Connect the external hard drive to your mac and copy the important data to the mac pc. Hierarchical file system plus, also known as mac os extended, is the primary file system format used in mac computers. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to repair a corrupted hard drive and fix my storage disk. Macs may also create a protected efi partition on these drives that you cant delete with the usual diskpartitioning tools. Formatting hard drive windows image from shutterstock. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. Macdrive 10 features an allnew disk management window that displays any. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. How to read and access mac hard drive in windows pc windows, macos uses different file systems. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. 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 a hard dr ive on mac to work on mac and pc. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the formatting option for pc. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. From floppies to hard drives, macdrive can handle almost any disk you toss at it. However, you can format the drive to work with both. Now connect the external hard drive to windows 8 computer and format. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Granted, os x cant write to a windows formatted disk, but at least it can read the contents of the drive and you can copy the data to your mac computer. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. 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. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc.
For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. How to format toshiba harddrive for mac apple community. You can select the exfat format when using the disk. There are specific thirdparty systems, like digital camcorders, and sony playstation 3, which need the drives to be formatted in either fat32 or exfat format to perform read from and. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. To convert an external hard drive from apple to pc youll have to format the drive so that it can be read by the windows operating system a process simplified. If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. Windows formatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. But both of them cant format the hard drive which the mac os is installed on because the mac system doesnt allow other software to destroy the system.
Id also like to eventually put old vhs family home movies on the hard drive as well. Read mac formatted drives with windows the tech guy. How to format existing partition using disk management. Im stuck trying to get my apple formatted drive to be read on my pc laptop. How to read a macformatted drive on a windows pc safe. If you want to make your drive compatible with mac and windows, you need to format it with a common file system for mac and windows.
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. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. However, when you format your hard drive with super eraser for mac, all your data will be permanently lost. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. The macbook i had at the time broke down a few years later. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central.
Rightclick the new hard drive and select the format option. Format hard drive in windows 10 with easeus management software easeus partition software is a popular disk partition management tool that is available for all hard disk related jobs such as format disk partition, extend system partition, settle low disk space problem, convert mbr to gpt without data loss and vice versa. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. How to format new or second hard drive on windows 10mac. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Mac is obviously a very much different operating system from windows, let alone their features and steps to format a hard drive. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive.
Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for windows and mac to help you securely format hard drive usb flash drive or memory card on a pc or a mac. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Windows operating systems will support fat 32, ntfs file format. Read mac formatted drives with windows when you plug a drive thats been formatted for mac into a windows pc, you may find that it isnt readable. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Thus in order to make the hard drive windows formatted, you have to convert the file system to ntfs or fat32.
Buying an external hard drive is one of the best options for adding the storage space to the mac computer system. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. How to convert mac hard drive to windows without losing. The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. Therefore, it is necessary to present a tutorial guide here to format or partition a hard drive within mac os. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. New apple devices will be formatted with apfs while old mac drives can use the hfs file system. 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. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. Search for disk management and click the top result to open the experience. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. The best news is that most devices included mac computers can read and write from fat32 devices.
Today, apfs is used on macs, iphones, ipads, and apple tvs. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Fat32 and exfat can be compatible with mac and windows and you can choose one after realizing their respective merits and defects based on your demands. The two hard drive formatting software for mac can help you securely format hard drive or device under mac os. While you have bought this drive, you will find the drive already formatted for your mac or windows system. 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.
One thing you should keep in mind while dealing with this kind of scenario is that when you connect your mac formatted drive to windows, you will be. Usb drives and external hard drives use the windows fat32 to format for compatibility. Apple mac machines support a different file system. 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. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume.
It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. 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. 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. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. Repair corrupted hard drive using disk wipe software now, if the inbuilt windows tools cant help you then thirdparty disk wiping tools are your only rescue in the process to fix hard drive. How to view mac files on a windows pc online tech tips. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have to. Apple formatted wd drive on windows 10 microsoft community. Im using model 15au123cl hp laptop intel core i5 7th gen and wd external drive wd3200h1q00. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
You do not want to format the drive though for mac. The 4 disk formatting software for mac above can help you easily format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under mac os. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. Even though os x can read windows formatted hard drives just fine, the opposite is still not true, even with windows 10. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. On windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. In the value label field, type a descriptive name for the drive. Use the file system dropdown menu, and select ntfs recommended. Rightclick on the external hard drive in the volume tab.
Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. How to wipe a hard drive in windows 10 and macos techradar. External hard disks and usb drives are generally formatted with the windows fat32 file system.
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. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. How to convert an external hard drive from apple to pc. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Rightclick on the windows icon in the lower lefthand corner. Neither mac os nor windows recognize each others volume formats. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. However, if you want to use part of the drive for os xs time machine backups, you should do this from the mac, since theres an extra step to make the drive compatible for time machine.
Formatieren einer festplatte fur windowscomputer apple support. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. How you format a mac hard dr ive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. With macdrive 10 pro, you can access apple formatted raid disks as well as.
721 1340 826 769 484 721 1590 1109 984 137 754 1069 339 495 1544 863 1112 1326 624 736 274 1365 684 773 335 615 1095