Therefore, before you format macpc drive, make sure that you have taken a backup of your important data. Fat32 is readwrite compatible with a majority of recent and recently obsolete operating systems, including dos, most flavors of windows up to and. Here are your macos file system options and how to pick the best one for you. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to. Macyourself blog archive how to format a drive for mac and pc. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a.
How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. I suggest using ethernet if possible because it is. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. You might already know the consequences of formatting a hard drive. I need to reformated my wd 1tb external hard drive and was wondering what is the best file format to use ms dos fat32, mac os extended journalled etc all i store on it are all my videos, tv shows, and backups of all my work, documents etc, but i dont use it with time machine.
With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. Select your drive from the list and rightclick on it. In this guide were using exfat instead of fat32, another filesystem that both windows and mac can read and write to, because fat32 has a. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. 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. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these items. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. While apfs is optimised for the flashssd storage used in recent mac computers, it can also be used with older systems with traditional hard disk drives hdd. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple support. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive.
Earlier versions of macos dont mount apfsformatted volumes. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume.
Enter a name that you want the volume to have after you erase it, such as macintosh hd. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Disk utility tries to detect the type of storage and show the appropriate format in the format menu. How to format an external hard drive for 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. Everything you need to know about your macs hard drive. Run aweeraser for mac choose erase hard drive select hard drive click on erase button format the selected hard drive. In the format partition section, select the file system. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. As mentioned before, macs can only read ntfsformatted hard drives by default. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. A window will pop up where you can choose the format ntfs, fat32, or exfat.
Best format for an external hard disk apple community. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. In this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. 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. Fat32 is often used among general users, but fat32 has limitations that can affect filmmakers. Please remember that all data will be deleted from the drive, so make sure you have made a backup. While apfs is optimized for the flashssd storage used in recent mac computers, it can also be used with older systems with traditional hard disk drives hdd. If you want to write to ntfs formatted hard drives in mac os x, youre going to.
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. Fat fat 16 fat 32 fat, short for file allocation table, is the most compatible format for storing data. Please note that once the hard drive is formatted by aweeraser for mac, all the data on the hard drive will be permanently erased, cant be recovered by data recovery software or. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. So youre using disk utility to partition your new hard drive when youre. Originally designed in 1970 for floppy drives, it has been used in hard drives, usb flash drives, memory cards, and microsoft dos and windows operating systems since. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software.
Which mac file system is best for an external drive. On the command prompt black window, type diskpart and hit enter. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. This is why they are called as known as physical formatting. This command erases the entire selected disk, including all its files and partitions whether.
How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc youtube. The usb drivers come with the fat format by default. Hard drives advertised as being compatible with windows and mac os. Once it is done, you can do hard disk format for mac and pc to enjoy the following advantages. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system.
Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Current mac operating systems only allows reading of ext 4 drives. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. Click on the erase button and wait until the process has completed. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. 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. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. The format is good for handling the files between both os under 4gb size. This will allow you to use the hard drive on both a mac and pc. Select reinstall lionmountain lion and click on the install button. Tracks and sectors make up the blocks which is used to store data.
Without low level formatting, the hard drive will not be able to write or store data. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Hy,i format my hard drive on mac os extended journaled,but i want to. Fat32 is the crossplatform format for windows and mac os x. Although there are third party tools that could allow you to do so.
Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. For example, here wed type select disk 2 finally, type clean and press enter. 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. A single high resolution file can easily go over 4 gb, so fat32 may not the best format. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between mac and pc, you need to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive. Insert the mac os x install disc and restart your computer while holding down the c key on your keyboard, so the mac boots from the install disc. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. The format apple support for mac owners for time machine is mac os extended journaled.
How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Select the mounted drive on the left hard side bar. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Be sure to doublecheck this you could accidentally wipe the wrong drive if you select the wrong disk here. It will erase all the data stored in it, making it empty in one go. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the formatting option for pc.
Type exit and hit enter to close the program when diskpart reports it has successfully formatted the volume. 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 for both windows and mac. However, you cant write or delete files from a mac. Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default. If the other mac isnt using high sierra or later, choose mac os extended journaled. Click on the format menu and choose either msdos fat32 or.
Low level format or llf is the first type of format that is done on a hard disk. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. 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. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label. Actually, most external hard disks could be compatible with mac and pc as long as you format them correctly. If it cant, it chooses mac os extended, which works with all versions of macos. Disk utility lets you format your drive using many filesystems like the three listed above.