In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. I have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. Make sure your mac is connected to the external storage device for example, using a usb cable or over a network. If the hard drive you want to format is connected to your pc, it should be there. There are 3 solutions for this case, so please choose the one you like most to format external hard drive windows 1087. After that, you can use your external hard drive on both mac and windows machine. Feb 08, 2020 so, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Dec 22, 2019 how to format external hard drive mac. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. External hard drives are computer storage devices which use either a spinning disk or memory chips to save and load your files. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines.
Dec 25, 2016 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. After youre done, dont forget to remove the external hard. While you have bought this drive, you will find the drive already formatted for your mac or windows system. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Use the exfat file system and never format your external. There will be no space wasted by protected mac partitions. Ntfs disks can be read by macos, but not written to. Select that disk and click the erase button, the one highlighted in red in the screenshot below. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years.
By default, mac os x will use the guid partition table to format the drive. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Since users are unable to create a fat32 partition larger than 32gb in windows disk management, they need to use minitool partition wizard free. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Select your drive in the lefthand sidebar and go to the erase tab. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. I know mac operating system doesnt fully supports ntfs formatted drive. Want to use external hard drive under both windows pc and mac. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format.
Under the format menu, choose the file system you want to use. 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. Rightclick in the unallocated space on the initialized disk and select new simple volume. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Click the format popup menu, then choose one of the following. The ssds are fast, dont need any external power supply, and have more resistance to shock and vibrations. When you format your external hard drive, it should be formatted for mac os extended. Before you can access the files, it needs to be initialized and formatted. Most photographers will want to format their new external hard drives using their operating systems optimal style.
Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility.
Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. 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. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. I had information from a broken mac backed up at best buy, but because my mac broke, now i only have a windows computer. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. Aomei partition assistant is such a great simple tool for formatting external hard drive for mac and windows. Thats useful if you need to get some data from a friends windows disk, but if you use both windows and macos, youll need a different option. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it. Select one or more files on the desktop or in a folder, then drag them to the storage device, listed below locations in the.
See the above section for more details on which one to pick. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. 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. I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. Jan 23, 2020 i hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of windows. 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 use seagate external hard drive on mac, 16 ways. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. 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. The default file system in windows is ntfs, while mac os users hfs.
To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. Use the wizard to create a partition with the ntfs or fat32 file system. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac. Mar 15, 2018 to use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. External hard drives, thumb drives, usb drives, flash memory cards, and devices like ipod are examples of storage devices that you can connect to your mac using thunderbolt, usb, or firewire cables, or connect wirelessly using bluetooth.
You can use this and still share fat32 volumes with a pc, but if youll primarily be using the drive with windows, and. 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. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different format. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system. Sep 26, 2018 windows pc and mac use different filesystems. Well show you everything you need to know about the.
To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Apple mac machines support a different file system. One primary section capable of storing files larger than 4gb, and a secondary section capable of sharing files between macos and windows 10. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Apple has built os x yosemite and some previous os x releases with the ability to read from those disks just fine. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. Besides, you can use it to manage your hard drive partitions such as resize partition, delete partition, split partition, merge partitions, etc. However, you have to reformat the drive to make it functional with your mac computer. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format an external hard drive on windows 10. A new window will pop up asking which file system youd like to format the external drive to.
How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Rightclick on it and select the format option from the context menu. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Use external storage devices with mac apple support. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Buying an external hard drive is one of the best options for adding the storage space to the mac computer system. In this case, you should consider the hurdle that these operating systems support different filesystems. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk 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. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. The drive will now be formatted for use by windows systems.
How to use mac formatted external hard drive on windows. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. The main windows disk format, ntfs, isnt supported by macos. If you are transferring data from an os 10 system to an os 9 computer, or trying to access the data through os 9 with a drive formatted through os 10, you will need to.
May 14, 2015 macs can easily read pcformatted hard disk drives. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Storage devices such as external hard drives can also be available. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. It seems they formatted the drive to the mac format, but i have no way to access the data, at least i think. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020.
This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Feb 21, 2012 by default, mac os x will use the guid partition table to format the drive. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. To format a hard drive for windows, open the file explorer and click on this pc.
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 seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac. Aug 30, 2019 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. 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. Ntfs is the standard for windows users and os x extended journaled is the standard for mac folks. Click the finder icon in the dock to open a finder window, then do one of the following to move your files move files to the storage device. 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. You can also find it in the left sidebar of file explorer. That said, our guide splits the external drive in half. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Your old external windows pc drive will work great on the mac.
As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. Hard drives can be accessed through this pc where files and folders can be created, saved, and loaded. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Most external hard drives hd are sold in a format called ntfs, which is designed to work with windows.
How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. 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. Connect your external hard drive to a windows computer. 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. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without.
When you use a hard disk drive, time machine will take a while to back up your mac. Choose this format if the size of the disk is 32 gb or less. Apr 21, 2020 i have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. If your external hard drive is working, your computer will automatically detect it, and the drive will appear under devices and drives next to your internal drives in the this pc window. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. Moving data between two systems using an external hard. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution.
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