Although you can find thirdparty software to get mac hard drives to work with ntfs, and windows to work with hfs, these cost money, and you may have to deal with bugs or request for permission to install. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Jan 23, 2019 windows cannot natively access a mac formatted drive. For this reason, a mac formatted hard drive is not directly compatible, nor. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Apple mac machines support a different file system. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. How to format new or second hard drive on windows 10mac. Aug 22, 2019 how to format hard drive for mac and pc on mac. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. 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 a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. However, when you format your hard drive with super eraser for mac, all your data will be permanently lost. Jan 17, 2019 rightclick the new hard drive and select the format option. Easily format external hard drive on windows or mac. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Mar 15, 2018 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. As speaking of this, it is essential to grasp the key steps to format your new or second hard drive. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os.
How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. The two solutions above can help you format external hard drive on windows or mac. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdos is the formatting option for pc. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. The problem is that the disk is currently formatted as ntfs and is not readable with time machine. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Use the file system dropdown menu, and select ntfs recommended. May 26, 2020 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. Dec 25, 2016 if you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then you have to have the external drive formatted in a file system both oss can read. While you have bought this drive, you will find the drive already formatted for your mac or windows system. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. Cant access mac hard drive on windows 10 microsoft. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start.
The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. How to format external hard drives for mac and 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. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. The 4 disk formatting software for mac above can help you easily format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under mac os. So please back up your important files before you run super eraser for mac to format. That allows you to test out the paragon software and. This works with any hard drive, flash drive, ssd, usb drive, or just about any other. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. Feb 08, 2020 so, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. There are a number of tools that can help you in this regard. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. It is a quick way to format external hard drive on mac. It is not rare to see people coming and asking how to format their new or second hard drive on mac or windows either for freeing up space or for making hard drives to be compatible with a new operating system. May 25, 2020 windows pc and mac use different filesystems.
File systems compatible with windows include fat32 and ntfs. Dec 02, 2019 windows uses nfts file format while mac drives use hfs, this means macs cant write to ntfs drives while windows cant read or write hfs. 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. Dec 22, 2019 how to format external hard drive 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. Heres how to format an external hard drive for windows 10 or partition it. How to format an external hard drive for windows 10.
How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. That allows you to test out the paragon software and make sure its for you and your particular set up. External hard disks and usb drives are generally formatted with the windows fat32 file system for maximum compatibility. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab.
If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. 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. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. Aug 30, 2019 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 attached to your system. In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for windows and mac to help you securely format hard drive usb flash drive or memory card on a pc or a mac. If a windows pc is your main computer and you are looking for a way to read.
If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. Plug your drive into the computer and, if necessary, into a wall outlet. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Both companies have tools that make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without formatting. The good news is that you can download the software and have a 10 day free trial.
Some users would prefer to the features of windows ntfs file system. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. In the value label field, type a descriptive name for the drive. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. However, you have to reformat the drive to make it functional with your mac computer. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. You might want a drive that works with macs and pcs, or maybe you want to partition it, which will split it up into two different formats. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk. Securely format external hard drive on windows and mac with super eraser. For a windows computer to be able to read a hard drive, it needs to have a file system format that is compatible with windows.
To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Formatting your drive will erase all the existing files on it. Can a windows computer read a macformatted hard drive. May 01, 2020 how to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. 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 convert mac hard drive to windows without losing. When you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. Cant access mac hard drive on windows 10 microsoft community. So if your external hard drive already has important files on it, make sure to back them up before proceeding.
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. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. Open file explorer and locate your drive in the sidebar. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. Nov 22, 2019 i have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. How to convert mac hard drive to windows without losing data. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Buying an external hard drive is one of the best options for adding the storage space to the mac computer system. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. However, naturally, disk utility cant format external hard drive to ntfs. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. 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. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need.
Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. 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. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
This file system is specifically for mac systems and windows cant read this file system. The formatted files erased by disk utility also can be recovered by free mac data recovery software. While most external hard drives are already designed to work for windows computers, there are times when you need to reformat one. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple.
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