Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Well show you everything you need to know about the. How to convert mac hard drive to windows without losing. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. The problem is that the disk is currently formatted as ntfs and is not readable with time machine. Formatting an internal or external drive under windows 7 or windows 10. 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. Every major version of the operating system provides a dedicated solution to format hard drive as well as external storage units. Then, click the erase button below to kick off the process, which will take a few minutes only. To format the primary drive the hard disk where the operating system resides you need to boot into the setup program on windows 7 or windows 10 and use it to format your drive. Choose a file type and formatting option and click on the start button to format the disk. Also, you can manage the internal partitions, merge them, create new. To format or reformat an external hard drive on mac, youll need the built in disk management tool called disk utility.
How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive back up the drive s data first. A complete solution do you wish to format hard drive for mac and pc, but cant find a solution. How to format hard drive for mac and pc on windows. Windows uses nfts file format while mac drives use hfs, this means macs cant write to ntfs drives while windows cant read or write hfs. Open file explorer and locate your drive in the sidebar. How to format a new or second hard drive on mac mac is obviously a very much different operating system from windows, let alone their features and steps to format a hard drive. Erase the mac partitions, including the efi system partition. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Before you can use it though, you need to properly format or reformat a hard drive so that it will become compatible or readable with the operating system that you are using. From all above, you can have a general idea of fat32 and exfat file system.
Nov 22, 2019 i have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. In order to regain the full storage of external hard drive or wipe all sensitive data before sellingdonatingthrowing giveaway old external hard drive, we should format the external hard drive to clean up all data. As complicated as that might sound, its not really difficult to format a hard drive in any version of windows. I had information from a broken mac backed up at best buy, but because my mac broke, now i only have a windows computer. Easily format external hard drive on windows or mac. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons.
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. The two solutions above can help you format external hard drive on windows or mac. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility. Mar 15, 2018 rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. How to use mac formatted external hard drive on windows. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. To access the disk management tool, click the windows icon and type disk management. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast.
That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. Starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10. Macs may also create a protected efi partition on these drives that you cant delete with the usual diskpartitioning tools. 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. So if you are formatting a drive that has already been used, be sure to copy any files you will ever want to see again onto a computer or backup drive. How to format new or second hard drive on windows 10mac. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured. Dec 22, 2019 how to format external hard drive mac. 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. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. How to properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os.
How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. 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. You can format a hard drive or usb flash disk specifically so that it will be compatible with both mac os x and windows pc computers. You may need to reformat it to work with both computers. You cant format the hard disk on which windows is stored while windows is running, for the same reasons that you cant work on a cars engine while you. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. Plug in the external hard drive into the system and open. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows.
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. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. Jan 17, 2019 starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10. It seems they formatted the drive to the mac format, but i have no way to access the data, at least i think. If you chose a quick format, your hard drive should only take several seconds to format. You can select the exfat format when using the disk. How to convert mac only external hdd to windows compatible. First and foremost, you need to decide which file system to use. Apr 18, 2019 how to wipe a hard drive in windows 10 and macos. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Sep 26, 2018 need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility posted by ant on march 11th, 2012 43 comments 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. 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. 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. How to format your hard drive seagate support canada.
How to format external hard drive on windows or mac. The formatted files erased by disk utility also can be recovered by free mac data recovery software. Rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. It is a quick way to format external hard drive on mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have to. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Buying an external hard drive is one of the best options for adding the storage space to the mac computer system. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. Mar 19, 2020 to format a hard drive means to erase any information on the drive and to set up a file system so your operating system can read data from, and write data to, the drive. While you have bought this drive, you will find the drive already formatted for your mac or windows system. Thus in order to make the hard drive windows formatted, you have to convert the file system to ntfs or fat32. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers.
Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. Read this stepwise tutorial and learn how to format hdd for mac and windows like a pro. Dec 05, 2019 the windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. Windows also lets us format an external device like sd card, pen drive, etc. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. However, what happens when you get a mac hard drive that wont work with windows. 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. Today this video will show you how to format an external hard drive on windows and mac.
How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. In this video i help you guys convert your mac only external hdd into a windows compatible one. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. Some hard drives may also include drivers, firmware, or format wizards so be sure to check the user manual before formatting the hard drive. Plug your drive into the computer and, if necessary, into a wall outlet. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Therefore, it is necessary to present a tutorial guide here to format or partition a hard drive within mac os. Aug 22, 2019 how to format hard drive on mac and pc.
Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. 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. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Mac os x uses the hfs plus file system, while windows uses the ntfs file. 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. On the displayed window, choose mac os extended for the volume format menu and you may name the hard drive on the name box. 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. Simply rightclick its icon from my computer and from the context menu, click on the format option. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt toms. How to format an external hard drive on windows 10.
How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Windowsformatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. A hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. It is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for mac and windows.
Aug 30, 2019 how to format an external hard drive on windows. If you dont want to format the external hard drive for mac exclusively, you can choose msdos fat or exfat. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. I have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. How to wipe a hard drive in windows 10 and macos techradar. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using built in utilities. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac youtube. If your mac or pc has a windows os installed, then you wont face any trouble managing it. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at.
Securely format external hard drive on windows and mac with super eraser. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. A small drive will take a small amount of time to format and a very large drive will take a very long time to format. If you chose the standard format, which we suggested, the time it takes the drive to format will depend almost completely on the size of the drive. Neither mac os nor windows recognize each others volume formats.
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