Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. There would be any number of similar utilities on the net i would have thought try googling it maybe. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive step 1 back up your files.
How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Once youve double, triple, and quadruplechecked your backups. Formatting and reformatting a drive erases everything. Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows wd community. How to open an external drive thats not showing on mac. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only.
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. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. Reformatting hdd when i bought my lacie drive it came with its own format utility for mac and pc formats. Reformatting your drive mac are you finding that you are unable to drag documents and folders to your external hard drive. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. Nearly all macs sold after july 20, 2011 came with factory installs of os x 10. 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. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. 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. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. However, unless its been designed for use with a mac, it wont be formatted using macos preferred file system either mac os extended or apfs, depending on which version of macos youre running.
Yes, its recommended to format the drive on a windows. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at. Nowadays, when you buy a usb drive, you can use it right out of the box with your mac. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other. Using an external drive between mac and windows computers can be a hassle, since you constantly have to reformat it to fit which computer youre using it on.
Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. The reason is perhaps that seagate external hard drive has been well known for a long time as one of the most reliable drives for storing data. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Click on install to install the latest operating system that was on your mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc i have an external hard drive where i moved all of my mac photos to. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. Hello all, i am switching completely from mac to windows. A solid state drive is primarily used on mac machine.
Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. When formatting a hard drive with disk utility, make sure to select the. Plug your hd into the mac and open disk utility, which can be accessed by searching for it in spotlight. This post will teach you how to format your macs hard disk and fix common errors. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Many of these drives offer a keyring attachment hole, so you will never be without your data.
Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as difficult as it might seem. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac apple. 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. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on your mac errors can damage your hard disk and prevent it from functioning properly. You can choose the best method you think will works for you. Your exfatformatted drive or partition can now be used for both windows and mac. Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities.
The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. After realizing that you can reformat wd hard drive to fat32 or exfat to make it compatible with mac os x and still can be used under windows, it is time to check out how to reformat wd hard drive for mac and pc in windows successfully. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Note that using a drive frequently between windows and mac could increase the. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. You can select the exfat format when using the disk.
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. This formatting is also known as mac os extended journaled file system. Two ways for reformatting wd hard drive for mac and pc. In disk utility on your mac, erase and reformat a storage device to use with a mac. For school or work projects, this portability means you can work from home, work or.
A lot of people including you, storing important data on seagate external hard drive instead of on your pcmac hard drive. Both aaron and i have recently decided to reformat our macbooks and start from scratch. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. The hard drive is recognized in disk management, but does not appear under devices.
However, you need to reformat external hard drive or internal ssdhdd if it was partitioned before. Back to the main topic, below is a step by step instruction on how to formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on mac. Please note that reformatting the drive will erase all the information on the drive.
You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Heres how to access the contents on a usb drive that wont open on your mac. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. How to reformat a jump drive on a mac your business. This stepbystep guide will show you how to format an external hard drive on a mac, and how to partition a drive on a mac. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. A jump drive, or usb flash drive, offers convenient portability to your data. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. So how do you make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting it. No matter what motivation you have, the question, how to reformat a hard drive, is much more important now. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. Select your hard drive machintosh hd, when asked to select your disk.
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. To save important data on the hard drive, please backup disk beforehand. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Whether youre selling your computer, trying a new operating system, or setting up an external drive for backups, sometimes you need to completely erase and format a hard drive. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Macs may also create a protected efi partition on these drives that you cant delete with the. Click on reinstall macos or reinstall os x where applicable to reinstall the operating system that came with your mac. Okay, so you may have a lot of files that you want to get rid of. Reformatting the disk will delete all of the data off of it. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. 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. To start up from macos recovery, turn on your mac and immediately press and hold one of the following.
Macos external drive not showing not reformatting fix. I now have a pc with windows 10, but i cant find a way to save the photos onto my computer. In this video i help you guys convert your mac only external hdd into a windows compatible one. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these fields. Including how to format a drive to be used on a mac and a pc and. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. Reformatting a hard drive is often done just to erase all of its contents. Reformatting an external hard drive for mac step 1. You can also open a finder window, select applications in the sidebar, and head to utilities disk utility. Mac os x on a macbook in your office and want to clear all the data off of the computer, you can use disk utility to reformat the laptops internal hard drive. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. Checklist for reformatting your mac os x asian efficiency.
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