Reboot the computer and, once its fully booted up, power on the external drive. If you dont plan on using the drive for time machine, skip steps 5 to 11 below and continue with step 12. Apple mac machines support a different file system. 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. Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities. When youre asked to confirm, click the delete button. The process is the same for both mac desktop and laptop computers. 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. Mac os extended was the default file system used by every mac from 1998 until 2017, when apfs replaced it. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. How to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. Using your toshiba external hard drive to backup to. How to use external hard drive on mac without formatting.
How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Learn more about erasing hard disks on mac from apple. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Well show you everything you need to know about the. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Most external hard drives are crossplatform, giving them the ability to work on a number of different operating systems. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. How to reformat an external hard drive for a mac techwalla. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage. Reformatting an external hard drive for mac step 1. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them.
Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. But dont forget to back up your important data in the drive into a safe place. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Youve formatted your external drive to be compatible with mac os x, and have confirmed that the formatting process was successful. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. Macos external drive not showing not reformatting fix. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. You can now edit, read, and write files, as you wish.
This stepbystep guide will show you how to format an external hard drive on a mac, and how to partition a drive on a mac. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. In this guide i will show you how you can properly format reformat a hard drive for mac os. Two ways to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Master boot record is appropriate for external drives used with a pc or boot. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac.
The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. Click erase button, the external hard drive will be formatted. You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected directly to your. 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. Power down your mac and attach your external hard drive to it. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Apfs apple file system this is the new file system that apple bought to macs with high sierra and it will. Read about it and found that id have to reformat it in mac os extended journaled. Format your western digital my passport external hard drive to fat32 or exfat format so to transfer the data between a mac and windows system conveniently. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. Using apples free disk utility app, you can easily format the drive, give it a label, or even partition it and create multiple volumes from a single. Apfs apple file system is only for newer macs running macos 10. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows.
Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility.
With my previous laptops pcs, ive always stored my data on an external hard drive. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. Format external hard drive for mac reformat external. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. The quickest way to do this is a simple spotlight search. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. You should create multiple partitions on your external hard drive, in order to have enhanced file organization. Formatting allows you to overwrite all data on the hard drive, resetting the file structure and how the drive interacts with the operating system. Or perhaps you are setting up an external drive for backups. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Now in this interface, you will see a format option.
To format external hard drive on mac, all you have to do is plugin your hard drive and launch disk utility. 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. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected directly to. There are specific thirdparty systems, like digital camcorders, and sony playstation 3, which need the drives to be formatted in either fat32 or exfat format to perform read from and. I would like to format my external hard drive so that i can edit in on my macbook pro. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows.
Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of windows. How to format an external drive to work with mac from ntfs to mac os extended. Need to reformat wd hard drive for mac if you connect your wd hard drive without reformatting, youll be unable to copy files to the disk as mac read only supports ntfs file system. This menu item is in the upperleft side of the screen. 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. An external hard drive is a data storage device that connects to a computer with a cable, typically usb or firewire. Formatting your toshiba hard drive for mac is important, as it makes the hard drive best suitable for the mac by formatting it. Enter the drive name in the utility window on the left side, and pick it. Mac os can read ntfs volumes but cannot natively write to them. Then choose edit delete apfs volume from the menu bar, or click the delete volume button in the disk utility toolbar.
Connect the external drive or the usb drive to the mac. To this day, it remains the default file system for mechanical and hybrid hard drives, both while installing macos and while formatting external drives. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Confirm the preferences in the finder to allow your external drive to be mounted on the desktop. Which mac file system is best for an external drive. How to use toshiba external hard drive on mac solved. Your advice on formatting the external hard drive is rather insightful.
Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. How to format or partition an external hard drive on mac. You can use your toshiba canvio drive as a destination for your time machine backups but you can only use drives formatted as mac os extended journaled file system for a time machine backup. Therefore, based on these three file systems, we have two methods to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Fortunately disk utility, built right into macos, can help. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. Fat32, exfat and ntfs are three file systems for external drive in windows, while ntfs is readonly on mac. Look for a data volume with the same name, such as macintosh hd data.
The volume your mac started up from is named macintosh hd, unless you. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. Take these measures to ensure that you have enough room to enjoy your data for years to come. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. 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 format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Best for mechanical drives, or drives used with older macos versions. Thus, when you are planning to use the same hard drive on any other os, particularly macos, it is always suggested to format your hard drive for mac. Now, i have a new macbook pro and all my data is still on that external hd. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities.
Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as difficult as it might seem. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. Formatting a hard drive for windows will be discussed in another article. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. If disk utility is not working to reformat the drive, this command will work for you. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Want to reformat your storage device after successfully formatting the hard drive with lacie setup assistant. 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. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the new disk. 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. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data.
Macintosh computers are able to recognize hard drives formatted for both macintosh and windows computers. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Great fix for sd cards, flash drives and all other external hard drives that are not working with your mac. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. In this post, im going to show you how to format your external drive for a maccompatible. To format your external drive hard drive in windows which works with both platforms, first plugin your drive with windows machine. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows.
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