.
Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. If you recently purchased an external hard drive or portable ssd for your mac, you probably noticed that mac os x doesnt allow you to write data on to the drive. Read our roundup of the best storage devices available now. As formatting will delete all the data on the hard drive, make sure that you have successfully backed up your files to another safe place before windows 10 disk format. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer, or even use a new operating system, you need to format the hard drive on your mac or pc. If we are planning to sell, donate or dispose our usb flash drive or external hard drive to another person, we should format them to clean up all data, even this is also an option if we want to recover their complete storage. Using apples free disk utility app, you can easily format the drive, give it a label, or even. Diskpart is a commandline disk partitioning utility include in windows 2000 and later.
Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. Formatting external hard drive hi, im trying to reformat an external hard drive i own, when i go to disk management and right click the drive their is no format option. You are ready to go in a few quick measures, so you can transfer your backup data to the hard disk, keep your documents safe so give you peace of mind. How to format an external drive to work with mac from ntfs to mac os extended. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Go to spotlight search, type in disk utility, and click the first option. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. When the disk utility recognizes it the drive is read only. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os. All options, including format, is greyed out except to delete volume.
The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. To format a hard drive, you can take advantage of a piece of thirdparty software. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these fields. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Connect the empty external hd to your mac and launch disk utility.
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