Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. The drives are identified in the first column of the management screen. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Lacie rugged mini 4tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way mac s 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. And you show you the partitions under the external hdd. Follow onscreen prompts to choose mac os extended journaled file system and allow the disk to format. 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.
Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. When you get a new hard drive, it may already be formatted for windows or mac. How you format a mac hard dr ive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. What to do when your external hard drive wont show up. Use external storage devices with mac apple support.
Sometimes, you may want to try format directly to format your external hard drive partition to exfat for mac and windows. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Moving files from mac formatted external hard drive to pc i have an external hard drive where i moved all of my mac photos to. After the fourth year of ownershipusage, hard drive failure rates skyrocket. Disk utility in macos high sierra or later can erase most disks and volumes for mac using either the newer apfs apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. How to open mac format usb devce in windows safeer techie. Heres what to do if your device is not detected in windows and mac. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. Formatting external hard drive hi, im trying to reformat an external hard drive i own, when i go to disk management and right click the drive their is no format option. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b.
Before digging in, select a primary format youll use the most. Do not format this external hard drive before you get your data back. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac. How to convert an external hard drive from apple to pc. How to fix external hard drive not mounting on mac computer. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Hi, i am trying to access my wd hard drive which i have been using on my mac from my pc. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Options for having an external hard drive for mac and pc without formatting. It interprets what is on the external hard drive so that your mac or pc can read and write to the drive.
Choose exfat as the file system in the format partition screen. Best external drives for mac and pc interchangeable 2020. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Open finder and choose applications utilities disk utility to launch. But if you try to use an external hard drive thats been formatted for mac os. 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.
Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other. Formatting external hard drive microsoft community. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Connect the empty external hd to your mac and launch disk utility.
With disk utility open, locate the hard drive you want to partition and select partition. External hard drives, thumb drives, usb drives, flash memory cards, and devices like ipod are examples of storage devices that you can connect to your mac using thunderbolt, usb, or firewire cables, or connect wirelessly using bluetooth. This tool allows you to manage the partitions on drives connected to your computer internal ones or external ones connected via usb. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the partition tab. Accessing mac formatted wd hard drive from pc external. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. Open the start menu and search for disk management. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on a mac. While its convenient to purchase the hard drive that will work with your computer right out of the box, most external hard drives can also be reformatted so youre not limited to your initial choice. 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. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32.
To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. How to format an external hard drive on windows 10. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window.
If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer.
Some hard drives may also include drivers, firmware, or format wizards so be sure to check the user manual before formatting the hard drive. Use a software solution you get a piece of software that sits on your mac. It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on mac and windows computers, providing you format using exfat. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility. If you are trying to format mac external hard drive, you can go over the process step by step. I usually use a firewire that connects into the hard drive. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Next, under the partition layout column, specify the number of partitions you want. Click the initialize button on a small popup screen to create your first.
You can find this on the lefthand side of the screen under external hard drives. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. How to format usb drive external hard drive on macos catalina. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Now, lets go into details about the external hard drives not mounting on mac issue. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured.
If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. By default its the disk built into your mac, named macintosh hd. For the best result, select the disk the highest option in the. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. To start, your first step will be to find disk utility. External hard drives back up your most important files, but what happens when they malfunction. 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. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. In the volume format list, select mac os extended journaled.
I now have a pc with windows 10, but i cant find a way to save the photos onto my computer. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. However, it is not possible to format hard drive to exfat, the only option under the window of format file system is ntfs default. Open finder and choose applications utilities disk utility to launch the app on your mac. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows.
Gtechnology portable external hard drive 2tb from the sleek design to the pre formatting, this terabytesized drive is perfect for mac users who need a little extra space and offers the transfer rate up to 140mbs for accessing all your files. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. How to format your hard drive seagate support canada. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. To convert an external hard drive from apple to pc youll have to format the drive so that. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Amazons choice for external hard drive formatted for mac western digital 2tb elements portable external hard drive usb 3.
To access the disk management tool, click the windows icon and type disk management. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. However, if youre having problems accessing the files and the issue is due to formatting, you will need to connect it to a device it can be read on, and then format the files correctly for the computer you are going to use. Master boot record is appropriate for external drives used with a pc or boot camp. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. The disk utility has changed, you might want to update the screen shots to reflect the new version, the partition tab is noticeably different. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. Storage devices such as external hard drives can also be available.
Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the. Where and with working to reformat my new hd, i have been directed to base support and then knowledge base answer id 3865. Here is the step by step guide you need to follow to format the hard disk on mac. Data corruption can occur as well, turning the contents into an unrecoverable mess. Do not save new things to this drive, or perform other operations like deletion, file removal, etc.
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