Fat32 is often used among general users, but fat32 has limitations that can affect filmmakers. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Dont close your previous window open to your external drive, as youll need it shortly. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar.
Well show you everything you need to know about the. One of the major limitations of this format is that its not able to write files larger than 4gb, which can be quite a setback. Mar 10, 2019 connect an external drive to your mac via usb, usbc, or thunderbolt. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. 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. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. 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. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with your computer. 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.
Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. This will allow you to use the hard drive on both a mac and pc. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Usb drives and external hard drives on macos catalina are used for storing and backing up important data such as photos, videos, audios, images, notes, messages, music files, pdf files, word documents, among other files. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Seagate backup plus portable 5tb external hard drive hdd red usb 3.
Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. 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. May 09, 2019 one of just a few options for mac formatted external raid arrays, the promise pegasus3 r4 is a good choice if you need to store mountains of data and access it quickly. Here are the steps to partition an external hard drive for mac and windows pc, which is a little tricky. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Open disk utility go to the applications folder and then to another folder, known as utilities. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the partition tab. Best external hard drives for macs in 2020 techradar. If you want to make use of your macs thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required.
With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. Apr 17, 2020 to format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Before starting the formatting hard drive in mac, you have to connect your mac system to external hard drive. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left. So if youre trying to connect an external hard drive to a mac, you might.
Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Consider how youll be saving and transferring files, such as photos, videos, files from tablets, files from pc laptops, or photos from toprated cell phones. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. When you get a new hard drive, it may already be formatted for windows or mac. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. 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 part 3. The exfat format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated fat32 format. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. Discover the world of external hard drives for mac. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured.
Now in this interface, you will see a format option. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. One of just a few options for macformatted external raid arrays, the promise pegasus3 r4 is a good choice if you need to store mountains of data and access it quickly. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. 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. 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 empty external hd to your mac and launch disk utility. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support.
While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Open the start menu and search for disk management. How to use photos for mac with an external hard drive imore. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended.
How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. For some mac models, the partition option would be greyed out in disk utility. Format external hard drive with multiple partitions easeus. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of windows. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Therefore, based on these three file systems, we have two methods to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. To format external hard drive on mac, all you have to do is plugin your hard drive and launch disk utility. For mac users, buying an external hdd already formatted for your system makes getting started much easier. How to format usb driveexternal hard drive on macos catalina. This is because when you initially connect an external hdd made for mac to a mac computer, you wont be required to format it before you begin transferring files. Aug 27, 20 using external drives to save space on your mac.
Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive. To do this, you will need to use either exfat or fat32 formats. Most external hard drives are designed to work for windows computers. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. Feb 27, 2018 before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. This is not hard to do, and will take you only about a minutes effort. Typically youll get more capacity for the price with desktop external hard drives for mac, which you can store on computer desks. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. To find your best external hard drive for mac, youll want to decide how quickly you want to save and retrieve data.
The best format for external hard drives if you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. Apr 23, 2014 its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. So if you re trying to connect an external hard drive to a mac, you might.
Designed by microsoft to provide similar compatibility to fat32 without the pesky limitations, exfat is the format of choice for drives that youll. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers operating system, as well as fix any nonphysical errors on the drive itself. First, lets see how to format an external hard drive or usb drive in macos which works with both mac and pc platforms, first plugin your drive in macos machine. So, it is better that you know your options and understand which format is right for you. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. In this article, we are here with the detailed step by step guide on how to boot mac from external hard drive easily. To format your external drive hard drive in windows which works with both platforms, first plugin your drive with windows machine. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. How to format an external hard drive on windows formatting a hard drive on windows is a simple affair, especially if you leave everything as default. Msdos fat is the most popular format amongst external hard disks, as its both readable and writable by nearly all operating systems, windows and os x included.
Seagate backup plus hub for mac 8tb external hard drive desktop hdd usb 3. Thus, when you are planning to use the same hard drive on any other os, particularly macos, it is always suggested to format your hard drive for mac. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. 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 using a compatible file system. The best format choice of external drive on mac using the external drive on mac is a good idea as it provides additional storage. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. Dec 22, 2019 how to format external hard drive mac. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. 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. 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 limit of the standard fat32 file system is unacceptable.
Most external hard drives you buy will come out of the box preformatted for a windows computer ntfs. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. Its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. Ever run out of storage space and start wondering if it would be possible to take a crowbar to your new unibody macbook pro to pry it open and put another hard. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. You may also set a direct connection to your computer. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac.
Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. All these are executed perfectly when you use an external boot volume to boot up your mac. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows.
You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive. Which mac file system is best for an external drive. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. But it is hard to pick the suitable format as it depends on your usage. Click the go menu and navigate to your home folder. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. Step 1 connect the external hard drive you want to format to your mac, then start the disk utility app that you can find under applications utilities. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Drive speed is measured in revolutions per minute rpm, based on how fast the drive can spin.
How to format an external hard drive for use with a mac. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Oct 18, 2019 this wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drives format on windows and mac computers. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. 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. Youll find desktop and portable external hard drives. Formatting your toshiba hard drive for mac is important, as it makes the hard drive best suitable for the mac by formatting it with the osspecific file system and drivers. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. Maybe you want to troubleshoot some problems, repair the disk, do partitions, format the entire disk, update, and install os x etc.
Two ways to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. A portable drive draws power from your computer, so you wont need a power outlet, plus these drives easily fit in laptop backpacks. What formatting option should i use to format an external hard drive for use with time machine on imac retina 4k 2017 running os mojave. If you have a mac you should format the drive for your mac first thing, before you start using it. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Apr 15, 2020 if you want to make use of your mac s thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. How to format usb drive or external hard drive on mac. Fat32, exfat and ntfs are three file systems for external drive in windows, while ntfs is readonly on mac. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube.
Lacie mobile drive 5tb external hard drive portable hdd moon silver usbc usb 3. However, fat32 has a maximum 4gb file size limit whereas exfat can work with files as large as 16eb. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. So, we suggest that its better to use a pc to partition an external hard drive for macos and windows. Format an external hard drive external hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. Step 2 on the left side of the utilities screen, find the name of the external hard drive you want to format and select it. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. 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.