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. This wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drive s format on windows and mac computers. Apr 29, 2020 follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Even though mac computers are capable of reading hard drives that are formatted for windows, if you intend on using your external hdd as a bootable disk or want to use it to backup files with your macs time machine, you must format it to be entirely mac compatible. Hello all, i am switching completely from mac to windows. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. Of course, you can easily reformat almost any drive you buy, so youre not limited to buying only those intended for use with macs. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
Reformatting your drive mac are you finding that you are unable to drag documents and folders to your external hard drive. 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. Most external hard drives are crossplatform, giving them the ability to work on a number of different operating systems. 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. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Every time i go to disk utility and erase, the only non mac option i have is exfat. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. For some mac models, the partition option would be greyed out in disk utility. Here are the steps to partition an external hard drive for mac and windows pc, which is a little tricky. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. For most reasons to erase, you should erase the disk, which also erases all volumes on that disk. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Anything you want onto one of seagates external hard drives.
The 10tb gdrive desktop external hard drive will give you enough volume and lightning speed for a traditional drive, and comes preformatted for mac if you need instant crossplatform compatibility, and an array of color choices, youll be covered with the seagate backup. Designed by microsoft to provide similar compatibility to fat32 without the pesky limitations, exfat is the format of choice for drives that youll. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. 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. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. The 8 best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. The 8 best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc users. Its fast 540 mbs read and write speeds are more than enough to transfer any file. If your drive is already formatted for mac os x, it is immediately enabled for writing. Mar 21, 2020 right now, our top pick for best external hard drive is the western digital my passport 4tb, which is a mechanical hard drive. Drive speed is measured in revolutions per minute rpm, based on how fast the drive can spin.
How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Rightclick on the external hard drive in the volume tab. Jan 04, 2012 smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. Use the exfat file system and never format your external. Reformatting a hard drive is often done just to erase all of its contents. If you want to make use of your macs thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. Depending on how the drive is currently formatted, and whether or not you want to reformat it, you have a few possible options. Right now, our top pick for best external hard drive is the western digital my passport 4tb, which is a mechanical hard drive. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. 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.
Apr 23, 2014 how to format external hard drive on mac compatible with windows, mac, time machine duration. What to do when your external hard drive wont show up. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt. When the prompt appears, type list disk and press enter to see the disks plugged into your system. Heres a brief overview of our recommendations depending on your specific needs and preferences. So, we suggest that its better to use a pc to partition an external hard drive for macos and windows. Reformatting external hard drive without apple community. I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. Give your drive a name and select the file system you want from the format dropdown. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. Mar 29, 2019 writing to an external hard drive using max os x can sometimes be more complicated than one would assume.
How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Reformatting your drive mac digital media training. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Either way there is a solution to having an existing external hard drive for mac and pc. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Some compatible hard drives may need reformatting before they can store ps4 data, and this is a process that may require a computer.
Aug 30, 2019 select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab. Rightclick the hard drive and choose wipe hard drive. If they are important make sure you have them backed up safely and that they can be accessd on another drives, cds, dvds or memory sticks if they are very small. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. If youre not erasing the disk your mac started up from, you dont need.
The 4 disk formatting software for mac above can help you easily format hard drive, usb flash. External hard drives come in different sizes and different capacities, too. 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. Reformatting an external hard drive no, not unless you back them up to another location first. Consider how youll be saving and transferring files, such as photos, videos, files from tablets, files from pc laptops, or photos from toprated cell phones. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Best external hard drives for macs in 2020 techradar. Jan 23, 2020 i hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. You can choose whatever name you want, and you should choose guid partition map for the. Since the mac can read the old drive, an external drive formatted mac os extended could be attached as well and the files moved over. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Below are some recommended internal hard drive and external hard drives that you might like. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata.
An external hard drive is a data storage device that connects to a computer with a cable, typically usb or firewire. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. When you take into account price, ease of use, and portability, the seagate backup plus slim is the most reliable hard. Depending on a number of factors, however, your drive may be labeled not initialized. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Most external hard drives connect to a mac either through the usb port, or through the macs thunderbolt port, and thus will likely come with the appropriate cable.
Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. When youre planning to use your seagate drive only for your mac.
Does this mean that they cannot be converted to windows. Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows external. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Formatting a hard drive is the best way to start from scratch on a geeky project. The disk manager tool is able to list all hard drives and external devices on your mac. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. Use your seagate and share your documents between your mac and a windows pc. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc.
Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. If you dont want to do that, there are some third party options that will allow the mac to read and write nfts drives. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. We think it offers creatives the perfect balance of speed, reliability, portability and price for both mac and pc users. As mentioned before, macs can only read ntfsformatted hard drives by default. Which mac file system is best for an external drive.
Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. How to format an external drive for mac from ntfs to mac os extended. There are a few reasons to reformat your drive this way. Mar 07, 2020 external hard drives are not only useful for storing data but are an excellent way to transport files from one location to another. Or you can choose wipe hard drive to completely delete the hard drive. The main difference is it can store files over 4gb. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process.
If you will be using multiple external hard drives on a project, youll want to make sure to keep them organized. Youll want to do it before you sell your machine, for sure, but its also one of the steps you take when you. Power down your mac and attach your external hard drive to it. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Two ways to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. Reformatting an external hard drive dell community. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Fat32, exfat and ntfs are three file systems for external drive in windows, while ntfs is readonly on mac. Then you can choose one of the hard drive and format it by click on format button. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp.
Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities. Reboot the computer and, once its fully booted up, power on the external. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers operating. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. The tutorial and screenshots below are based on macos sierra. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. How to write to an external hard drive on mac os x. A lot of people including you, storing important data on seagate external hard drive instead of on your pcmac hard drive.
Best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc image credit. 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 use seagate external hard drive on mac, 16 ways. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. 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 write to an external hard drive on mac os x wikihow. May 04, 2020 open the start menu, type diskpart, and press enter. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. Reformatting a hard drive is often done just to erase.
This small compact ssd drive from samsung comes with both a usbc to usbc cable and a usbc to usba, meaning its perfect to use with your macbook or mac. However, not all hard drives are compatible with the ps4, and you will need a hard drive with a usb 3. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. 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. Typically, when you buy an external hard drive it will be formatted out of the box. Apr 15, 2020 if you want to make use of your mac s thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured. The process is the same for both mac desktop and laptop computers. Connect the external drive or the usb drive to the mac. Oct 18, 2019 this wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drive s format on windows and mac computers.
Writing to an external hard drive using max os x can sometimes be more complicated than one would assume. Macintosh computers are able to recognize hard drives formatted for both macintosh and windows computers. Connect the empty external hd to your mac and launch disk utility. If you havent used your hard drive in a while, or you just bought a new one, you may have to reformat it to be compatible with your computer.
Both windows and mac can read drives formatted with this. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. May 09, 2019 the best external hard drives for mac in 2020. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. It is possible to reformat the drive and keep your files by formatting your drive and then using a data recovery tool to restore your information. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these fields. 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. 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. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. 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. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac.
How to format external hard drive on mac compatible with windows, mac, time machine duration. Select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the partition tab. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. Discover the world of external hard drives for mac. 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. Most external hard drives connect to a mac either through the usb port, or through the mac s thunderbolt port, and thus will likely come with the appropriate cable. To format external hard drive on mac, all you have to do is plugin your hard drive and launch disk utility. Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. Therefore, based on these three file systems, we have two methods to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. To find your best external hard drive for mac, youll want to decide how quickly you want to save and retrieve data.
Some compatible hard drives may need reformatting before they can store ps4. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. A lot of people including you, storing important data on seagate external hard drive instead of on your pc mac hard drive. Open the start menu, type diskpart, and press enter. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Hope this formatreformat a hard drive for mac guide helped. Oct 10, 2019 what are the ways to use your seagate external hard drive on your mac. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. How to reformat an external hard drive for a mac techwalla. How to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. When you take into account price, ease of use, and portability, the seagate backup plus slim is the most reliable hard drive you can carry around with you at all times.
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