One primary section capable of storing files larger than 4gb, and a secondary section capable of sharing files between macos and windows 10. I have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. 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. How to format external drives to work on macwindows. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. In the disk utility inspector window, you will see all your drives and attached storage. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers.
If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. After you select the drive, click the erase button at the top of the window, and then select msdos fat from the format menu. Formatting your drive will erase all the existing files on it. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Most of the external hard disks and flash drives are formatted for microsoft windows operating systems. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. What hard drive format works on mac, pc, and chromebook. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. 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. So if your external hard drive already has important files on it, make sure to back them up before proceeding. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next. Select the mac partition we created in windows 10, click erase on the menu bar, choose mac. That makes using the drive a bit troublesome on mac machines. 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.
In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. But to get a hard drive to be compatible with both mac and pc, you have to. How to format an external hard drive for windows 10. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. External data storage devices such as usb flash drives, external hard disk drives hdds, and solid state drives ssds provide one of the easiest ways to transfer files between separate computers without accessing the. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Best external drives for mac and pc interchangeable 2020. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. However, this format doesnt support larger files, which can be problematic for transferring 4k videos and so on between macs and windows 10. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. Its good to have an external hard drive which can be used for backup and other purpose. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs.
A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. Formatting a hard drive on windows is largely the same whether youre using windows 10, 8, or 7. How to make external hard drive work with mac and pc youtube. Its the most secure, robust file system that a windows user could wish for. Leo laporte answers lees question about drive formats and how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac, windows, and chromebook. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows. Mac can read all the file system formats including windows. How to format external drives on mac what you should. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. 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. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. If you want to format a blank external drive from a mac computer, launch the disk utility, located in the applications utility folder. Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. Fat32 is popular but the 4gb filesize limit makes it inconvenient, for instance, when you want to make a bootable macos sierra usb drive which the system file takes about 8gb of.
Apfs launched as a alternative to mac os prolonged, the brand new file format provides improved effectivity and reliability, though it comes at a value. I know mac operating system doesnt fully supports ntfs formatted drive. You will learn how to format the external hard disk which has deafult ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system part 3. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system. You format the drive for either windows or mac via the app, settings, manage music. Both mac os x and windows also support the fat32 file system, but we dont recommend it for hard drives. I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Because fat32 supports only up to 4 gb large files, it should be used only with flash drives.
Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. If your external hard drive is working, your computer will. Connect your external hard drive to a windows computer. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. One primary section capable of storing files larger than 4gb, and a secondary section capable of sharing files between macos and windows. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. Either way there is a solution to having an existing external hard drive for mac and pc. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. Want to format your external drive for mac and pc compatibility. Format external hard disk drive for mac os and windows. How can i format a mac os external hard drive to windows using a. 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.
Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. But its a little different if youre formatting the primary drive vs. Most or we can say almost every external hard disk comes in ntfs windows nt file system format but ntfs format is not supported by mac os. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. 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 to external drive formatted in. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. This means its the format of choice for system drives on windows computers. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format.
Ntfs has quite a lot of strong advantages, which may actually make it a good format choice for certain external hard drives, depending on the circumstances. 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. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. 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. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. 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. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
I explain the differences between the formats afps, mac. How to reformat an external drive for mac warehouse. Select the mac partition we created in windows 10, click erase on the menu bar, choose mac os extended. 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. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. Ntfs format hard disks can be connected to mac os but the drive will run with readonly permission which means you can only copy from hard disk but cant add or. But unlike other electronics on the market, its possible to reformat an external drive to work wi. 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. Learn how to format an external hard drive, ssd, or a usb flash drive on mac for both mac and windows. Rather than use a mac formatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat.
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 seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. However, fat32 has a maximum 4gb file size limit whereas exfat can work with.
That said, our guide splits the external drive in half. The file format you choose largely is determined by what youll be doing with the exterior drive, and which working techniques you employ each day. To extend the life of your storage drive, its a good practice to always put it on a flat and stable surface and away from heaters, humidifiers or air conditioners. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended.
1251 196 359 87 1415 1222 1138 361 700 477 31 832 1463 1098 1449 51 604 461 170 375 697 756 1441 417 1266 1034 714 579 1404 1140 1437 1042 1426 520 1227 1181 698 353 57 1225 165 287 514 242 897 1132 1146 1157