Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. May 09, 2019 aimed at multimedia professionals, the caldigit av pro 2 is a welldesigned, mac formatted external drive that comes in ssd and spinning disk versions, and includes both a usb hub and thunderbolt. Connect the external drive or the usb drive to the mac. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. If youre looking for a macfriendly external hard drive thats built for durability, take a look at lacies rugged thunderbolt usbc portable hard drive. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. Follow onscreen prompts to choose mac os extended journaled file system and allow the disk to format. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Choose another file system from the format box and click erase. This will completely wipe the drive, deleting all the files on it and converting it to whatever file system you choose. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Oct 18, 2019 this wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drives format on windows and mac computers.
How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Please guide which format of external hard disk fat32 or ntfs is compatible with my mac. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. Manually mount this external hard drive in disk utility. Navigate through the following to open the disk utility. Before starting the formatting hard drive in mac, you have to connect your mac system to external hard drive. To delete this partition you have to use microsoft diskpart erase utility. Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive.
So, we suggest that its better to use a pc to partition an external hard drive for macos and windows. Just launch the disk utility, rightclick or controlclick the drive containing your apfs partition, and select erase. Make sure your external hard disk is connected to your mac device correctly and the icon on the desktop appears. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
Most external hard drives hd are sold in a format called ntfs, which is designed to work with windows. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Disk utility is a macos utility application used to format and manage both internal and external hard drives as well as disk images. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. You can do that by typing disk format or disk management in windows search or going to control panel administrative tools create and format hard disk partitions. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and. For some mac models, the partition option would be greyed out in disk utility. Continue below to format an external hard drive or learn more about. 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. Which external hard disk format fat32 or apple community.
Sep 26, 2018 need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. To setup the external hard drive for the first time, connect the external hard drive to your mac computer, open the disk utility and perform the following steps. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. With its distinctive rubber bumpers and brushed aluminum chassis, the drive offers drop resistance up to 5 feet, crush resistance that can withstand up to a 1ton car, and ip54 water. How to fix a corrupted external hard drive on macmacbook.
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. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected. Feb 27, 2018 before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. To format external drive to file system compatible with mac and pc, connect the drive to your computer and follow the detailed steps given below take formatting hard drive to exfat in windows 7 for example. Developed by microsoft, this modern file system is optimized for situations where the ntfs file system is not a feasible solution, and the file size limit of the standard fat32 file system is unacceptable. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to partition external hard drive on mac info remo.
How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Here are the steps to partition an external hard drive for mac and windows pc, which is a little tricky. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with. How to format external hard disk on mac devices correctly. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. If youre not erasing the disk your mac started up from, you dont need. 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 external hard drive get attached to your system. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data.
This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with your computer. Once youve unboxed your new drive, connect it to your mac. While apfs is optimized for the flashssd storage used in recent mac computers, it can also be used with older systems with traditional hard disk drives hdd and external, directattached storage. How to format a drive with the apfs file system on macos. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. But it is hard to pick the suitable format as it depends on your usage. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. 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. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac. In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the.
How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. If your external hard drive is not mounted on the desktop or in the finder, you can try to mount it manually in disk utility which is a native disk management tool in your mac. 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. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar.
Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. 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. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. How to format usb drive or external hard drive on mac. Aug 30, 2019 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 external hard drive get attached to your system.
So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Open disk utility go to the applications folder and then to another folder, known as utilities. Highlight your external hard drive from the storage devices listed on the left sidebar and click erase tab from the main menu. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os. The following is based on the latest version of macos. The best format choice of external drive on mac using the external drive on mac is a good idea as it provides additional storage. Discover the world of external hard drives for mac.
Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. You will see two fields where you need to supply the details. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os.
Also, if your current hard drive is more than 5 years old, it probably is nearing the end of its service life and needs to be replaced. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. Which mac file system is best for an external drive. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left.
As mentioned before, macs can only read ntfsformatted hard drives by default. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Unfortunately, disk utility in macos high sierra doesnt make that option easy to find. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. May 29, 2018 to format external drive to file system compatible with mac and pc, connect the drive to your computer and follow the detailed steps given below take formatting hard drive to exfat in windows 7 for example. Designed by microsoft to provide similar compatibility to fat32 without the pesky limitations, exfat is the format of choice for drives that youll. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. This is one of the easiest solutions, so you can have a. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. Jan 09, 2020 if you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system. 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. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system.
Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. Many external drives even include their own software for getting started. Best for mechanical drives, or drives used with older macos versions. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
Format external hard drive with multiple partitions easeus. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Aimed at multimedia professionals, the caldigit av pro 2 is a welldesigned, macformatted external drive that comes in ssd and spinning disk versions, and includes both a usb hub and thunderbolt. So, it is better that you know your options and understand which format is right for you. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next step. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. 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. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers operating system, as well as fix any nonphysical errors on the drive itself. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility.
Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Apr 14, 2020 to fix a corrupted external hard drive on mac, the solutions are categorized into without formatting and by formatting. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. Seagate backup plus 5tb external hard drive portable hdd light blue usb 3. Fix a corrupted external hard drive without formatting formatting usually is the least wanted solution for fixing the problem, so we gather two fixes without formatting here. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. On mac computers, all of this can be done with the disk utility app. It will likely already be formatted, either for use. As the internal storage is not much, i am thinking if buying an external hard disk.
How to fix external hard drive not mounting on mac computer. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. To this day, it remains the default file system for mechanical and hybrid hard drives, both while installing macos and while formatting external drives. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac.
Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. You may also set a direct connection to your computer. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data.
Yes, connecting an external hard drive or usb flash key to a mac will generally read and work fine as is because the mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a windows and mac machine, formatting it to be entirely mac compatible filesystem is highly recommended, and necessary for time machine and to make disks bootable. Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Mac os extended was the default file system used by every mac from 1998 until 2017, when apfs replaced it. Backup disks you can use with time machine apple support. To fix a corrupted external hard drive on mac, the solutions are categorized into without formatting and by formatting.
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