Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at. Whether youre selling your computer, trying a new operating system, or setting up an external drive for backups, sometimes you need to completely erase and format a hard drive.
The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. You can select the exfat format when using the disk.
Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer, or even use a new operating system, you need to format the hard drive on your mac or pc. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Fortunately, there are some mac hard drive format software or smart disk formatting applications can help you securely and easily format, reformat, or erase hard drive under mac os.
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. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb.
Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly with macs. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. While you have bought this drive, you will find the drive already formatted for your mac or windows system. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat.
Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. 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. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. 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. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. How to format new or second hard drive on windows 10mac. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Mac os x uses the hfs plus file system, while windows uses the ntfs file. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years.
Cant access mac hard drive on windows 10 microsoft. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive back up the drive s data first. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. It is a quick way to format external hard drive on mac.
Apple mac machines support a different file system. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. 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. Understanding hard drive partitioning with disk management. Also, you can manage the internal partitions, merge them, create new. 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. However, you can format the drive to work with both. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Connect your western digital my passport hard drive to your windows pc through the usb cable. Therefore, it is necessary to present a tutorial guide here to format or partition a hard drive within mac os. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines.
Plug your hd into the mac and open disk utility, which can be accessed by searching for it in spotlight. 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. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Formatting an internal or external drive under windows 7 or windows 10. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. 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. Click the link below to download the 5 day free trial of a great utility macdrive install that, then restart your pc, start the utility and connect the drive, you will then have access to that mac drive like any other pc hard drive. 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. The system tells you what key to press during the restart, so pay attention to your screen and be quick at pressing the right key.
How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. About how to format external hard drives for both macs and windows pcs, and what is the best format for using usb external drives on mac. Easily format external hard drive on windows or mac. Want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons.
How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have to. Out of the box, windows can not read or write hfs drives, and macs are. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. 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. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. Windows cannot natively access a mac formatted drive.
Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it.
Connect the hard drive or usb key to the mac launch disk utility, located in applications utilities locate the drive name from the left hand side of disk utility and click on it. 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. The problem is that the disk is currently formatted as ntfs and is not readable with time machine. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. You cant format the hard disk on which windows is stored while windows is running, for the same reasons that you cant work on a cars engine while you. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac. Every major version of the operating system provides a dedicated solution to format hard drive as well as external storage units. Format hard drive on windows 7 or earlier versions step 1 restart your computer and press f8 or del key to enter the bios settings. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. This is a great thing to do when you first purchase a drive or when you are looking to. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on.
Securely format external hard drive on windows and mac with super eraser. The two solutions above can help you format external hard drive on windows or mac. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the. I have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. Typically, an external hard drive that works on a windows pc uses an ntfs file system. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. I get this question a lot i have an external hard drive that is ntfs formatted windows format, and i want to reformat it for my mac hfs. First and foremost, you need to decide which file system to use. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side.
Buying an external hard drive is one of the best options for adding the storage space to the mac computer system. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Here you will get to know about the process to format your my passport portable drive in fat32 and exfat file system in both windows and mac platforms. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Paragon disk wipe allows you to create a bootable usbflash drive or external hard drive that will help you to completely erase a whole hard disk, a separate partition or just clean free space.
How to format hard drive for mac and pc on windows. If your mac or pc has a windows os installed, then you wont face any trouble managing it. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk. The formatted files erased by disk utility also can be recovered by free mac data recovery software.
Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. How to format a new or second hard drive on mac mac is obviously a very much different operating system from windows, let alone their features and steps to format a hard drive. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. To format the primary drive the hard disk where the operating system resides you need to boot into the setup program on windows 7 or windows 10 and use it to format your drive. Erase the mac partitions, including the efi system partition. The faster ssd drives on a mac may well use an apfs file system. 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. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac.
1368 1290 1271 1504 1410 547 602 800 710 1147 1255 119 1041 651 720 1143 697 1109 1297 497 369 1426 2 52 270 628 49 1587 1184 48 604 1170 1518 697 356 1457 1127 949 384 839 425 309 117 1137 627 375 891