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. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. 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. Two ways for reformatting wd hard drive for mac and pc. And found the steps straight forward and truly easy to do. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. On a hackintosh its possible to dual boot macos and windows on the same hard drive disk, which i will explain how to here. Most external hard drives hd are sold in a format called ntfs, which is designed to work with windows. 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. 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. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. Check the format this volume with the following settings box, then click the file system box and select one of the following. If you need a crossplatform option, consider using exfat for your drive insteadboth windows and macos can read these drives without any additional software. After realizing that you can reformat wd hard drive to fat32 or exfat to make it compatible with mac os x and still can be used under windows, it is time to check out how to reformat wd hard drive for mac and pc in windows successfully.
If you wish to boot the drive on a pc or use it with older versions of windows, you may also need to set the partition scheme to master boot record mbr for full windows compatibility. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way macs 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. Mar 31, 2020 how to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. 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.
How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Your internal macintosh drive is also formatted in this format. You will learn how to format the external hard disk which has deafult ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. 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. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. Reading mac files on external hard drive via windows 10. Sep 26, 2018 windows pc and mac use different filesystems. Prepare a thumb drive for both windows and os x on windows, connect your thumb drive. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. Then click the second partition, name it mac, and change its format to mac os extended journaled.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Format a hard drive using mac os x disk utility iclarified. Add virtual cd and dvd drives to your pc with alcohol how to. Macclean360 also offers disk management tool, disk manager.
Format usb flash drive external hard drive with macclean360 on macos catalina. Follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. It just securely formats your mac hard drivedevice and permanently erases all the data. Then your hard drivemac computerdevice is able to reuse, resold, recycled or can be safely donated or lent to other people. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina.
How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. I hope you loved my article partition hard drive for mac and windows, in 6 easy steps. How to access mac osx extended formatted hard drive in windows. Format external hard disk drive for mac os and windows using. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. But its a good idea to also create a third partition on your disk that both macos and windows 10 can use. You can use this format if you share the drive between mac os x and windows computers and have no files larger than 4gb. You just need to mount your disk and access all of your files. Immediately after the startup sound, press and hold the c key to start up from cd. Jan 02, 2016 note that exfat is only compatible with versions of windows later than vista. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. This tool can help you securely and quickly format usb flash drive, external hard drive under macos catalina. How can i format this drive in windows 7 home premium. 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.
Step one if your hard drive is an external drive, connect it to the computer. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. But to get a hard drive to be compatible with both mac and pc, you. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and.
If you selected the drive name instead of its description you wont see the scheme option. Hello everyone, saving the drama of switching from mac to windows sigh, ive decided on purchasing the surface pro 4. Once the set up is complete, mount your drive and it will be visible on file explorer. Format external hard disk drive for mac os and windows. If you need a crossplatform option, consider using exfat for your drive insteadboth windows and macos.
The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at. Hackintosh dual boot windows 10 and macos high sierra. 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. Now, click on the top partition, name it windows, and change its format to msdos. All options, including format, is greyed out except to delete volume. Has a storage limit of 32 gigabytes with an individual file size of 4 gigabytes. However, it is not possible to format hard drive to exfat, the only option under the window of format file system is ntfs default. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. When the installer screen appears, do not click continue. The format apple support for mac owners for time machine is mac os extended journaled. Additional information how to format a hard drive for mac. To start, your first step will be to find disk utility.
Feb 08, 2020 so, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator. Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. Jan 02, 2017 at this point, you can proceed to the next section to format your mac backup partition. Next, under the partition layout column, specify the number of partitions you want. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Repair a power mac g5 remove the superdrive how to.
How to format your hard drive seagate support australia. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. 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. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Give your settings a final lookover and click apply. To use it, download hfs for windows here and install on your pc. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. Note that exfat is only compatible with versions of windows later than vista. With disk utility open, locate the hard drive you want to partition and select partition. Apfs vs mac os extended which mac disk format is best. These are instructions on how to format a hard drive using mac os x disk utility. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab.
Nov 19, 2015 how to format an external hard drive or pen drive. Before beginning the formatting approach for your mac, let me tell you that the drive is able to read wiki data only when it is formatted to wbfs with a usb loader. About how to format external hard drives for both macs and windows pcs, and what is the best format for using usb external drives on mac. Verify that the correct hard drive is selected in the left column. Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support us. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Unformat mac hard drive recover formatted hard drive on.
Fat32 is the crossplatform format for windows and mac os x. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. Unformat mac hard drive recover formatted hard drive on mac. Use the disk utility application to erase the drive. The formatted data also can be recovered by mac data recovery software. Hackintosh dual boot windows 10 and macos high sierra same. Format usb flash driveexternal hard drive with macclean360 on macos catalina. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Readwrite fat32 from both native windows and native mac os x. The software can also format your external hard drive.
The easiest way to format the drive for mac is by using macoss builtin disk utility for fat32 or exfat. Its recommended to use this format whenever you need to use an external drive with os x only. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Jun 30, 2018 you will learn how to format the external hard disk which has default ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. A partition used for both mac and windows you format as an exfat file system. Connect your hard drive or external hard drive to your mac. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for windows and mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use for time machine. 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. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. You will learn how to format the external hard disk which has default ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. This works with any hard drive, flash drive, ssd, usb drive, or just about any other.
People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. Set the format to mac os extended journaled and the scheme to guid partition map. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. When prompted, select the mac os extended journaled format. Both mac os x and windows also support the fat32 file system, but we dont recommend it for hard drives. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support.
How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Partition hard drive for mac and windows, in 6 easy steps. Copy a data disk uing one optical drive using disk utility on os x how to. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows 10. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. Mac can read all the file system formats including windows msdos, fat, fat32. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt. Sometimes, you may want to try format directly to format your external hard drive partition to exfat for mac and windows. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to.
Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. All data has to be put in a file format that the operating system can read off the hard drive. The format is good for handling the files between both os under 4gb size. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device.
If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Drive with a fat file system cant store a single file having a size above 4gb. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. The usb drivers come with the fat format by default. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. Select the mac partition we created in windows 10, click erase on the menu bar, choose mac os extended journaled in the format list box, then. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Although its recommended that macos be installed on a separate drive than windows, its perfectly possible to dual boot windows and macos on the same drive for those that dont have multiple hard drives to spare. 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.
Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdos. When it comes to the best format for ssd in windows, ntfs is highly recommended to use. If you desire encryption, then select mac os extended journaled, encrypted format instead. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. However, when we connect a ntfs formatted disk to mac, mac os x doesnt allow us to write. Select the volume format from the volume format popup.