To expand the storage capacity of your mac, you can connect one or more external drives, including solidstate or traditional movingplatter mechanisms as well as flashmemorybased thumb drives. As mentioned before, macs can only read ntfsformatted hard drives by default. If you just plug them in, they will usually work with a mac for general. Move your photos library to save space on your mac apple support. It is only good for windows xp, so, you better avoid it for mac.
Macs can read from, but cant write to, ntfs formatted drives. Unformat mac hard drive recover formatted hard drive on mac. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the.
How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os x disk utility duration. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for. Given that i am new to mac environment, i was wondering if anyone could. How to partition an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. The disk utility gives no options for formatting under the erase. You can store your library on an external storage device, such as a usb or thunderbolt drive formatted as apfs or mac os. We do have software here to read mac formatted disks if necessary, but its never as easy and reliable as a properly formatted external drive. There are several options which we will look at to help you choose the correct format for you and show you how to ready the disk for use step 1. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. The drive was originally used on a windows machine. Apr 11, 2012 is there any reason why i should think of formatting an external hard drive that would work for both pc and mac. When i modify a file and put it into an external hard drive, date modified section does not change. You should know that only a toshiba drive formatted as mac os extended journaled.
Feb 21, 2020 another common cause for the external hard drive read only problem on mac is the formatting errors of the storage device itself. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. Is there any reason why i should think of formatting an external hard drive that would work for both pc and mac. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Someday when we are going to resell, donate or throw away our external hard drive, usb drive, memory card, we should not only format the external hard drive usb but also destroy and wipe all personal data on our device. Be sure to back up any data you want to save before you begin. External hard drives are a must have for any student doing computer based work. Youll want to do it before you sell your machine, for sure, but its also one of the steps you take when you.
What to do when your external hard drive wont show up. But here, youll get to know how to format usb or flash drive on mac. Launch disk utility open applications utilities, which is found through finder, then open the disk utility. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. To use my old external hard drive without formatting it, on my new mac. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc.
How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux. All usb sticks come preformatted to work on both pcs and macs, but larger external hard drives can come unformatted, when plugged into a pc windows will offer to format it for you, dont do this. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for 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.
Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. Dec 19, 2017 the reasons for wanting to format your mac storage drive may vary depending on immediate need. So the first thing you want to do is connect the external hard. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer, or even use a new operating system, you need to format the hard drive on your mac or pc. Formatting a hard drive is the best way to start from scratch on a geeky project.
How to format an external drive in os x make tech easier. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. If you have a mac you should format the drive for your mac first thing, before you start using it. If you want to write to ntfs formatted hard drives in mac os x, youre going to. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
How to use toshiba external hard drive on mac solved. Dec, 2007 ive an external hard drive that ive used on mac. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. How you format a mac hard dr ive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Using an external hard drive on mac without formatting. Or as exfat can have files transferred without driver software on your mac. Exfat the same as for ms dos fat above, only this option has been. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. Simply erasing the data leaves a binary print on the drive.
Feb 08, 2020 now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. Open the disk utility and select the external drive. Dec 29, 2015 follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. How to format external hard drive and usb drive under macos. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. How to format an external hard drive focus photo school. Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window. Formatting large harddisks on mac os x guido flohr. You can format a drive in os x using two applications.
Then, click erase at the bottom to format the drive. Most external hard drives you buy will come out of the box preformatted for a windows computer ntfs. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Seagate branded external drives come preformatted, some for pcs, some for macs, and some of them have special. Disk utility automatically defaults to the os x extended journaled file system format, but. You cant add or repartition volumes of the external hard drive again on mac. 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. How to make any external hard drive mac compatible.
Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. Choose 1 partition from the volume scheme and then click on options. A hard drive can be used on any type of computer pc or mac. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. Best disk format for external storage devices usb image.
Majority if not all flash drives come not only with windows dominant file systems, but also mbr formatted, vs the mac where the operating system. I have been trying to walk her through reformatting it but nothing is working. How to erase and format a hard drive lifehacker australia. Remove write protection from read only mac external hard drive either by editing preference file or using fuse package. In the volume format list, select mac os extended journaled. Formatting a hard drive to work on both pc and mac. Its good to have an external hard drive which can be used for backup and other purpose. How to format an external hard drive for use with a mac pro. The hard drive is already formatted in mac os extended. How to format external hard drive disk on mac using disk utility.
