It is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for mac and windows. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Windows xp windows vista windows 2000 windows 7 windows 8 windows 10. Windows offers users builtin disk management tool to create, delete, resize. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. You can select the exfat format when using the disk. Although we know its limitation of 4gb file size only. In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for windows and mac to help you securely format hard driveusb flash drive or memory card on a pc or a mac. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with your computer. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. Feb 08, 2012 how to partition and format your hard drive in windows. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly with macs.
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. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. From all above, you can have a general idea of fat32 and exfat file system. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard drive under mac os. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk. The two most popular operating systems, windows and mac os both have formatting utilities builtin, which makes formatting external drives even more convenient. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. How to use macos sierra disk utility to partition external.
As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. However, the formatted data can be recovered by data recovery software. Connect the empty external hd to your mac and launch disk utility. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Open the start menu and search for disk management. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external.
If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Formatting your toshiba hard drive for mac is important, as it makes the hard drive best suitable for the mac by formatting it. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to partition and format your hard drive in windows pcworld. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have to choose the exfat. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. Thats how you partition a hard drive for use on both windows and mac. Make sure that the sidebar in disk utility shows the name of your startup disk. Provides for the ability to format devices for other filesystems.
Oct 25, 2018 i have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. Formatting your toshiba hard drive for mac is important, as it makes the hard drive best suitable for the mac by formatting it with the osspecific file system and drivers. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Thus, we dont suggest using this tool and we believe it is disabled by this reason. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux.
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 windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. The problem is that the disk is currently formatted as ntfs and is not readable with time machine. To create a partition or volume the two terms are often used interchangeably on a hard disk, you must be logged in as an administrator, and there must be either unallocated disk space or free space within an extended partition on the hard disk.
Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac in disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. Nov 19, 2015 how to format an external hard drive or pen drive. It just securely formats your mac hard drivedevice and permanently erases all the data. 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. Plug your hd into the mac and open disk utility, which.
Best 4 free hard drive format tool download easeus. 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. Although it is possible to format a drive as exfat from disk utility on the mac, that drive will not work with windows pcs, and thats not what. Nov 22, 2019 i have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. Create and format a hard disk partition windows help. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc.
Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Hp usb disk storage format tool is a windows based formatting utility for. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. To format a hard drive means to erase any information on the drive and to set up a file system so your operating system can read data from, and write data to, the drive.
Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop. So please back up your important files before you run super eraser for mac to format. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. To wipe a drive using the dd command, its important to know the drive letter and partition. Means if one want to transfer movie or any stuff greater than 4gb it. Formatting hard drives and external hard drives is usually a fairly straightforward process. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux.
If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. 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. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows.
If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Best 4 free hard drive format tools easeus partition master free, disk management, diskpart with file explorer are ready here to help you fix format problems with ease. After bringing up disk utility, and clicking partition, the. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. To format or reformat an external hard drive on mac, youll need the builtin disk management tool called disk utility. Initially, the drive had a windows 7 install on it, which i was going to format away. Then your hard drivemac computerdevice is able to reuse, resold, recycled or can be safely donated or lent to other people. Launch disk utility, found within applicationsutilities. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. 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. However, when you format your hard drive with super eraser for mac, all your data will be permanently lost.
To format a hard drive for compatibility of both mac and windows you can use fat32 format which has both readwrite capability on winmac respectively. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. I have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. How to use macos sierra disk utility to partition external hard drive macpc. Are you trying to download a free hard drive format tool to help you safely format a hard drive.
The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. You could use dd or shred to wipe the drive, then create partitions and format it with a disk utility. May 06, 2019 kingston format utility, free download. Buying an external hard drive is one of the best options for adding the storage space to the mac computer system.
As complicated as that might sound, its not really difficult to format a hard drive in any version of windows. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to find the program. If you move a hard drive between the two operating systems, heres what you need to know. Select disk utility from the utilities window in macos recovery. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. Format usb or external hard drive for mac using mac disk utility. How to format a hard drive with ease in windows 1087. Formatting partitioning software free download ccm.
Some of these usb flash drive format software run only in administrator mode, while some run normally. In this post, we have collected four free and powerful disk formatting utilities, which allows users to format a hard drive, even the bootable drive easily and successfully in all editions of windows. Hard drive format utility for windows free downloads and. How to format a hard dr ive on mac to work on mac and pc. Aug 31, 2016 to create a partition or volume the two terms are often used interchangeably on a hard disk, you must be logged in as an administrator, and there must be either unallocated disk space or free space within an extended partition on the hard disk. Format external hard drive with windows builtin tool. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. Includes tests and pc download for windows 32 and 64bit systems. While you have bought this drive, you will find the drive already formatted for your mac or windows system. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. 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. I know mac operating system doesnt fully supports ntfs formatted drive. You cannot format the whole hard drivedoing so would erase your operating systembut you can format a portion of the hard drive after creating a partition.
Windowsformatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. I have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. A user has to know how to convert mac formatted hard drive to windows formatted. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. The volume representing your startup disk is macintosh hd, unless.
In general, when it comes to formatting a hard drive in windows, there are several ways to complete this task. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Select the drive you want to reformat in the lefthand sidebar and go to the erase. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive.
Want to format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. 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, 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. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. The default windows tool has quick format option available to format a usb flash drive, but these freeware can carry out format process in quick format mode, compression mode, etc. 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. Apr 14, 2017 how to use macos sierra disk utility to partition external hard drive mac pc. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. How to format new or second hard drive on windows 10mac. This wikihow teaches you how to format your computers builtin hard drive.
Highlight the drive again in disk utility and click. To be specific, we can turn to disk management, diskpart, thirdparty tool, and others. Mar 31, 2020 highlight the drive again in disk utility and click. Feb 27, 2018 before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Dec 22, 2019 how to format external hard drive mac.
Thus, we dont suggest using this tool and we believe it is disabled by this. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. Connect your external hard drive to your windows 10 pc. Hp usb disk storage format tool is a windowsbased formatting utility for. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. 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. Bios settings for ahci, suspend mode to s3, and dvd is first boot device, hard drive second. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through all connections, be they usb, firewire, or thunderbolt.
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