Jan 02, 2016 either way, youll want to format your drive accordingly. You cant add or repartition volumes of the external hard drive again on mac. Most external hard drives come ready to use on your computer, but in rare cases. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. Thanks for watching guys, hope your enjoying the videos as much as i enjoy making them, please let me know what type of videos you would like to see. You can choose to format a usb drive, sd card, or external hard drive with apfs.
Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the partition tab. Best solutions to fix external hard drive not formatted error. Apfs apple file system is only for newer macs running macos 10. Formatting an external hard disk for use with a mac most external hard disks you buy are preformatted for windows msdos fat format. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Anyway, for anyone who is having the same issue, i was searching for this same issue reading files in a mac formatted drive from windows 10 and found hfsexplorer. 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.
Apr 23, 2014 its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting. Sep 19, 2014 she has a mac mini and a wd passport external hard drive. Feb 08, 2020 now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. This formatting guide focuses on the disk utility application for versions 10. If the external hard drive is not erased correctly and has formatting errors, then macos may mount the drive but may not allow writing data on to it. 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.
How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Most external hard drives are designed to work for windows computers. Follow to get repair inaccessible and readonly external hard drive and restore data on your own now. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive. The only solution for me was to format this usb drive on windows. But if you have formatted the external hard drive under the windows system, it would cause some inconvenience. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. An external hard drive for ps4 provides a handy option to store games with ample storage space. If youre not sure, eject and disconnect each drive, then only.
To be specific, we can turn to disk management, diskpart, thirdparty tool, and others. How to format an external drive in os x by shujaa imran posted on jan 2, 2016 dec 29, 2015 in mac most external drives ship in formats that are universally recognised amongst nearly all operating systems fat, im looking at you, but there may be times where you might want to completely wipe a drive andor set it up to be compatible with. Because fat32 supports only up to 4 gb large files, it should be used only with flash drives. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Connect the raw external hard drive to your pc step 2.
Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Even if your disk comes formatted for mac, it may not work properly for some uses. As mentioned before, macs can only read ntfs formatted hard drives by default. Then, click erase at the bottom to format the drive. But you can open hfsexplorer, read a macformatted drive, and copy the files to your windows pc without paying a dime. How you format a mac hard dr ive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system.
Dec, 2007 ive an external hard drive that ive used on mac. One of the top disadvantages of fat32 is that it can only accommodate files that are up to 4gb in size. When formatting a hard drive with disk utility, make sure to select the correct drive. After you buy a new external hard drive which comes in with only one partition from the manufacturer, when you intall it in mac or pc, you always would rather to partition external hard drive into separated partition to store different types of files. Reason 2, when you accidentally delete a file you want, then you can bring that file back as well. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Mar 12, 2018 want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. The formatting process writes the basic directory structure onto the disk so that other directories and files can be added. Formatting the hard drive a vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux.
This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. Or as exfat can have files transferred without driver software on your mac. The first idea occurs to you might be data loss, but thats not all. However, ntfs is not fully compatible with mac computers. 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 the resulut, your external hard drive will work just fine with mac and windows. How to use toshiba external hard drive on mac solved. The most important thing to know about formatting or reformatting a disk is that the formatting process erases all the information on the disk. If you see a warning says the device is only being mounted in read only mode while connecting, your hard disk is diagnosed to have formatting errors that prevent you from writing files to it. Brief introductions to disk formatting, the purpose of formatting a hard drive, as well as how to format are talked in this post of minitool. Dec 29, 2015 follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers.
Mar 31, 2020 since we keep many important files on our external drive, formatting it is not usually the best option. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. It is recommended to use ntfs if youre working strictly with windows computers. Or perhaps you are setting up an external drive for backups. Mar, 2020 follow the windows 10 fat32 format tutorial to format hdd to fat32 or format external hard drive to fat32 in windows 10. Since most external hard drives are formatted for pcs, before the backup of your mac begins you need to format the hard drive for macos.