Specifying diskutil partitiondisk without any argument prints help for the command. 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. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. External hard drive is popular storage device and it can be used to store all kinds of digital information such as images, documents, apps. Copy files from hard disk to mac without formatting youtube. Mar 19, 2020 how to format a hard drive in windows follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp.
Mar 31, 2020 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. To format your external drive hard drive in windows which works with both platforms, first plugin your drive with windows machine. Formatting an external hard disk ashland mac users group. 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. Jan 02, 2016 either way, youll want to format your drive accordingly. And it currently only works on ssds or flash storage. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. This is not hard to do, and will take you only about a minutes effort. Format external hard drive to read and write files on mac if the external hard drive is empty or you have a backup of everything on it, one easy way to solve the read only issue is by formatting it. This article shows you how to format an external hard drive via different methods, and you can follow these methods to format external hard drive for pc, mac or linux. Sep 19, 2014 she has a mac mini and a wd passport external hard drive. One of them is that you might purchase a new usb flash drive which is preformatted for windows os and you will be unable to use it on your mac.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Solving readonly conditions for external hard drives cnet. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows.
How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility. Now, im trying to format it so that i can use it on pc instead of mac. I cant edit external hard drives on macs your business. But if you have formatted the external hard drive under the windows system, it would cause some inconvenience. When the disk utility recognizes it the drive is read only. Its possible the drive just isnt formatted for the. Whether youre selling your computer, trying a new operating system or setting up an external drive for backups, sometimes you need to completely erase and format a h ard drive. Even if your disk comes formatted for mac, it may not work properly for some uses. Macos external drive not showing not reformatting fix. Mar 23, 2017 formatting an external drive for use with an apple mac before you can use a new or old drive with a mac you will need to format it. Methods to recover read only external hard drive on mac. Learning how to format an external drive on mac is necessary for numerous reasons. Formatting an external hard disk for use with a mac most external hard disks you buy are preformatted for windows msdos fat format. Lets take a look at the different types of formats, and which are best for video production.
However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. Solving read only conditions for external hard drives. In this case, your only choice is to backup your files and reformat the whole disk. We identify the best format to use when formatting external storage devices for cross. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. How to transfer files to your toshiba external hard drive on your mac. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these fields. Regardless of the physical size, capacity and medium your external drive. If nothing works, use remo mac data recovery software and recover data from it before reformatting the drive. Formatting an external drive on your mac is quite easy, though it isnt as evident and obvious as it is on a pc. If the external hard drive is pre formatted for mac, disk management will list 3 partitions and you will not be able to.
Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. How to remove read only on mac external hard drive without formatting updated on april 4, 2020. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. Well show you everything you need to know about the.
Dont bypass this, if you will use the drive with your mac only. Formatting an external hard drive for macwindows use. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of windows. Or you just want to use an external hard drive on your mac exclusively this is how youll format it so that the mac can read it. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Likewise, the mac os x operating system can read from, but cannot write to, an external drive that has been formatted for a pc using the ntfs file system without additional software. Trouble formatting external hard drive macrumors forums. Formatting an external hard drive for mac only or pc and. If you work solely on a mac, but need to send files to someone working on a pc, your external hard drive needs to be set up for both operating systems. Apr 23, 2014 its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine.
Image science is a windows house, because windows printer drivers and colour management have proven vastly more reliable over the last 15 years than the ever changing mac system. Hey all i got a seagate external hard drive so i can back up my first laptop which runs on windows vista yes, i know its the worst operating system but its a long story as to why i am still using it. My new lacie rugged usbc drive showed only a capacity of 372. Jan 30, 2009 i dont like automatic backups because i need to access the only specific files from an external hard drive. How to format a new external drive for use with an apple mac. Formatting a volume will destroy any data on the partition. Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. If you are using an external hard drive, or even an sd card or a usb stick, make sure that it is properly connected to your computer via the appropriate port. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows.
External hard drive to a mac formatting external hard drive. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. For most reasons to erase, you should erase the disk, which also erases all volumes on that disk. Or perhaps you are setting up an external drive for backups. Solving read only external drive problems on your mac. Mac os extended journaled is the native file system your mac uses. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. Once you have made sure of this, go to applications then utilities. Formatting an external hard drive for mac only or pc. How to format usb drive or external hard drive on mac recoverit. Regardless of brand or model, the very first thing that you must do when you buy a brand new external hard drive is to format it properly for your system. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Be warned that formatting it will erase any data on the drive, so only continue.
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