In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. Click on the format menu and choose either msdos fat32 or. How to format an external hard drive for use with a mac. Jun 14, 20 disclaimer this method may not work for you anymore. Reformatting the disk still with the external disk selected in disk utility go to the erase tab, select mac os extended journaled from the format dropdown, choose to name the disk. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. 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.
If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Mar 15, 2018 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.
Here are your macos file system options and how to pick the best one for you. Even some macspecific drives are still sold with usb 3. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. So, we suggest that its better to use a pc to partition an external hard drive for macos and windows. Select your usb flash drive on the sidebar, choose erase. For most reasons to erase, you should erase the disk, which also erases all volumes on that disk. Under the external tab, highlight your flash drive.
But dont worry, this page talks about the reasons for this issue, and how to fix usb flash drive not mounting on mac without data loss. Click on the format menu and choose either msdos fat32 or exfat. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. I have seen a few comments that seem to suggest that perhaps newer versions of macos or the like have changed things around. As earlier stated, you need to first back up your usb drive before formatting the drive as you may not be able to recover the contents again. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. 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. Actually, most external hard disks could be compatible with mac and pc as long as you format them correctly. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Formatting a usb drive on a mac is a simple but effective way to delete them. Fat32 is the crossplatform format for windows and mac os x.
All kinds of files can be recovered including photos, documents, audio, emails, folders, archives, download files, etc. 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. If you are trying to format mac external hard drive, you can go over the process step by step. This hard disk formatting software can help you formatwipe your entire hard drive in a single step. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. Launch disk utility, located in applications utilities.
Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. How to access mac osx extended formatted hard drive in. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button. One of the best ways that you can use to recover formatted hard drive on mac is to use format data recovery software. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another.
The release date of usb disk storage format tool for mac is unknown and we cannot say for sure if it will be released at all. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. How to format usb drive or external hard drive on mac. The exfat format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated fat32 format. Although macos is generally much safer than windows, this does not mean that your mac cannot be exposed to viruses. May 29, 2018 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. To format external hard drive on mac, all you have to do is plugin your hard drive and launch disk utility. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these fields. 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 a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with.
You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. Launch disk utility located in applications utilities. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Connect the usb drive to mac and launch disk utility from application. 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. Mar 29, 2019 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 an external drive for mac compatibility.
Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. 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. Connect the hard drive to your mac, with the supplied cable to a your mac usb port most likely if your drive has a separate power supply plug that in too of course. So you might want to use other applications to format your external storage devices. On the left side panel, you will see the usb drive name. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Compare portable, usb, desktop and external lacie hard drives and shop online. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Unformat usb drive mac free mac formatted usb recovery. To format the usb drive to fat32, follow the next steps. 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 format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc.
How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. 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. Jul 28, 20 then below you will see the format type which will be ntfs or possibly msdos fat, we need to reformat the volume and make the format mac os extended journaled. It can recover deletedformatted or lost files from mac hard drive, usb drive, memory card, external hard disk etc due to deletion, format, virus infection, partition loss, os reinstallation, etc. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive. If you are having a hard time using the command line, try the disk utility app, which is simpler and uses the gui. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os.
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. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Run aweeraser for mac choose erase hard drive select hard drive click on erase button format the selected hard drive.
Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. You could most likely boot from the recovery partition and use disk utility to reformat the drive. However, if the usb flash drive is not mounted on mac, you will lose access to the usb flash drive as well as to the data stored on it. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click the result under top hit. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. Then below you will see the format type which will be ntfs or possibly msdos fat, we need to reformat the volume and make the format mac os extended journaled. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself.
Before you begin formatting a flash drive on a mac, you should first consider which format you are going to use. The usb drivers come with the fat format by default. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32. Which mac file system is best for an external drive. 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. Read only ntfs from native mac os x to readwrite format ntfs from mac os x, here are some alternatives. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Read only ntfs from native mac os x to readwriteformat ntfs from mac os x, here are some alternatives. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. 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. Locate the drive name from the left hand side of disk utility and click on it.
Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. If you want to use the usb devices in windows you have to know how to do it. Disclaimer this method may not work for you anymore. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. Or if you mac supports it, a network boot from apple servers over the internet, and use disk utility. Connect the external drive or the usb drive to the mac. This tool can help in formatting hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card and other storage media under windows or mac os. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it.
How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Open disk utility and select the hard drive which you want to format on the lefthand side you will see your external hard drive icon if connected. Recover formatted hard drive on mac with recoverit when it comes to finding an efficient and userfriendly software program for mac hard drive data recovery, then every successful search will only point to one single. Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities.
Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. Open finder and choose applications utilities disk utility to launch the app on your mac. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. 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.
Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Rename the usb flash drive, choose the format as msdos fat for format, master. Format usb hard drive to exfat to transfer large files mac. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Usb disk storage format tool by authorsoft corporation is a free utility that allows you to easily format your usb flash drives. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. 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. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos.
But dont worry, this page talks about the reasons for this issue, and how to fix usb flash drive not mounting on mac without data loss even if external hard drive is not showing up on mac. Jan 15, 2019 to format a usb drive in fat32 or exfat. Moreover, the thunderbolt 3 drives you can buy are constrained by the maximum throughput of the. Feb 21, 2020 to format the usb drive to fat32, follow the next steps. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus.
Well show you everything you need to know about the. Here are the steps to partition an external hard drive for mac and windows pc, which is a little tricky. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. For some mac models, the partition option would be greyed out in disk utility. Aug 30, 2016 you can, however, format a windows hard drive from a mac if you connect the windows hard drive to the mac and format it through disk utility, or the command line as described above. The format is good for handling the files between both os under 4gb size. How to recover formatted hard drive on mac updated in 2019. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. The format apple support for mac owners for time machine is mac os extended journaled.