Select the drive you want to format from the list on the left. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. When i right click on it in disk management i dont have the option to delete the hfs partition. Plugging an ntfs drive into a mac internal or external will not allow it to be formatted by the mac disk utility. Those with pre1986 macs had to boot from a floppy drive that would install the hfs drivers that allowed them to boot from the hfs formatted hard drive.
Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk and restore your backedup files. This will work in all modern versions of apple mac osx including 10. In disk utility on your mac, format disks or volumes using apple file system apfs. To erase this partition, well have to wipe the entire disk. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the drive click cancel.
Oct 25, 2016 usb devices,that are formatted in mac format. I recently ran into this dilemma when i formatted an external drive in the apfs format and it was unusable by time machine. How to format an external drive to work with mac from ntfs to mac os extended. The problem is that the disk is currently formatted as ntfs and is not readable with time machine. The quickest way to do this is a simple spotlight search. Dec 22, 20 in this video we will show you how read a hard drive that was formatted for a mac computer on your windows machine. So youre using disk utility to partition your new hard drive when youre presented. I went to use time machine and, the imac started erasing an external drive that.
Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. 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. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. Disk utility will automatically choose the format for you.
File system formats available in disk utility on mac. To use hfs explorer, connect your mac formatted drive to your pc and go to file load file system from device. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. Moving files from mac formatted external hard drive to pc. Is it possible to recover data from a fully formatted mac. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. Transferring files from mac formatted external hd to pc.
It acts as a hub for all the mac drives connected to windows. This reduced power draw helps preserve the battery life of the mac you plug the drive into. In this video i help you guys convert your mac only external hdd into a windows compatible one. If youre formatting a usb drive external hard drive or memory stick. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Uses the mac format journaled hfs plus to protect the integrity. Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. While the external hard drive connected to the windows computer or mac, and the device did not show up. 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. By default, macs use hfs, while pcs use ntfs, which are not compatible with each other.
Im stuck trying to get my apple formatted drive to be read on my pc laptop. Mar 25, 2019 i am not trying to make this drive work on both pcs and macs. How to format a windows disk drive for a mac i get this question a lot i have an external hard drive that is ntfs formatted windows format, and i want to reformat it for my mac hfs. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. To access disk utility, you can directly search it in the spotlight. If you want to use the usb devices in windows you have to know how to do it. The drive will now be formatted for use by windows systems. How to create mac bootable disk and mac partitions. Hfs external drive not appearing on windows machine wilders. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. If you plan on using an external drive with both macs and pcs, you should format the disk with the exfat file system instead. Repair mac apfs or hfs external hard drive and recover data.
Rightclick in the unallocated space on the initialized disk and select new simple volume. In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac you will be presented with a dropped down panel where you need to type a name for the volume and select the format type as mac os extended journaled and partition map scheme as guid. Right click on the partition and select delete volume this will remove the partition. This process erases everything on the disk, including its files and all its partitions. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive.
When you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. If we are planning to sell, donate or dispose our usb flash drive or external hard drive to another person, we should format them to clean up all data, even this is also an. How to unlock and format an external hard drive for your mac. Failsafe operability across compatible hardware and software systems for both generalpurpose and specialized applications. How to convert mac hard drive to windows without losing. I have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. The formatting decides the way the files are stored on your hard disk. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. This file system is specifically for mac systems and windows cant read this file system.
There could be a few reasons why a usb flash drive isnt making an appearance. 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. Well, there are two partitions on my mac and the partitions have hfs file system. How to format a windows disk drive for a mac seagate blog.
To use hfs explorer, connect your macformatted drive to your pc and go to file load file system from device. Hfs external drive not appearing on windows machine. Usb drives and external hard drives use the windows fat32 to format for compatibility. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. For whatever reason, you might format an external hard drive on mac sometimes. Doubleclick the disk utility icon to launch on your mac. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. It could be nightmarish if you have got the below message through disk utility while repairing an external hard drive formatted with apfs or hfs. The disk drive in the system is formatted with a file system other than mac os extended journaled or it is formatted as casesensitive. The macbook i had at the time broke down a few years later.
How to convert mac only external hdd to windows compatible. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. Guide to recover files from formatted hfs drive with mac data recovery when lost data in hfs hierarchical file system drive, where stored almost all important data and documents, dont panic, mac data recovery is a professional tool you can rely on. Mac external hard drive hfs data recovery after format. Desktop external hard drives usually run at 7200 rpm to offer all the speed they can. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Drive speed is measured in revolutions per minute rpm, based on how fast the drive can spin. Select the drive that you want to format and hit the erase button in the toolbar. Dont worry, the next guide we will show you the best solution to fix the hard drive not recognized problem. From all above, you can have a general idea of fat32 and exfat file system. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple support. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. In this tutorial we look at formatting disks via the gui app called disk utility and its equivalent command line tool diskutil.
Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive. Floppy disk compatibility and incompatibility in the mac. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive. My current drive in the mac will not boot and cannot be repaired. Dec 05, 2019 rightclick on windows icon, select disk management. 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. Without the file management system, the data would. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Mac not formatted to display external drives on the. How to get an external drive formally used with a mac to be recognized and useable with a pc running windows 7 i have an iomega 500gb external hard drive that i purchased about 2 years ago that i used exclusively with an imac, until that computer crashed beyond affordable repair last month. To manually backup critical folders from my wifes dell running xp to the ntfs volume and critical mac folders from my powerbookg4 to the hfs.
This may be apfs, or it may be mac os extended journaled depending on how the drive is currently formatted and whether you using macos. Apple formatted wd drive on windows 10 microsoft community. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the partition tab. Nov 22, 2019 i have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. How to access an external drive thats not recognized on a mac. To manually backup critical folders from my wifes dell running xp to the ntfs volume and critical mac folders from my powerbookg4 to the hfs volume. Format usb flash drive external hard drive and permanently wipe data on macos catalina. Here are the following most common reasons why would you like to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac under mac os extended journaled. If this isnt a systemapplication drive and its just a drive for content like documents and media, you can format the external drive as exfat to have native readwrite support from both windows and os x with no third party software needed. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
It seems like that all data has been erased permanently due to formatting, but the truth is that all data still remain intact on the disk. Mac os x can only be installed on a hard drive formatted in mac os extended journaled, filesystem. Mar 18, 2020 why is external hard drive not showing up on my computer. 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. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Hfs had been introduced in 1985 to support apples first mac hard drive, the 20 mb hard disk 20, which connected via the slow floppy disk port. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. How to get an external drive formally used with a mac to.
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. Dec 29, 2015 follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. 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. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings.
Since the pc and mac are two different operating systems, they use different file systems. Format hard drive in windows 10 with easeus management software easeus partition software is a popular disk partition management tool that is available for all hard disk related jobs such as format disk partition, extend system partition, settle low disk space problem, convert mbr to gpt without data loss and vice versa. The software will automatically locate and load the connected drive for you. Actually, if you format it with disk utility, you know its done right. All external usb disks can be formatted to work on mac osx, but not always straight out of the box. How to fix an external disk drive that wont show up on a mac. To copy any folders of file, select them and click the extract button. Feb 03, 2020 are you formatting the disk that came built into your mac. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click. Mac computers have a hfs file systems, while widows computers use an ntfs file. If you buy a mac formatted disk, you dont know what you will actually get. In general, windows builtin tools disk management and diskpart can format drive to exfat easily. Mac os extended journaled or hfs plus is a file system developed by apple inc. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window.
Its worth noting that starting with mac os high sierra 10. New apple devices will be formatted with apfs while old mac drives can use the hfs file system. Select the mac drive from the list of drives make sure this is the drive you want to work on, if you do it for the windows formatted drive in the list, it may cost you a lot of important data. Launch disk utility by selecting applications utilities disk utility. Connect the empty external hd to your mac and launch disk utility. From there you can choose to create the volume format as mac os extended. Use the wizard to create a partition with the ntfs or fat32 file system. There will be no space wasted by protected mac partitions. Are you about to install macos high sierra or later on the disk. Accessing mac formatted external hd from windows pc. If the builtin disk came apfs formatted, dont change it to mac os extended.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Dec 30, 2018 unlike some of the options well discuss later, macdrive lets you read and write data to your macformatted drive directly from windows. This tutorial will use a usb thumb drive as the example. File management plays the most important role on a computer system. To format hfs drive on mac is quite easy with disk utility, a disk manager builtin macos x. Its in the cloud, and doesnt matter whether you set it up on a pc or mac. It controls how data is stored, organized and retrieved from storage media. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. When i right click on it in disk management i dont have the option to delete the hfs. Mac data recovery can help you retrieve deleted data. Else, you can navigate to the finder applications utilities disk utility. Im using model 15au123cl hp laptop intel core i5 7th gen and wd external drive wd3200h1q00. I used macdrive application in the past, and it was a long ago but i remember i could see this drive to pc.
File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple palaikymas. In disk utility select the blank partition you just created and click on erase. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. My 1 tb drive only took about 25 minutes to partition. There are a number of tools that can help you in this regard. Which mac file system is best for an external drive. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. Selling a mac formatted disk is just trying to get your money. It might have been difficult a decade ago since data recovery software were not that advanced but now they can easily get back formatted files. Autocad installation on casesensitive volumes is not supported.
How to read hard drive that was formatted for mac on your. This applications readonly nature isnt necessarily a bad thing. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. Apr 14, 2020 why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Sep 10, 2015 of course it is possible to get back formatted files from a macbook pro, imac and mac mini hard drives. Data recovery from mac external hard drive hfs file system after format by mistake or other reasons. Here is a link to hfsexplorer is an application that can read mac formatted hard disks and disk images. Connect the external hard drive to mac and open disk utility. If you need to erase your disk before installing high sierra or later for the first time on that disk, choose mac os extended journaled. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. In other words, it simply separates the data on the drive and marks it with file names and other attributes as well as indexing.
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