Formatting external hard drive for mac only typing

In the volume format list, select mac os extended journaled. Dec 29, 2015 follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. When the disk utility recognizes it the drive is read only. But if you have formatted the external hard drive under the windows system, it would cause some inconvenience. You dont get nearly as many tools to diagnose your drive, but theyre. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the partition tab. I have been trying to walk her through reformatting it but nothing is working. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. If you select the one below it, the partition option will be greyed out and become unclickable. Mac os extended journaled is the native file system your 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. It is essential to know which file system ps4 supports and the method to do ps4 external hard drive form.

How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Now, im trying to format it so that i can use it on pc instead of mac. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting. Cannot format my external hard drive so i try to do so, and windows tells me that theres a program using the external drive. 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.

Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Formatting an external hard disk for use with a mac most external hard disks you buy are pre formatted for windows msdos fat format. Best solutions to fix external hard drive not formatted error. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. 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. How to use seagate external hard drive on mac, 16 ways.

Jan 17, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. How to format an external drive in os x make tech easier. But you can open hfsexplorer, read a macformatted drive, and copy the files to your windows pc without paying a dime. You can format your external hard drive from either the pc or mac. Most external hard drives come ready to use on your computer, but in rare cases. You can select the exfat format when using the disk. In the resulut, your external hard drive will work just fine with mac and windows. In general, when it comes to formatting a hard drive in windows, there are several ways to complete this task. As is usually the case, macos trades power for usability. 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, the partition option remains greyed out for my hard drive and when i place the cursor over the greyed out partition. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to partition an external hard drive on mac and windows. Apfs apple file system is only for newer macs running macos 10. Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. Jan 02, 2016 either way, youll want to format your drive accordingly. How to format an external hard drive and remove errors.

You should know that only a toshiba drive formatted as mac os extended journaled. 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. Reason 2, when you accidentally delete a file you want, then you can bring that file back as well. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Because fat32 supports only up to 4 gb large files, it should be used only with flash drives. In this case, your only choice is to backup your files and reformat the whole disk. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. If you want to write to ntfs formatted hard drives in mac os x, youre going to need the help of a thirdparty driver. The data isnt erased completely, but well touch more on that later. 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.

Cannot format my external hard drive windows 10 forums. How to partition an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. 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. Where, i am seeing instruction links, for mac operating system, for as far back as mac os x 10. Sep 19, 2014 she has a mac mini and a wd passport external hard drive. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Follow to get repair inaccessible and readonly external hard drive and restore data on your own now.

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. 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. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive. Oct 22, 2018 formatting a hard disk drive hdd in an external hard drive enclosure is done the same way like an internal drive. The first idea occurs to you might be data loss, but thats not all. The disk utility gives no options for formatting under the erase.

How to format a hard drive with ease in windows 1087. Go to spotlight search, type in disk utility, and click the first option. Even if your disk comes formatted for mac, it may not work properly for some uses. 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. 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. Step 1 first of all, you need to click on the start menu button and open run. 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.

Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window. Mar 17, 2019 formatting hard drives and external hard drives is usually a fairly straightforward process. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. In order to fix external hard drive not formatted error, you need to go through the steps mentioned below. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Mar, 2020 follow the windows 10 fat32 format tutorial to format hdd to fat32 or format external hard drive to fat32 in windows 10. It appears that you have formatted your external hard drive in mac os extended format, which is not supported in windows.

These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process. One of the top disadvantages of fat32 is that it can only accommodate files that are up to 4gb in size. Hi all, i have having problems in regards the process of formatting my external hard drive. Therfore, you can connect backup plus desktop to a windows pc without formatting the hard drive. Make external harddrive compatible with mac and windows computer, how to format using disk utility on mac. How you format a mac hard dr ive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. How to resolve mac external hard drive read only error. How to transfer files to your toshiba external hard drive on your mac. 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.

You may wonder how to reformat an external hard drive on mac. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. Or perhaps you are setting up an external drive for backups. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. 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 format a hard drive in mac os x dumb little man. Formatting an external hard disk for use with a mac most external hard disks you buy are preformatted for windows msdos fat format. From all above, you can have a general idea of fat32 and exfat file system.

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 format a drive with the apfs file system on macos. You cant add or repartition volumes of the external hard drive again on mac. 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. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Formatting an external drive on your mac is quite easy, though it isnt as evident and obvious as it is on a pc. Apr 23, 2014 its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep. Your backup plus desktop is formatted as ntfs for compatibility with windows out of the box.

How to solve an external hard drive not showing up on macos. 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. Or as exfat can have files transferred without driver software on your mac. 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. 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. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. Well show you everything you need to know about the.

Make sure you select the disk icon right under external. By default its the disk built into your mac, named macintosh hd. If youre not sure, eject and disconnect each drive, then only. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons.

If you just plug them in, they will usually work with a mac for general. Once done, it will list out all scanning results by file type. 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. How to use toshiba external hard drive on mac solved. This menu item is in the upperleft side of the screen.

I am trying to partition my hard drive so it can be read on both mac and pc. You can format a drive in os x using two applications. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Mar 12, 2018 want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. 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.

You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Copying the files from your mac to an external drive allows you to save data on your own terms. Secure erase options are available only for some types of storage devices. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for windows and. 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. Format your hard drive using diskpart and command prompt. 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. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left.

Have not tried it yet, but description says it can read only the files in you mac formatted external hard drive. So, i would like to install ts4 on my external hard drive seagate expansion portable drive 1 tb. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. It is recommended to use ntfs if youre working strictly with windows computers. I uninstalled the game in origin and wanted to download.

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. Format external hard drive to ntfs from fat32 using disk management. Windows operating systems will support fat 32, ntfs file format. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Youll want to do it before you sell your machine, for sure, but its also one of the steps you take when you. However, with all of the different drive manufacturers, interfaces and other compatibility and formatting issues that hard drives can. 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. The formatting process writes the basic directory structure onto the disk so that other directories and files can be added. Back up the files on the mac external hard drive before erasing it. Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow.

As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not. 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. However, if you want to test apfs out before then, youll have to wipe a drive and reformat it with the apfs file system. However, ntfs is not fully compatible with mac computers. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. 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. Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Wondering what the best format for your new external hard drive is. 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. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac apple. Formatting an external hard disk ashland mac users group. Mar 31, 2020 since we keep many important files on our external drive, formatting it is not usually the best option.

The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. An external hard drive for ps4 provides a handy option to store games with ample storage space. All hard drives, removable disks, cds, dvds, and other media need to be formatted in order for your computer to use them. 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. The most important thing to know about formatting or reformatting a disk is that the formatting process erases all the information on the disk. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive. After you format it, you can use the professional mac hard drive. How to make the external hard drive compatible with mac and. 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. So if anything happens to your mac you can restore your entire mac from a time machine backup. 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.

Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. A quick format only deletes the organizational structure of the files on the drive, without removing the actual files. 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. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc.

This applications read only nature isnt necessarily a bad thing. Trouble formatting external hard drive macrumors forums. However there is a simple solution you can format the drive to fat32 or exfat that performs better than fat32. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. How to solve an external hard drive not showing up in 2020. 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. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. 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. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines.

Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Formatting a hard drive is the best way to start from scratch on a geeky project. Nov 11, 2019 how to perform ps4 external hard drive format. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. All available drives should be listed in the lefthand panel. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. How to recover from external hard drive readonly error on mac. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac.

Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive. Where and with working to reformat my new hd, i have been directed to base support and then knowledge base answer id 3865. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. 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. One way to do this is to convert the raw hard drive to ntfs using the cmd command method.

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. The two most popular operating systems, windows and mac os both have formatting utilities builtin, which makes formatting external drives even more convenient. The hard drive is already formatted in mac os extended. 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. Dec, 2007 ive an external hard drive that ive used on mac. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. How to fix raw external hard drive without formatting. As mentioned before, macs can only read ntfsformatted hard drives by. As mentioned before, macs can only read ntfs formatted hard drives by default. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the. This formatting guide focuses on the disk utility application for versions 10. Then, click erase at the bottom to format the drive. When formatting a hard drive with disk utility, make sure to select the correct drive.

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. Reading mac files on external hard drive via windows 10. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device.

Click start button and search commond, then rightclick one it and afterward press run as administrator. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. You can choose to format a usb drive, sd card, or external hard drive with apfs. To be specific, we can turn to disk management, diskpart, thirdparty tool, and others. Another common cause for the external hard drive read only problem on mac is the formatting errors of the storage device itself. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. The only solution for me was to format this usb drive on windows. Most external hard drives are designed to work for windows computers. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. 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. 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. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system.

And it currently only works on ssds or flash storage. How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility. Disk utility tries to detect the type of storage and show the appropriate format in the format menu. If youre formatting an external hard drive, plug it in and give your mac a minute to recognize it. Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. If the security options button is not available, disk utility cannot perform a secure. Connect the raw external hard drive to your pc step 2.