Mar 29, 2019 you can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Some people may want to format a storage because they want to clean hard drive mac and others might want to install fresh os x. Disk utility is a smart hard drive format tool built in mac system. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Besides, you can use it to manage your hard drive partitions such as resize partition, delete partition, split partition, merge partitions, etc. From the volume format menu, you can select the file systems that are compatible with your operating system, here please choose mac os extended. If you only need to format a hard drive securely, free partition manager easeus partition master free can be your best choice. Once in the folder, youll see an application named disk utility, doubleclick on it to launch the program. Step 2 now, go to the applications folder on your mac, and launch the disk utility from the utilities folder. The information about individual partitions is stored in a special region on the hard drive, called the partition table. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. Format mac hard drive with time machine formatting an external hard drive with time machine is as easy as formatting it with disk utility.
This process erases everything on the disk, including its files and all its partitions. If you dont see this option, try typing create and format hard disk partitions into start. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Paragon disk wipe allows you to create a bootable usbflash drive or external hard drive that will help you to completely erase a whole hard disk, a separate partition or just clean free space. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. It is the reliable disk formatting tool for windowsmac. This may be apfs, or it may be mac os extended journaled depending on how the drive is currently formatted and whether you using macos.
So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. This method should work on all apple computers and with all recent versions of mac os. You can do that by typing disk format or disk management in windows search or going to control panel administrative tools create and format hard disk. Then, after making sure that it is the windows ntfs file system that makes your external hard drive readonly on mac, you can go head to fix this problem.
Click on disk utility then continue first of all to get your mac s hard drive wiped. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Just run it on your mac, it will show all the hard drives and external devices on your mac. Rightclick on the start button and select disk management on the popup menu. 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. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows.
Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Now you should see your new drive in the disk utility sidebar. The disk partition is created prior to highlevel formatting, during a process called partitioning, which divides the hard drive into one or more regions, called partitions, indicating where each partition starts and where it ends. 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. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Select disk utility, and then choose the drive to format. You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. To delete this partition you have to use microsoft diskpart erase utility. 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. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software.
However, when you format your hard drive with super eraser for mac, all your data will be permanently lost. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Select the hard drive and click erase, then disk utility will help you format and erase the hard drive or device. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Fortunately, there are some mac hard drive format software or smart disk formatting applications can help you securely and easily format, reformat, or erase hard drive under mac os. Click your hard drives name in the window near the bottom of the screen. Bootable usb hard disk format tool free download easeus. Formatting an external hard drive will delete any information on the device, likewise reformatting your system will essentially bring your mac back to a clean factory state, thus removing all. In the upper left of the disk utility window, click on view. Follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. Make your mac feel like new again with a fresh install of os x. Time machine, however, gives you the possibility to create an automatic backup of the data on your hard drive before formatting it.
How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Turn on your macintosh notebook computer or desktop system and login. Click the erase button at the top of the disk utility window. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. It is the reliable disk formatting tool for windows mac. Seagate backup plus desktop user manual optional formatting. You can also check this in the finder with a few clicks. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator.
You can repurpose any hard drive to work with your mac. Aomei partition assistant is such a great simple tool for formatting external hard drive for mac and windows. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with. Aug, 2018 need to format portable hard drive for mac and pc if you have a portable hard drive with ntfs file system, you can use it in windows computer easily. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Mac formatted external hard drives are often priced higher than their windows counterparts and are not as widely available. In this post, youll learn how to format an external drive to a mac compatible file system and recover files from a reformatted hard drive.
This may be apfs, or it may be mac os extended journaled depending on how the drive is currently formatted and. Here are the following most common reasons why would you like to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac under mac os extended journaled. I have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. See troubleshooting for more information on which format to select. Disk utility will automatically choose the format for you. Unfortunately, disk utility in macos high sierra doesnt make that option easy to. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. The reasons for wanting to format your mac storage drive may vary depending on immediate need. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Format usb flash driveexternal hard drive with disk utility on macos catalina.
Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Here, we will show you three ways to format usb flash drive, external hard drive, etc on macos catalina. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. There are many tools can help you format usb flash drive, portable hard drive, memory card or other storage device on macos catalina. The good news is the disk utility built into the os x comes in handy, like a visual assistant making the process easier.
If you are having a hard time using the command line, try the disk utility app, which is simpler and uses the gui. Formatting a drive so you can install and boot macos requires the guid partition map. But if you connect it to a macbook, you will find that the operating system cannot recognize it. Find out how to recover formatted hard drive on mac. Check if an external hard drive is ntfs formatted in the finder. Free download, install and run the hard disk formatting software. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. Apr 16, 2020 so formatted hard drive recovery on mac is still possible. Here is the step by step guide you need to follow to format the hard disk on mac. 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. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. With a created bootable usb format tool at hand, you can freely perform a quick format on your problematic hard disk. However, ntfs is not fully compatible with mac computers. 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 the external drive formatted in a file system both oss can read.
Mac os x can only be installed on a hard drive formatted in mac os extended journaled, filesystem. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. The exfat format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated fat32 format. 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.
Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. When you connect a mac formatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. Steps to formatting hard disk via aomei partition assistant ex. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. If the disk utility way seems to be limited for you, there are a number of hard drive and storage media utilities for your mac. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. How you will use them may vary but these utilities surely provide userfriendly interfaces and oneclick formatting most of the time, so you shouldnt have any problems using them. How to format a startup drive for a mac if you want to format a drive that will be used as your mac s startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. How to solve external hard drive readonly without formatting.
You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to install os x after formatting your hard drive. Best 4 free hard drive format tool download easeus. Sep 26, 2018 after that, you can use your external hard drive on both mac and windows machine. Open disk utility and select the hard drive which you want to format on the lefthand side you will see your external hard drive icon if connected. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. Your backup plus desktop is formatted as ntfs for compatibility with windows out of the box. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or flash. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2.
With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. 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. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. However, when we connect a ntfs formatted disk to mac, mac os x doesnt allow us to write files to the drive neither edit files, though it can read a ntfs drive. You can, however, format a windows hard drive from a mac if you connect the windows hard drive to the mac and format it through disk utility, or the command line as described above. 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 a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it. Set the partition label, cluster size and file system as you like, and click ok. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wifi menu in the menu bar. It supports to format hard drive in computers without any technical skill. Find the hard drive you want to format, and highlight it.
You can do that by typing disk format or disk management in windows search or going to control panel administrative tools create and format hard disk partitions. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. And if you like, you can execute many more operations to take full control of the usb hard drive, such as resize, delete all partitions, wipe a partition, migrate os to ssd, optimize operating system and so on. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. To erase this partition, well have to wipe the entire disk. Aug 22, 2019 open disk utility in the applications folder utilities folder. It is actually pretty easy to recover formatted hard drive on mac. If your mac is using apfs, select apfs from the format list. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. So please back up your important files before you run super eraser for mac to format. However, when we connect a ntfs formatted disk to mac, mac os x doesnt allow us to write files to the drive neither edit.
Besides formatting, you can enjoy more advanced features such as shrinking, extending, merging hard drive partition, clone hard drive, etc. Disk drill can scan your drive and find invisible files that havent been erased yet. Dec 08, 2016 in this video i show you how to reinstall mac os x on your apple computer. For example, in the screenshot below, the mac formatted drive is disk 2. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links.
Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. Follow the steps to format your toshiba hard drive for mac step 1 connect your toshiba hard drive to your mac using a compatible medium and make sure the connection remains uninterrupted. The problem is that the disk is currently formatted as ntfs and is not readable with time machine. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Select your startup drive on the left typically macintosh hd, switch to the erase tab and choose mac os. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have to choose the exfat. Mar 12, 2018 mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the formatting option for pc. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Unlike windows os, mac os doesnt provide quick format tool.
If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Therfore, you can connect backup plus desktop to a windows pc without formatting the hard drive. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. Solved how to recover formatted hard drive on mac 2020. To format a hard drive on your mac, follow these instructions. Rightclick a partition on the disk you want to format and select format partition.
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