Format a hard drive for mac using windows

Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for windows and mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use for time machine. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Erase the mac partitions, including the efi system partition. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. You need to format a hard drive if you plan on using it in windows. Jan 02, 2017 at this point, you can proceed to the next section to format your mac backup partition. May 01, 2020 how to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. This works with any hard drive, flash drive, ssd, usb drive, or just about any other. If you are a personal user, you can try its professional edition. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to find the program.

How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. Click your hard drives name in the window near the bottom of the screen. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or flash. Step 2 now search for disk management through the search panel on the home screen and go to the disk management window through the search results. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. Mac can read all the file system formats including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs, but you cannot write on it.

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. I have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. Now, you can follow these two solutions to format any hard drive, flash drive, usb drive, ssd or any other external storage drive so as to make them work on your mac now. All data has to be put in a file format that the operating system can read off the hard drive. If you dont see this option, try typing create and format hard disk partitions into start.

How to wipe a hard drive in windows 10 and macos techradar. However, its pretty normal these days to have video files or other highfidelity assets that are larger than 4gb, which makes this unsuitable for large drives that are likely to host bigger files. Step 1 in the case of external hard drive, connect the drive to your system using a compatible medium and make sure the windows recognizes your drive. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. To start, your first step will be to find disk utility.

Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Thus, the professional partition manager minitool partition wizard is recommended. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers operating system, as well as fix any nonphysical errors on the drive itself. After disk management opens, which might take several seconds, look for the drive you want to format from the list at. 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. Next, under the partition layout column, specify the number of partitions you want. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. If you wish to boot the drive on a pc or use it with older versions of windows, you may also need to set the partition scheme to master boot record mbr for full windows compatibility. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Its a direct continuation of the original dos format used on floppy diskettes and hard drives. Repair a power mac g5 remove the superdrive how to.

But using a third party all the time for accessing a hard drive on windows is not good. In this tutorial, we explain how you can format a hard drive using the command prompt. The command is available in all windows operating systems like windows 10, 8 7, vista, xp and in other older versions too. I know mac operating system doesnt fully supports ntfs formatted drive. 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. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt tom. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive back up the drive s data first.

How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Apr 29, 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. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt toms. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Formatting the hard drive ensures that the system has been blanked and there is no issue causes any problem. Windows formatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. But its a good idea to also create a third partition on your disk that both macos and windows 10 can use. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Hey all, quick question, and from my googling it looks like it is possible, however i want to double check just to be sure. After youre done, dont forget to remove the external hard. Nov 22, 2019 i have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup.

Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Formatting external harddrive for both mac and windows. 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 must know what file system the partition was using to rebuild the disk.

The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Select your drive in the lefthand sidebar and go to the erase tab. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. 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. It is possible to reformat the drive and keep your files by formatting your drive and then using a data recovery tool to restore your information.

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. Currently, hard drives for windows pc are always formatted with ntfs, while hard disks for mac. To format a hard drive, you can take advantage of a piece of thirdparty software. When you format your hard drive, you can clean internal as well as external storage media. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. 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. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. A user has to know how to convert mac formatted hard drive to windows formatted. 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. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media.

Diskpart format command that runs on command prompt is used for formatting internal and external storage mediums of hard drives. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. This wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drives format on windows and mac computers.

How to format your hard drive to exfat file system on. 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. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. In the value label field, type a descriptive name for the drive. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. At this point, you can proceed to the next section to format your mac backup partition. Apr 16, 2020 to format a hard drive, you can take advantage of a piece of thirdparty software. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons.

In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. It is professional partition magic which is designed to optimize partition and disk use. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. You can use it to deal with unlocked files means the files that are not currently in use. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. If your mac internal hard drive has startup problem, it means that the drive will be formatted once and for all. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. Format your hard drive using diskpart and command prompt. The problem is that the disk is currently formatted as ntfs and is not readable with time machine. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows 10. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start.

Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Format usb or external hard drive for mac using mac disk utility format usb or external hard drive for mac on windows pc using thirdparty usb format tool. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. Is it possible to format a hard drive to readwrite for both windows and mac os specifically, film and photo files. It has many powerful features, such as migrate os to ssd, clone disk and so on. To format hard drive for mac and windows without data loss, we suggest using minitool partition wizard and its convert ntfs to fats32 function. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. Most external hard drives hd are sold in a format called ntfs, which is designed to. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. 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.

Dec 05, 2019 but using a third party all the time for accessing a hard drive on windows is not good. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. Format external hard disk drive for mac os and windows using.

Now in this interface, you will see a format option. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Rightclick the new hard drive and select the format option. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with. 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. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. Hierarchical file system plus, also known as mac os extended, is the primary file system format used in mac computers. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk.

Jul 15, 2009 all data has to be put in a file format that the operating system can read off the hard drive. Thats probably ok for most files, especially if youre using a thumb drive rather than an external hard drive. Windowsformatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. See the above section for more details on which one to pick. How to format a hard drive with ease in windows 1087. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. Formatting external hard drive for both mac and windows. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. Once in the folder, youll see an application named disk utility, doubleclick on it to launch the program.

The fat or file allocation table is quite possibly the most widelysupported disk format in existence today. Add virtual cd and dvd drives to your pc with alcohol how to. With disk utility open, locate the hard drive you want to partition and select partition. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. Use the file system dropdown menu, and select ntfs recommended. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. I have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. Instead, youll need to perform a system reset not to. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system.

Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. If the drive you want to wipe is where your windows 10 operating system is installed, you wont be able to format it using the above steps. 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. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. Copy a data disk uing one optical drive using disk utility on os x how to. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdos is the formatting. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Find the hard drive you want to format, and highlight it. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice.

Jan 17, 2019 rightclick the new hard drive and select the format option. The only free application that will let you do this we are aware of is hfsexplorer, which uses java and is really only suitable for the odd file transfer fat32 the most compatible option. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast.