You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. In this post, youll learn how to format an external drive to a mac compatible file system and recover files from a reformatted hard drive. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. 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. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc.
That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. You can choose whatever name you want, and you should choose guid partition map for the. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. This type of file system is the right choice to be usable for. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Here, scroll down to sharing and permissions at the bottom, click the lock icon, then enter your password when prompted now you have two options. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020.
To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. The mac os x extended volume format is optimal for macs. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the partition tab. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. 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. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. If you have a pc, you can also find out how to format a hard drive on 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. How to unlock and format an external hard drive for your mac. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc.
Complete the related information name, format, scheme, then click erase button. This is an article for mac, it is erasing a hard drive from a mac command line, it is not a windows tutorial. The easiest way to unlock an external hard drive on mac computers is to rightclick or hold option and click the drive icon, then select get info. Format external drive usb flash drive mac os x windows. When you cant mount an external hard drive on your mac, you can try the 5 methods introduced in this. The ssds are fast, dont need any external power supply, and have more resistance to shock and vibrations. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. 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.
Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. If you re erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected directly. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required.
Go finder window on you mac then click on applications the image right. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Now here is how to format your fat32 external drive on mac. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. 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. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Both mac os x and windows also support the fat32 file system, but we dont recommend it for hard drives. Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window. Click the erase tab, choose a volume format from the dropdown menu and then type a name for the drive. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. 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.
Step 2 on the left side of the utilities screen, find the name of the external hard drive you want to format and select it. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. 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 format usb driveexternal hard drive on macos catalina. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina.
Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. How to format an external drive in os x by shujaa imran jan 2, 2016 mac most external drives ship in formats that are universally recognised amongst nearly all operating systems fat, im looking at you, but there may be times where you might want to completely wipe a drive andor set it up to be compatible with apples mac lineup only. To format external hard drive on mac, all you have to do is plugin your hard drive and launch disk utility. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. Therefore, scroll down until you see a folder utilities double click on it. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. The disk utility application is located in the utilities subfolder. Copying data on mac to external hard drive with this format will make copying much longer. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. Open the start menu and search for disk management.
How to format drive with compatible file system for 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. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on a mac. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Click the erase tab, choose a volume format from the dropdown menu and then type a. To delete this partition you have to use microsoft diskpart erase utility. Step 1 connect the external hard drive you want to format to your mac, then start the disk utility app that you can find under applications utilities. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. Seagate backup plus 5tb external hard drive portable hdd light blue usb 3.
Usb drives and external hard drives on macos catalina are used for storing and backing up important data such as photos, videos, audios, images, notes, messages, music. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Click the icon of the unmountable external drive on the left part of the window. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Click erase button, the external hard drive will be formatted. Connect the empty external hd to your mac and launch disk utility. 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. Because fat32 supports only up to 4 gb large files, it should be used only with flash drives. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with your computer. How to format an external hard drive on windows formatting a hard drive on windows is a simple affair, especially if you leave everything as default.
You can, however, format a windows hard drive from a mac if you connect the windows hard drive to the mac and format it through disk utility, or. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. Rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. Launch disk utility and then click to select the external hard drive listed on the left. After you connect an external drive to your mac, open the applications folder from the finder window. Discover the world of external hard drives for mac. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. 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. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Cannot mount external hard drive on mac, how to fix.
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. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. When you use a hard disk drive, time machine will take a while to back up your mac. Click the erase function on the top of the disk utility window.
How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. 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. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. Before format external hard drive in mac, you should know about the file systems offered by disk utility. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Give your drive a name and select the file system you want from the format dropdown.