Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. Os x, windows, and linux all use different hard drive formatting for normal system operations. Designed by microsoft to provide similar compatibility to fat32 without the pesky limitations, exfat is the format of choice for drives that youll. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support us. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x.
How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. So despite the disadvantages, exfat is your best option for. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. Jan 20, 2020 whether you have mac os sierra, high sierra or mojave the way you format your wd elements drive for mac is the same. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. 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 part 3. Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Turn on your macintosh notebook computer or desktop system and login.
Sep 20, 2019 but formatting a drive with exfat offers one huge advantage. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Although we know its limitation of 4gb file size only. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. Apr 21, 2020 i have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple support. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Apr 22, 2012 to format a hard drive for compatibility of both mac and windows you can use fat32 format which has both readwrite capability on winmac respectively. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities.
If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. In disk utility on your mac, format disks or volumes using apple file system apfs, mac os extended, msdos fat, and exfat. The easiest way to format the drive for mac is by using macoss builtin disk utility for fat32 or exfat.
It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. What disk utility looks like in lion through yosemite. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. Some external hard drives need to be plugged into an outlet to work. Buying an external hard drive for your mac is not all that different from buying one for your windows pc, except for one very important complication.
How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. Formatting the drive will permanently erase all the data and files stored on the hard drive forever. Furthermore, youll dive into what best format you can use for your mac hard drive and what causes you to format a hard drive. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. To format a hard drive on your mac, follow these instructions. Select your macs hard drive in the lefthand column, to reveal more options, then select the partition button. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. Sure, you could read a mac formatted drive on windows or read a windows formatted drive on a mac, but both solutions either cost money or are unstable. Unformat mac hard drive recover formatted hard drive on mac. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online.
Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured. Means if one want to transfer movie or any stuff greater than 4gb it cant be done in this format. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt.
Everything you need to know about your macs hard drive. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. To format external hard drive on mac, all you have to do is plugin your hard drive and launch disk utility. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. In the partition information box, enter an appropriate name for. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive.
A hard drive format refers to how the operating system stores the data on the drive. Erase mac hard drive when you erase a hard drive, you basically format ntfs on mac and change the format to a compatible one like afps or mac os x extended journaled. 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 drive formatted in. Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on. Wait as the os x utilities window appears on the screen. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. 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. Sep 20, 2019 click create and format hard disk paritions.
In disk utility on your mac, format disks or volumes using apple file system apfs, mac os extended, msdos fat and exfat. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Which mac file system is best for an external drive. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for windows and mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use for time machine. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
And you can be confident that apple hasnt changed the way you format an external drive on a mac. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. May 01, 2020 how to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. In this post, youll learn how to format a hard drive for your mac. Jan 04, 2012 smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. Oct 09, 2019 this wikihow teaches you how to format a seagate hard drive on a mac computer. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. Click the erase tab, choose a volume format from the dropdown menu and then type a name for the drive. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive or other storage device.
On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. This is a great thing to do when you first purchase a drive or when you are looking to. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. You can format a drive using the disk utility in mac. You should then a see it mount on the desktop, and b automatically get a prompt to use the drive for time machine if not, you can go into the time machine menu top right of the screen, go to tm preferences, and select it. In the partition layout dropdown menu, select 1 partition. There are three common filesystems that are used today.
Before formatting any hard drive, its a good idea to backup any data or files you want to save before formatting. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Apr 26, 2020 additional information how to format a hard drive for mac. Launch disk utility and then click to select the external hard drive listed on the left. Verify that the correct hard drive is selected in the left column. 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. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Apr 29, 2020 follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp.
How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. The mac os x extended volume format is optimal for macs. Click your hard drive s name in the window near the bottom of the screen. Select disk utility, and then choose the drive to format.
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. Discover the world of external hard drives for mac. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. As a comprehensive data erasure tool, aweeraser for mac can help you securely and permanently format a hard drive or device under mac os. For earlier versions of the mac operating system, screens may be slightly different. If you already used your external hard drive on a pc, be sure to back up any files on it. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. 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. If you dont see this option, try typing create and format hard disk partitions into start. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Connect your hard drive or external hard drive to your mac. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk.
Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. I know mac operating system doesnt fully supports ntfs formatted drive. Then proceed to highlight your computers hard drive. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions.
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