If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a. Formatting a volume will destroy any data on the partition. A complete solution do you wish to format hard drive for mac and pc, but cant find a solution. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. 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 will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat.
Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. Step 1 first of all, look for the external hard drive in the finder window. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly with macs. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting.
How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. 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. This also allows you to restore time machine backups on windows. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. I would suggest you to take the backup of all the files present in the external hard drive in the mac computer and then connect it to windows 7 and format the drive and choose ntfs format and check if the issue is fixed.
Sometimes, you may want to try format directly to format your external hard drive partition to exfat for mac and windows. Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. You can format your external hard drive from either the pc or mac. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. How to fix external hard drive not recognized on mac like windows, mac also detects an external drive automatically. To format the drive to work with both platforms you will need use a windows computer to format the disk as exfat. Sep 26, 2018 need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc.
Aug 22, 2019 how to format hard drive on mac and pc. Feb 08, 2020 rightclick on the icon for your external drive on mac desktop, then select get info. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. However, fat32 has a maximum 4gb file size limit whereas exfat can work with. Out of the box, windows can not read or write hfs drives, and macs are unable to write to ntfs drives. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another.
The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. How to get an external drive formally used with a mac to be. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. Dec 22, 2019 how to format external hard drive mac. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years.
The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Mar 15, 2018 windows cant normally read macformatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. You can format external hard drive or other external drives with exfat or fat32 file system for mac and windows, so that both mac and windows computer can read and write it. However there is a simple solution you can format the drive to fat32 or exfat that performs better than fat32. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Ntfs format hard disks can be connected to mac os but the drive will run with readonly permission which means you can only copy from hard disk but cant add or. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. Its good to have an external hard drive which can be used for backup and other purpose. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc.
To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Formatting an external drive on your mac is quite easy, though it isnt as evident and obvious as it is on a pc. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the formatting option for pc. From all above, you can have a general idea of fat32 and exfat file system. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. To access the disk management tool, click the windows icon and type disk management. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system.
For this, click on file and then click new finder window. In the resulut, your external hard drive will work just fine with mac and windows. In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator. Aug 30, 2019 today this video will show you how to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. 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. Although it is possible to format a drive as exfat from disk utility on the mac, that drive will not work with windows pcs, and thats not what were after. How to access mac osx extended formatted hard drive in windows. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux. 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. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc.
But both do indeed format drives into fat32 and can both read fat32 so thats your answer. Format external hard drive with multiple partitions easeus. Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux. Its in the cloud, and doesnt matter whether you set it up on a pc or mac. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility posted by ant on march 11th, 2012 43 comments if you have an external hard drive or usb flash drive that youd like to use on both macs and windows pcs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. However, it is not possible to format hard drive to exfat, the only option under the window of format file system is ntfs default. 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 drive with compatible file system for mac and windows. Want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility.
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. I look at my windows friends dropboxes and they look at my dropbox. You can format an external drive in os x using disk utility and terminal. Most or we can say almost every external hard disk comes in ntfs windows nt file system format but ntfs format is not supported by mac os. 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.
Plug in the external hard drive into the system and open. Today this video will show you how to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. 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. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. 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. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc.
It is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for mac and windows. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly. Sep 17, 2015 i have a lacie d2 quadra 1tb external hard drive. Find out how to format an external drive or usb disk making the drive work with both windows pc and mac can read and write. How to get an external drive formally used with a mac to be recognized and useable with a pc running windows 7. Well show you everything you need to know about the.
Buying an external hard drive is one of the best options for adding the storage space to the mac computer system. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. Mar 29, 2019 how to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Jan 17, 2020 why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. 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 format an external hard drive on windows and mac.
How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. While you have bought this drive, you will find the drive already formatted for your mac or windows system. Format external drive usb flash drive mac os x windows. As we know, external hard drives are widely used to backup data or interchange files. For example, in the screenshot below, the mac formatted drive is disk 2.
To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way macs do the formatting on some larger drives, though, so give it a try and if your windows machines dont like it, just format the drive with windows. How to format an external hard drive on windows 10. You can format a hard drive or usb flash disk specifically so that it will be compatible with both mac os x and windows pc computers. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different format.
Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. You can select the exfat format when using the disk. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. Though the default hard disk file system also known as format of windows and mac are different, there should be some ways to format an external drive for both mac and pc. Nov 19, 2015 now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux. Plug in your external hdd to the usb port of your computer then go to my computer find your external drive rightclick it and select format. So, you just bought a new external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Lacie rugged mini 2tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Want to use external hard drive under both windows pc and mac.
Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. Mar 31, 2020 how to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. In this case, you should consider the hurdle that these operating systems support different filesystems. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Some hard drives may also include drivers, firmware, or format wizards so be sure to check the user manual before formatting the hard drive. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. Windows cant normally read macformatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead.
However, this format doesnt support larger files, which can be problematic for transferring 4k videos and so on between macs and windows 10. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives.
The default file system in windows is ntfs, while mac os users hfs. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. 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. Be sure to back up any data you want to save before you. May 29, 2018 how to format drive with compatible file system for mac and windows. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow.
How to get an external drive formally used with a mac to. Oct 29, 2019 to format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. After reading this post, youll know what is the best file system for your cameras sd card and what is the best format for your mac and pc.
Continue below to format an external hard drive or learn more about disk management. Mar 12, 2018 want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. 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. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Most external hard drives hd are sold in a format called ntfs, which is designed to work with windows. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Jan 02, 2016 formatting a drive on your mac is quite easy. Read this stepwise tutorial and learn how to format hdd for mac and windows like a pro. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc.
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