But if it does not contain any important files, then you can surely go ahead by clicking the format button. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. 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. How to format a new or second hard drive in windows 10 formatting a drive may vary in terms of different operating systems, like windows and mac. Connect your external hard drive with your computer and open windows explorer to check if it can be recognized. Mar 29, 2019 how to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. 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 hard drive. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button.
How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Enter a name that you want the volume to have after you erase it, such as macintosh hd. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto.
That puts you in a peculiar pickle, limiting any shared file between the two. To learn how to format in mac your hard drive, follow these steps. If you have an external hard drive or usb flash drive that youd like to use on both macs and windows pcs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. Usb flash drive, external hard drive into the proper format that is accessible by both mac and. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. It is freeware software available easily on the internet and can be used to read mac files on windows interface. Boot camp assistant guides you through installing windows on your mac. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to.
Open file explorer and locate your drive in the sidebar. 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. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have. Learn a few ways to make your drive mac and pc friendly. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. 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. If you run into the issue of not having enough space format it to be the ex fat as. All options, including format, is greyed out except to delete volume. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer.
In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. Aug 30, 2019 today this video will show you how to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux. In this article, we will introduce some mac disk formatting software tools to help mac users easily and securely format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card or other device under mac os. A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. If you have already joined the data loss club unwillingly, then try running diy applications to recover data from mac and windows.
Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Mac os x uses the hfs plus file system, while windows uses the ntfs file system. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label. What format for my external drive allows use with mac and. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it.
I used macdrive application in the past, and it was a. This article explains how to format a device or disk e. Super eraser for mac best mac disk format software. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. Gpt is a newer format supporting larger capacities, but isnt compatible with. Oct 08, 2016 i want to be able to see my mac s external hard disk, in windows 10 pc. Right click on the partition and select delete volume this will remove the partition.
Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. Format a drive for both mac os x and microsoft windows how to. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different format. This works with any hard drive, flash drive, ssd, usb drive, or just about any other. Simple and easy to use, macdrive is recognized as the leader for accessing mac disks from windows for almost 20 years. The system tells you what key to press during the restart, so pay attention to your screen and be quick at pressing the right key. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. Which video format for viewing on mac and apple community.
You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for windows and mac to help you securely format hard driveusb flash drive or memory card on a pc or a mac. Plug your drive into the computer and, if necessary, into a wall outlet. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. In this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. Accessing mac formatted external hd from windows pc. You can select the exfat format when using the disk.
Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Then i would suggest you to search for a third party software which directly converts the to ntfs format for windows operating system. Formatarea unui disc pentru computere windows in utilitar disc pe. 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. May 29, 2018 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.
This hard disk formatting software can help you format wipe your entire hard drive in a single step. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Dec 05, 2019 rightclick on windows icon, select disk management. A window will pop up where you can choose the format ntfs, fat32, or exfat. You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive. Just carry on reading to learn the methods in real. Though the default hard disk file system also known as format of windows and mac are different, there should be some ways to format an external drive for both mac and pc. Ozone studio published the hd video player all format app for android operating system mobile devices, but it is possible to download and install hd video player all format for pc or computer with operating systems such as windows 7, 8, 8. Click continue and boot camp for mac will automatically locate the iso file on your system. How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. To launch the boot camp assistant, go to applications utilities folder. 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. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left. Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Connect the hdd to a mac and format the drive as fat32 and then connect the same mac hdd to windows and convert it to ntfs. 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. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. Here in this article we would use certain third party tools to read the mac formatted drive on windows.
Plug in the external hard drive into the system and open. May 21, 2018 in this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. I understand that you are facing issues with windows 10. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. Disk utility will happily format your drives using it. If you want to share files that you have backed up between mac and pc, now please transfer these files back to external hard drive. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Apple mac machines support a different file system.
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. This tool can help in formatting hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card and other storage media under windows or mac os. Most external hard drives hd are sold in a format called ntfs, which. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under 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.
How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. If youre looking to dualboot with linux or run windows boot camp, you can format the partition as msdos fat, however, these programs. How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc youtube. Its probably your best option, as it avoids any userspace filesystem drivers, which personally make me a bit uneasy. 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. How to access mac osx extended formatted hard drive in windows. Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac. Plug in your external hdd to the usb port of your computer then go to my computer find your external drive rightclick it and select format. For example, in the screenshot below, the mac formatted drive is disk 2. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. If you are not comfortable with the previous method.
How to format new or second hard drive on windows 10mac. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. Read only ntfs from native mac os x to readwriteformat ntfs from mac os x, here are some alternatives. Format a hard drive on a computer running mac os x how to. Apr 14, 2020 finally, an exfat partition will be created on your external hard disk so that it could be shared between mac and windows pc. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x.
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. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Select the mac drive from the list of drives make sure this is the drive you want to work on, if you do it for the windows formatted drive in the list, it may cost you a lot of important data. Mar 15, 2018 windows cant normally read macformatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. Fat32 format works on both windows and mac but the problem is you can only work with the files with maximum size 4gb. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Sep 26, 2018 windows pc and mac use different filesystems. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs.
How can i format this drive in windows 7 home premium. Rightclick on the external hard disk and select format option from. Read and write the ntfs file storage format on a mac os x computer how to. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag.
How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Select your drive from the list and rightclick on it. This post lists 5 best full hd video player apps 1080p720p video player to help you play media files on windows 1078xp and mac computer with great visual experience. Format your pc external hard drive to work with a mac how to. Unlike windows os, mac os doesnt provide quick format tool. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. In this situation, the best way to ensure that both a mac and a windows pc can access the videos from the same external device is to make sure the device is in the correct disk format. Both mac os x and windows also support the fat32 file. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Nov 19, 2015 now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux.
Next, open a command prompt window as administrator. Native readwrite support under windows and os x, and none of the file size limits of fat32. Rightclick on windows icon, select disk management. The exfat format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated fat32 format. If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. How to format a mac hdd to win ntfs using win 10 microsoft. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these items. Download hd video player all format pc for free at browsercam. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field.
This also allows you to restore time machine backups on windows. How to read a macformatted drive on a windows pc safe. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc. Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on.
Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Need to access or transfer files between mac and pc. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Format hard drive on windows 7 or earlier versions step 1 restart your computer and press f8 or del key to enter the bios settings. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Meanwhile, the ntfs system used by windows 10 supports large files, but this format cant be read natively by macos. Apr 17, 2020 to format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer.
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