Wondering what the best format for your new external hard drive is. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. Hi all, i have having problems in regards the process of formatting my external hard drive. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Disk utility in macos high sierra or later can erase most disks and volumes for mac using either the newer apfs apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. One way to do this is to convert the raw hard drive to ntfs using the cmd command method. Format external hard drive to ntfs from fat32 using disk management.
So if you are wondering how you may fix external hard drive not formatted error, you have come to the right place as this article discusses how you might be able to make the most out of such a situation. Formatting an external hard disk ashland mac users group. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. All available drives should be listed in the lefthand panel.
Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for windows and. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. 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. How to make the external hard drive compatible with mac and. How to fix raw external hard drive without formatting. As mentioned before, macs can only read ntfsformatted hard drives by.
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. Format your hard drive using diskpart and command prompt. Oct 22, 2018 formatting a hard disk drive hdd in an external hard drive enclosure is done the same way like an internal drive. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. It is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for mac and windows. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. From all above, you can have a general idea of fat32 and exfat file system. All hard drives, removable disks, cds, dvds, and other media need to be formatted in order for your computer to use them. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Therfore, you can connect backup plus desktop to a windows pc without formatting the hard drive. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. 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. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep.
Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. After you format it, you can use the professional mac hard drive. Cannot format my external hard drive so i try to do so, and windows tells me that theres a program using the external drive. Youll want to do it before you sell your machine, for sure, but its also one of the steps you take when you. If youre accustomed to using the disk utility in earlier versions of os x, it will be worth reading through this document to get familiar with the changes to the user interface and formatting process. If you work solely on a mac, but need to send files to someone working on a pc, your external hard drive needs to be set up for both operating systems. How to partition an external hard drive on mac and windows. It appears that you have formatted your external hard drive in mac os extended format, which is not supported in windows. The hard drive is already formatted in mac os extended.
So if anything happens to your mac you can restore your entire mac from a time machine backup. How to recover from external hard drive readonly error on mac. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. When the disk utility recognizes it the drive is read only. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the. However, if you want to test apfs out before then, youll have to wipe a drive and reformat it with the apfs file system. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required.
How to resolve mac external hard drive read only error. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Where, i am seeing instruction links, for mac operating system, for as far back as mac os x 10. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Another common cause for the external hard drive read only problem on mac is the formatting errors of the storage device itself. I uninstalled the game in origin and wanted to download. It is essential to know which file system ps4 supports and the method to do ps4 external hard drive form. Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive. I am trying to partition my hard drive so it can be read on both mac and pc. How to format a hard drive in mac os x dumb little man. As is usually the case, macos trades power for usability.
Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac apple. Low level formatting is the first process of wiping out data and existing files in the hard disk devices and at the high level, a new file system is generated. You can format your external hard drive from either the pc or mac. Just keep in mind if you want to use your drive also for os xs time machine backups, we advise you to format your drive through mac because there is an additional step to make drive compatible with time machine backups.
Click start button and search commond, then rightclick one it and afterward press run as administrator. As formatting will delete all the data on the hard drive, make sure that you have successfully backed up your files to another safe place before windows 10 disk format. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. Instead, formatting is used to get the hard drive to a state in which it can be used by the computer, which requires all written data to be erased from the drive. However, with all of the different drive manufacturers, interfaces and other compatibility and formatting issues that hard drives can. Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. 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 format an external hard drive and remove errors. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. Disk utility tries to detect the type of storage and show the appropriate format in the format menu. If you select the one below it, the partition option will be greyed out and become unclickable. How to solve an external hard drive not showing up in 2020. Select the one you want to format from this list, and then youre ready to move to the erase tool. How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility. I have been trying to walk her through reformatting it but nothing is working. Mac os extended journaled is the native file system your mac. How to use seagate external hard drive on mac, 16 ways. The data isnt erased completely, but well touch more on that later. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons.
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. A quick format only deletes the organizational structure of the files on the drive, without removing the actual files. If youre formatting an external hard drive, plug it in and give your mac a minute to recognize it. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. How to format a drive with the apfs file system on macos. Step 1 first of all, you need to click on the start menu button and open run.
Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. Trouble formatting external hard drive macrumors forums. Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. In the volume format list, select mac os extended journaled. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. You can apply the thirdparty solution to format fat32 in windows 10 even when there is no fat32 option in windows 10 explorer or disk management. Reading mac files on external hard drive via windows 10. You should know that only a toshiba drive formatted as mac os extended journaled. Formatting an external hard disk for use with a mac most external hard disks you buy are pre formatted for windows msdos fat format.
Formatting may take few hours to wipe out the existing data, but the process can be hasslefree if you get to know about stepwise instructions of how to format an external hard drive. Nov 11, 2019 how to perform ps4 external hard drive format. If you want to write to ntfs formatted hard drives in mac os x, youre going to need the help of a thirdparty driver. Secure erase options are available only for some types of storage devices. Back up the files on the mac external hard drive before erasing it. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. Where and with working to reformat my new hd, i have been directed to base support and then knowledge base answer id 3865. Cannot format my external hard drive windows 10 forums. How to format an external drive in os x make tech easier. Disk management not only allows you the opportunity to change the format of the hard drive to ntfs, but it also assists in assigning a new letter of the usb, helps create multiple partitions, and keeps a thorough check on the health of the hard drive in focus. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not. Mar 17, 2019 formatting hard drives and external hard drives is usually a fairly straightforward process.
By default its the disk built into your mac, named macintosh hd. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. In general, when it comes to formatting a hard drive in windows, there are several ways to complete this task. Windows operating systems will support fat 32, ntfs file format. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process. You dont get nearly as many tools to diagnose your drive, but theyre. How to format a hard drive with ease in windows 1087. The two most popular operating systems, windows and mac os both have formatting utilities builtin, which makes formatting external drives even more convenient. Jan 17, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data.
And it currently only works on ssds or flash storage. Formatting a hard drive is the best way to start from scratch on a geeky project. Have not tried it yet, but description says it can read only the files in you mac formatted external hard drive. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. I attempt to format anyway since i know theres no programs using the drive, and after a minute the formatting comes to a stop and i get a message saying its unable to format. Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. You may wonder how to reformat an external hard drive on mac. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. Because mac os x mountain lion does not natively support writing to an external ntfs drive, you must erase your hard disk and format it.
Lets take a look at the different types of formats, and which are best for video production. Macintosh computers can read most windowsformatted disks, but to use a hard drive on a mac, you will need to format it using a macintoshcompatible file system. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. You can select the exfat format when using the disk. How to solve an external hard drive not showing up on macos. Simply connect the external drive via thunderbolt, usb, firewire or esata to your computer, turn on the power and then use the native disk utility of the operating system or a 3rd party program. Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window. This menu item is in the upperleft side of the screen.
Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. If the security options button is not available, disk utility cannot perform a secure. Normally i would look within existing topics to find an answer to my question, but it seems that i am the only one having this problem. Here, we will introduce you to how to format hard drive in windows 10 with windows builtin disk management tool, a partition manager, and command lines. Go to spotlight search, type in disk utility, and click the first option. In this case, your only choice is to backup your files and reformat the whole disk. If you just plug them in, they will usually work with a mac for general. In order to fix external hard drive not formatted error, you need to go through the steps mentioned below. Developed by microsoft, this modern file system is optimized for situations where the ntfs file system is not a feasible solution, and the file size. How to partition an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to transfer files to your toshiba external hard drive on your mac. Copying the files from your mac to an external drive allows you to save data on your own terms.
You can format a drive in os x using two applications. 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. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Formatting an external drive on your mac is quite easy, though it isnt as evident and obvious as it is on a pc.
Once done, it will list out all scanning results by file type. However there is a simple solution you can format the drive to fat32 or exfat that performs better than fat32. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. The disk utility gives no options for formatting under the erase. Your backup plus desktop is formatted as ntfs for compatibility with windows out of the box. Make external harddrive compatible with mac and windows computer, how to format using disk utility on mac. So, i would like to install ts4 on my external hard drive seagate expansion portable drive 1 tb. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Make sure you select the disk icon right under external. 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. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. Now, im trying to format it so that i can use it on pc instead of mac.
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