In a few simple steps you are ready to go and can save your backup files to the external drive, keeping your information safe and giving you peace of mind. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. If you have a mac lying around, you can plug the drive into a mac and back up the files. Now, how can i reformat and install os x from the installer placed in the external hard drive. You can also format the drive in a variety of other formats depending on your needs. Fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing. 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. A reformat of the hard drive or the system volume will completely wipe out the contents of the drive. How can i reformat the internal drive and install mountain. How to reformat an external hard drive for a mac techwalla. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive. Need to reformat wd hard drive for mac if you connect your wd hard drive without reformatting, youll be unable to copy files to the disk as mac read only supports ntfs file system.
Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. Formatting a hard drive is the best way to start from scratch on a geeky project. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing files on disks and drives. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. So the first step you must do is move all of your important data to your pcmac, or to cloud storage service. Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it.
There is only one rule that you need to keep in mind when reformatting a drive. Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as difficult as it might seem. 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 properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os.
Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. This formatting is also known as mac os extended journaled file system. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. In the partition layout dropdown menu, select 1 partition. If you havent used your hard drive in a while, or you just bought a new one, you may have to reformat it to be compatible with your computer. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Return the loaned hard drive to the person you borrowed it from. A hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. Are you formatting the disk that came built into your mac.
Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Keep in mind that a mac can generally read other file formats, but for the best performance. It can also mean putting the same file system in the drive to fix it if its faulty. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Rightclick the hard drive and choose wipe hard drive. You can have a drive format to fat32 on an apple mac computer using apples disk utility, which comes with macos.
There would be any number of similar utilities on the net i would have thought try googling it maybe. Reformatting a mac drive let us now take a look at the procedure for reformatting hard drive on. So i formatted my 2tb wd elements ssd for mac and when i try to. Nearly all macs sold after july 20, 2011 came with factory installs of os x 10. You should then a see it mount on the desktop, and b automatically get a prompt to use the drive for time machine if not, you can go into the time machine menu top right of the screen, go to tm preferences, and select it. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. How hard is it to reformat the hard drive on a mac computer. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Youll want to do it before you sell your machine, for sure, but its also one of the steps you take when you. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. 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. Reformatting hdd when i bought my lacie drive it came with its own format utility for mac and pc formats. Its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed.
How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. In the disk utility, select the external drive from the list on the left and then click the partition tab. I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting.
How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. In this post, youll learn how to format an external drive to a mac compatible file system and recover files from a reformatted hard drive. Or you can choose wipe hard drive to completely delete the hard drive. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Give your drive a name and select the file system you want from the format dropdown.
How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Now either because of time, corruption or because it may have been formatted for a mac when i plug it into my pc i cant access it. Nov 27, 2012 how to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. If the builtin disk came apfsformatted, dont change it to mac os extended. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Select your macs hard drive in the lefthand column, to reveal more options, then select the partition button. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Reformatting your drive mac are you finding that you are unable to drag documents and folders to your external hard drive. First of all, as i said before, reformating will erase all your data that stored on the hard drive permanently.
Mar 06, 2019 reformatting external hard drive on mac is a bit different because it doesnt have the option of quick formatting, but it still has the same option with a different name. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. This process wont actually convert the file system. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on mac. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. How to reformat hard drive you can think of reformatting your drive as a way to reset it by putting a new file system into the drive to supplant the old one. 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. Yet when you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive 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. Aug 30, 2019 select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab.
How to reformat external hard drive without missing data. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. First, back up the data on the macformatted drive if you have anything important on it. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc.
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 hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. Reformatting external hard drive on mac is a bit different because it doesnt have the option of quick formatting, but it still has the same option with a different name. Right click on the volume, which you want formatted, select the file system and execute the format command to wipe out all data and get a fresh volume, with all free storage space.
In the partition information box, enter an appropriate name for. 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. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process. Each partition can be managed as a separate hard drive for organizing folders, storing backup files, or as a hybrid system containing mac and windowsformatted drives. 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. Jul 24, 20 nearly all mac s sold after july 20, 2011 came with factory installs of os x 10. Select the number of sections or partitions you want to set up on. How to format a flash drive with a mac to fat32 techwalla. I have just saved necessary files and also the installer for os x 10. I have backed up all my data i dont have enough hard drive space to make a time machine backup. Reformatting your drive will get rid of your files, of course, but it also gets rid of any errors. 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.
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. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. Instead, well just be wiping the drive and starting over from scratch. 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. 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. Jan 23, 2020 return the loaned hard drive to the person you borrowed it from. So the first step you must do is move all of your important data to your pc mac, or to cloud storage service.
Dec 24, 2010 you will see a list of all volumes that are part of the hard drive. Jan 08, 2020 you can only read your elements external hard drive. Hard drive reformatting procedure for mac and windows. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc.