How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Before you can use it though, you need to properly format or reformat a hard drive so that it will become compatible or readable with the operating system that you are using. 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. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. There are specific thirdparty systems, like digital camcorders, and sony playstation 3, which need the drives to be formatted in either fat32 or exfat format to perform read from and.
To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between mac and pc, you need to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. While most external hard drives are already designed to work for windows computers, there are times when you need to reformat one. Perhaps its in dire need of releasing some data to an external backup drive. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Plug in the external hard drive into the system and open windows explorer by clicking on the computer section in the side bar, you will see your. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to find the program. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility 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 an external hard drive for windows 10. To save important data on the hard drive, please backup disk beforehand. How to properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Fat32, exfat and ntfs are three file systems for external drive in windows, while ntfs is readonly on mac.
In the disk management, youll see your external hard drive as partition or. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. A lot of people including you, storing important data on seagate external hard drive instead of on your pcmac hard drive. Reinstall from macos recovery macos recovery makes it easy to reinstall the mac operating system, even if you need to erase your startup disk first. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. How to properly format reformat a hard drive for mac os. However, you need to reformat external hard drive or internal ssdhdd if it was partitioned before. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. To start, your first step will be to find disk utility. Some hard drives may also include drivers, firmware, or format wizards so be sure to check the user manual before formatting the hard drive. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so.
Most hard drives come preformatted and ready to use these days. A hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac. Feb 08, 2020 now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. For example, formatting typically removes most of the data on a drive, making it a quicker way to erase a large drive than simply deleting everything on it. If you want your hard drive to be compatible with both mac and pc, you should format the hard drive to the file system that is supported by both of. Seagate backup plus slim, especially for largecapacity removable storage devices. However, fat32 has a maximum 4gb file size limit whereas exfat can work with. Windows formatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system.
Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers. Should i just wait until i get the new laptop and attempt to reformat the drive on it. Two ways to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. Click on the erase tab, choose your external hard drive and select mac os extended journaled and then click erase then simply.
Format external hard drive for mac reformat external hard. I forgot to mention that my os is windows 7 and i dont have. Please note that reformatting the drive will erase all the information on the drive. Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows external.
How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Please keep in mind that reformatting will result in the loss of all the data on the hard drive so make sure you back up your data elsewhere before starting. Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Is there a way to reformat this external harddrive on pc. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. Yes, its recommended to format the drive on a windows computer. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. Format external hard drive with windows builtin tool. Aug 30, 2019 how to format an external hard drive on windows. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive.
Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. A lot of people including you, storing important data on seagate external hard drive instead of on your pc mac hard drive. 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.
In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Now either because of time, corruption or because it may have been formatted for a mac when i plug it into my pc i cant access it. Sep 17, 2019 right click on your toshiba external hard drive icon and pick get info from the menu. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Next, under the partition layout column, specify the number of partitions you want. Share your experience, how do you use an external hard drive on both mac and pc. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. Jan 17, 2020 why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process.
With disk utility open, locate the hard drive you want to partition and select partition. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly with macs. Please see the link below for instructions on how to format the drive on a windows computer. You might want a drive that works with macs and pcs, or maybe you want to partition it, which will split it up into two different formats. If you select the one below it, the partition option will be greyed out and become unclickable. Dec 29, 2015 the instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Therefore, based on these three file systems, we have two methods to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Open the start menu and search for disk management. You can get to know how to reformat wd hard drive for mac and pc from this post, if you need to use a western digital external hard drive, like wd elements both under mac and pc.
Use the wizard to create a partition with the ntfs or fat32 file system. Your first step to using your toshiba external drive on your mac is to plug your toshiba drive in. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Using an external drive between mac and windows computers can be a hassle, since you constantly have to reformat it to fit which computer youre using it on.
How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Sep 12, 2019 what you need to do first is wiping hard drive. Format your western digital my passport external hard drive to fat32 or exfat format so to transfer the data between a mac and windows system conveniently. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Connect your external hard drive to your windows 10 pc. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. But you occasionally might need to format one yourself.
A user has to know how to convert mac formatted hard drive to windows formatted. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. Use the exfat file system and never format your external. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. When i format my external hard drive as exfat, time machine. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. This wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drives format on windows and mac computers. Windows, macos, and linux can all read and write to fat32 drives without an issue.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. There will be no space wasted by protected mac partitions. The reason is perhaps that seagate external hard drive has been well known for a long time as one of the most reliable drives for storing data. Windowsformatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system.
To do so, select start, control panel, system and security, create and format hard disk partitions. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. This is where mac reformat external hard drive might help just like the human body, your computer can have sand in its machinery throughout its running course and end up crashing everything. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Sometimes, users need to use the same external hard drive interchangeably on mac and pc. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Alternatively, press the start button and start typing partitions.
This works with any hard drive, flash drive, ssd, usb drive, or just about any other. Mar 31, 2020 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. How to erase a disk for mac partition a physical disk in disk utility on mac file system formats available in disk utility on mac format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac encrypt and protect a storage device with a password in disk utility on mac. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then you have to have the external. Open the disk management tool by rightclicking this pc manage disk management. This menu item is in the upperleft side of the screen. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
How to use toshiba external hard drive on mac solved. How to format a windows disk drive for a mac seagate blog. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. The drive will now be formatted for use by windows systems. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. If you need to expand your storage space with an external hard drive and you use both mac and pc, youll likely run into a few obstacles. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have to. To access the disk management tool, click the windows icon and type disk management. A quick format only deletes the organizational structure of the files on the drive, without removing the actual files. How to format a windows disk drive for a mac i get this question a lot i have an external hard drive that is ntfs formatted windows format, and i want to reformat it for my mac hfs.
Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. No matter what motivation you have, the question, how to reformat a hard drive, is much more important now. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Dec 05, 2019 but using a third party all the time for accessing a hard drive on windows is not good. Select your hard drive, and choose convert to mbr disk. Now enter the volume label as you need and change the file system for exfat and click ok. Now right click on the external drive and click on format option doublecheck the drive name and capacity to make sure you are going to format the right drive. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the partition tab. Connect the empty external hd to your mac and launch disk utility.
Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. How to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. Heres how to create a fat32 partition from a windows 7 pc. Continue below to format an external hard drive or learn more about disk management. Oct 29, 2019 to format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. For instance, users want to write data to and read data from, to do a clean installation of the windows system, to get rid of a virus or malware, to erase the data before giving the drive to someone else or throwing it away, or some other reasons. 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. If you see the drive is ntfs then youll either need to reformat the drive or use a ntfs driver. To make it compatible with both macos and windows, you need to reformat the external hard drive. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer.
As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Open disk management tool by rightclicking on start menu icon and then select disk management. Out of the box, windows can not read or write hfs drives, and macs are unable to. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. It is not as complicated to reformat an external hard drive for use with mac os x as it may look. You would have to copy the data on your hard drive to your mac, then reformat it with the disk utility application. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac youtube. Make sure you select the disk icon right under external. But using a third party all the time for accessing a hard drive on windows is not good.
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