Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. Drive speed is measured in revolutions per minute rpm, based on how fast the drive can spin. Ever run out of storage space and start wondering if it would be possible to take a crowbar to your new unibody macbook pro to pry it open and put another hard. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it. Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities. With the release of the macos high sierra operating system. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac.
Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. 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. I want to know which file system i should apply for the seagate external hard drive so that it can be compatible both with mac and pc. 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.
Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or flash. Have you ever wondered how to reformat, partition and readytouse an external mac hard drive. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. In the volume format list, select mac os extended journaled. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left. Some external hard drives need to be plugged into an outlet to. Proceed based on whether youre erasing your startup disk or some other disk.
Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. Disk utility allows you to choose from a variety of file systems. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac youtube. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. But before you can do anything, you need to make it clear that the hard. It interprets what is on the external hard drive so that your mac or pc can read and write to the drive. If you recently purchased an external hard drive or portable ssd for your mac, you probably noticed that mac os x doesnt allow you to write data on to the drive.
Lacie lac9000633 rugged mini 4tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Format external hard drive for mac reformat external. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. Mar 10, 2019 is your photos library getting too unwieldy for your macs hard drive. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. An external drives file system is the most important factor that determines whether or not its readable by macs, pcs, or both. Some external hard drives need to be plugged into an outlet to work.
Aug 30, 2019 its easy to format an external hard drive. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with. Apr 17, 2020 to format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. Desktop external hard drives usually run at 7200 rpm to offer all the speed they can. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. Today this video will show you how to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. If theres an older mac you need a drive to work with, apfs is a bad choice for that drive. 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. Then, click erase at the bottom to format the drive. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons.
Apples photo management software for the mac, photos, has grown to be a fairly competent allpurpose storage locker. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. Dec 29, 2015 how to format an external drive in windows 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. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another.
Seagate branded external drives come preformatted, some for pcs, some for macs, and some of them have special utilities allowing them to work between both without. May 09, 2019 the best external hard drives for mac in 2020. Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. If you run into issues while formatting, see how to unlock your mac external drive how to unlock and format an external hard drive for your mac heres a quick guide on how to format an external hard drive for mac and solve any issues you may encounter. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. But as your photo and video library grows and especially if youve taken advantage of icloud photo library. Which mac file system is best for an external drive.
If you already used your external hard drive on a pc, be sure to back up any files on it. It will likely already be formatted, either for use. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. The best format choice of external drive on mac using the external drive on mac is a good idea as it provides additional storage. But in order for the computer and drive to talk to one another, the drive has to be formatted. 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. Best for external drives shared with windows computers. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed.
Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. How to format or partition an external hard drive on mac. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected. A hard drive can be used on any type of computer pc or mac. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. In this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. 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. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Once youve unboxed your new drive, connect it to your mac.
This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Lacie lac9000298 rugged mini 2tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. Please remember that all data will be deleted from the drive, so make sure you have made a backup. You may also want to rename your external drive here. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. You can select the exfat format when using the disk. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. First, lets see how to format an external hard drive or usb drive in macos which works with both mac and pc platforms, first plugin your drive in macos machine. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows.
Dec 31, 2019 if you recently purchased an external hard drive or portable ssd for your mac, you probably noticed that mac os x doesnt allow you to write data on to the drive. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might. If youre not erasing the disk your mac started up from, you dont need. But dont forget to back up your important data in the drive into a safe place before formatting. Hard drive format for mac and pc both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. Well, after some analysis it seems your best option is some recover for mac. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. 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. In the format partition section, select the file system. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it.
Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. This is because the drive has been initialized for windows nt file system, ntfs for short, and ntfs is primarily for pc use. If you run into issues while formatting, see how to unlock your mac external drive before moving on.
Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. Uses the mac format journaled hfs plus to protect the integrity. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. If you want to use the external drive for both mac and pc, you can also select exfat. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Most external hard drives are designed to work for windows computers. Lacie rugged mini 4tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc.
But it is hard to pick the suitable format as it depends on your usage. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Feb 03, 2020 use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. Here is the step by step guide you need to follow to format the hard disk on mac. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. 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. Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files. How to format usb drive or external hard drive on mac.
Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. 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. All your job, all your files and all your pictures went poof. Apr 25, 2020 lacie lac9000298 rugged mini 2tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. Connect the external drive or the usb drive to the mac. 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. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility.
How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. This reduced power draw helps preserve the battery life of the mac you plug the drive into. If you run into the issue of not having enough space format it to be the ex fat as. How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc youtube. How to format an external hard drive focus photo school. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. How to use photos for mac with an external hard drive imore. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. And forget about reading an apfs drive from windows. 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. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Jan 23, 2020 options for having an external hard drive for mac and pc without formatting. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. A new window will pop up asking which file system youd like to format the external drive to. 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. However, you cant write or delete files from a mac. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac.
Exfat should basically only be used on drives that need to work with both windows and macos computers. Also, if your current hard drive is more than 5 years old, it probably is nearing the end of its service life and needs to be replaced. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. 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. I know mac operating system doesnt fully support ntfs formatted drive. Sep 20, 2019 apfs also doesnt work with time machine, so you should format any drive you want to use for backing up your mac using mac os extended. Yes, connecting an external hard drive or usb flash key to a mac will generally read and work fine as is because the mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a windows and mac machine, formatting it to be entirely mac compatible filesystem is highly recommended, and necessary for time machine and to make disks bootable. So, it is better that you know your options and understand which format is right for you. Plug in the external hard drive into the system and open.