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 may be a simple procedure, but one that requires some care depending on the use of the disk or which operating system it will use. How to format hard drive for mac and pc on windows. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. 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. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. Since users are unable to create a fat32 partition larger than 32gb in windows disk management, they need to use minitool partition wizard free. Hard drives advertised as being compatible with windows and mac os may have misled you into thinking you could actually use one hard drive for both computers. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. Under the volume scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Rightclick the disk that says offline, then select initialize disk. The drive will now be formatted for use by windows systems.
But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. Writing to a macformatted external hard drive on windows. The drive will mostly contain jpeg photos in the form of iphoto libraries. This usb drive provides plug and play simplicity with the. Rightclick on it and select the format option from the context menu. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. When youre asked to confirm, click the delete button. Keep in mind that you can only format storage devices that are currently not in use. Use the wizard to create a partition with the ntfs or fat32 file system. Designed to work with windows or mac computers, this external hard drive makes backup a snap just drag and drop.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. Formatting iomega external hard drive apple community. Top 10 external hard drive 4tb external hard drives. Then choose edit delete apfs volume from the menu bar, or click the delete volume button in the disk utility toolbar. 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. Here provides you two methods to formatting external hard drive for mac and pc. Click the file menu and select load file system from device.
It seems they formatted the drive to the mac format, but i have no way to access the data, at least i think. Help how can i delete old mac backups from a divided external hard drive so i can free up spacerepartition for pc backups. Writing to a mac formatted external hard drive on windows. This will prompt a new window asking you to select a partition style for your disk. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Pc users who face this problem should look into a super cool program called macdrive 9. To format a hard drive for windows, open the file explorer and click on this pc. If this is the case for you, rightclick the drive you want to format and click initialize disk. Every major version of the operating system provides a dedicated solution to format hard drive as well as external storage units. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex.
Look for a data volume with the same name, such as macintosh hd data. But if you must use the same drive with both types of computer then you need to install some additional software. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drive device under mac os. If youre going to be using the drive with a version of windows prior to windows vista, youre going to want to go with mbr. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. After disk utility loads select the external hard drive this is the outdented entry with the mfgr. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata.
How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. To get set up, connect the portable hard drive to a computer for automatic recognition software required. This is a great thing to do when you first purchase a drive or when you are looking to. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Here is the step by step guide you need to follow to format the hard disk on mac. 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. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or.
Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. Click on the partition tab in the disk utility main window 3. Accessing a mac formatted external hard drive on windows. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. A user has to know how to convert mac formatted hard drive to windows formatted. How to format an external hard drive on windows 10. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. A fat32 partition can reach up to 32gb when formatted with windows. But using a third party all the time for accessing a hard drive on windows is not good. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. I need to free up some space on my pcs windows hdd and that requires me to find a way to.
Apple mac machines support a different file system. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. Choose a file type and formatting option and click on the start button to format the disk. The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted. Follow these steps to initialize and format the hard drive. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. I purchased a seagate backup plus external hard drive that came formatted with a windows nt file system ntfs. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Simply rightclick its icon from my computer and from the context menu, click on the format option.
How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Discussion in windows 10 ask insider started by ufarmboy1234567. How to format an external hard drive focus photo school. Format your portable hard drive to fat32 and exfat can achieve the purpose of use it in both windows computer and mac computer. There are 3 solutions for this case, so please choose the one you like most to format external hard drive windows 1087. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Formatting an external device windows also lets us format an external device like sd card, pen drive, etc. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive.
I did not reformat the drive to a mac format because i wish to be able to use the drive on both windows and mac computers. If you need to expand your storage space with an external hard drive and you use both mac and pc, youll likely run into a few obstacles. If the hard drive you want to format is connected to your pc, it should be there. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. Dont know how to format portable hard drive for mac and pc. There will be no space wasted by protected mac partitions. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. 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 format external hard drive safely in windows and macos. Hard drives advertised as being compatible with windows and mac os may have misled you into thinking you could actually use one hard drive.
Ive searched around but kinda confused as to how to format the drive. Windows formatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. How to format an external hard drive on windows formatting a hard drive on windows is a simple affair, especially if you leave everything as default. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Formatting an external hard drive for macwindows use. Formatting an external hard drive for the first time is a twostep process. The posts title pretty much spells out what im trying to do. If you can use one external hard drive for your mac and a separate drive formatted for a pc when your working with a windows computer. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. How to use mac formatted external hard drive on windows. Forget the backup part, i guess what i need is an external hard drive that i can use in both mac and pc. 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.
I had information from a broken mac backed up at best buy, but because my mac broke, now i only have a windows computer. Seagate innov8 user manual optional formatting and. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. External hard drive formatted with window apple community. In this tutorial, you will learn all these details and learn how to format an external hard drive in both windows and macos. If your mac or pc has a windows os installed, then you wont face any trouble managing it. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. 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.