Hard drive format for mac and windows both

Mar 31, 2020 how to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. External hard drive for both mac and windows macrumors forums. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. Select the new untitled partition so we can format it as exfat for use with both mac and windows. To help you do the same, we have come up with this detailed guide on how to format ssd on windows 10 and mac like a pro. Jan 17, 2014 readwrite fat32 from both native windows and native mac os x. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. Although we know its limitation of 4gb file size only. In this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab.

To make an external drive accessible by a mac and windows computer, the easiest way is to format it using dos fat32 format. Format wd elements for mac and pc have your drive for both. 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. Apr 17, 2020 to format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows. If your hard disk is fat32, it works in both windows and mac but prone to viruses when used with windows. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Your exfatformatted drive or partition can now be used for both windows and mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive.

How to format seagate external hard drive for both mac. After du loads select your hard drive this is the entry with the mfgr. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. If you have both windows and mac computers in your office, its important to understand their different storage requirements before buying an external hard drive. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on 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.

How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc youtube. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Both operating systems use different formats for reading and writing to a. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Open disk management tool by rightclicking on start menu icon and then select disk management. Apple file system apfs, the default file system for mac computers using macos 10. Hard drives advertised as being compatible with windows and mac os may have misled you into thinking you could actually use one hard drive for both computers. Once the format is complete, the usb drive will work on both os x and windows.

Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Either way there is a solution to having an existing external hard drive for mac and pc. Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. To format your external drive hard drive in windows which works with both platforms, first plugin your drive with windows machine. How to format a usb or external hdd so it works on both. Select your drive from the list and rightclick on it. A solid state drive is known for its highend features and should be protected. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Apr 14, 2020 if you want your hard drive to be compatible with both mac and pc, you should format the hard drive to the file system that is supported by both of these two operating systems. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. A window will pop up where you can choose the format ntfs, fat32, or exfat.

If your hard disk is ntfs it works in windows but in mac is readonly. Readwrite fat32 from both native windows and native mac os x. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Needless to say, all data on the drive will be lost. Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both 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 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. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.

For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Jan 02, 2017 at this point, you can proceed to the next section to format your mac backup partition. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Mar 31, 2020 a solid state drive is known for its highend features and should be protected. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows 10. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. Feb 21, 2012 once it finishes creating them, you can move the drive between macs and windows pcs, and move files back and forth easily. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years.

Dec 29, 2015 windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. Sep 26, 2018 windows pc and mac use different filesystems. Gtechnology portable external hard drive 2tb from the sleek design to the preformatting, this terabytesized drive is perfect for mac users who need a little extra space and offers the transfer rate up to 140mbs for accessing all your files. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different format. Once it finishes creating them, you can move the drive between macs and windows pcs, and move files back and forth easily.

Is it possible to reformat an external hard drive made for. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Be absolutely sure you have your files off the drive and that youve selected the correct drive you want to format. Give the partition a name and select exfat for the format. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog.

The partition that you want your mac to use for backup you format as mac os extended journaled file system. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. Therefore, when you format ssd on windows or mac, make sure that you follow the right protocols. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. On the right, go to the erase tab and pull down the format dropdown. Mar 15, 2018 to format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Best external drives for mac and pc interchangeable 2020. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple.

Feb 08, 2020 so, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. From many limitation that it has, one limitation would make me not using it. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac.

And another for both mac and your pc to share files. Remember, this will erase all the files on the drive. Mar 22, 2012 hard drives advertised as being compatible with windows and mac os may have misled you into thinking you could actually use one hard drive for both computers. Dec, 2019 the below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of windows. External hard drive for both mac and windows macrumors. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. 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. To help you do the same, we have come up with this detailed guide on how to. Macyourself blog archive how to format a drive for mac. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and.

But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. While apfs is optimized for the flashssd storage used in recent mac computers, it can also be used with older systems with. Format your hard drive, or every partition on it, using ntsf. The partition you want to share with both mac and windows you partition as exfat. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer.

How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac windows. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. However, you can format the drive to work with both windows and mac by using the exfat filesystem.

Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. But its a good idea to also create a third partition on your disk that both macos and windows 10 can use.

Means if one want to transfer movie or any stuff greater than 4gb it cant be done in this format. You can use this format if you share the drive between mac os x and windows computers and have no files larger than 4gb. If you want your hard drive to be compatible with both mac and pc, you should format the hard drive to the file system that is supported by both of these two operating systems. Jan 14, 2020 and another for both mac and your pc to share files. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments.

The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of windows. Do i really need to reformat my external hard disk to mac. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. If you run into the issue of not having enough space format it to be the ex fat as. Both operating systems use different formats for reading and writing to a hard drive. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. However, you can format the drive to work with both windows and mac by. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. 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. Hard drives advertised as being compatible with windows and mac os may have misled you into thinking you could actually use one hard drive for. To format a hard drive for compatibility of both mac and windows you can use fat32 format which has both readwrite capability on win mac respectively. From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way macs do the formatting on some larger drives, though, so give it a try and if your windows machines dont like it, just format the drive with windows. Your windows pc will not see that partition when you plug your elements drive into your pc.

Dec 21, 2015 on the right, go to the erase tab and pull down the format dropdown. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. Jan 23, 2020 i hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label. The exfat format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated fat32 format. At this point, you can proceed to the next section to format your mac backup partition. In mac, i am not really sure but many people says that it will not aff. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc.

Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Apple mac machines support a different file system. Format the other on your pc using ntfs if you wont need to write to it from the os x side or use exfat if you do. Dec 29, 2015 windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac.