Apr 09, 2011 i took out the dvd drive and put this in. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. So you figured, fine, ill just get an external hard drive. 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. How to format your hard drive to exfat file system on windows. This will format the drive as exfat format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. Feb 02, 2018 how to reformat a disk to fat32 on a mac. But, it is not compatible with older operating systems. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. It wont work with linux unless you install linuxs exfat drivers, but for most people, exfat is just about. Mac os x sierra open disk utility and click the drive you want to format.
It is able to format seagate hard drive or usb flash drive as exfat file system easily and effectively in windows 1087, xp and vista. Whether youre formatting an internal drive, external drive, usb flash drive. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. Oct 29, 2019 to format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. The hard drive with fat32 file system is unable to store large file beyond 4gb. Sep 12, 2019 format drive to exfat in windows 10 so it is readandwrite in mac os as well. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. Using an external drive between mac and windows computers can be a hassle, since you constantly have to reformat it to fit which computer youre using it on. So how do you know if your usb drive is in the correct format. Even better, its freely included in both operating systems. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice.
This file system can be read and written by both mac and windows with support for single files of up to 128 petabytes. How do i format my external hard drive to exfat on mac. To format or reformat an external hard drive on mac, youll need the builtin disk management tool called disk utility. Exfat may have some limitations that cause problems it depends. Simply follow any of the methods discussed in the article and successfully format your drive to exfat file system. Feb 03, 2020 you want to quickly and permanently erase all content from your mac and restore it to factory settings, such as when youre selling, giving away, or trading in your mac. Best for external drives shared with windows computers. Rightclick the drive you want to format and select format partition. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. I am considering formatting this drive as exfat so that both windows 7 and mac os can both read and write to this drive without the need to partition the drive. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. Dec, 2019 now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase.
The maximum length for the volume name is 11 characters. If you need to make the external hard drive be compatible with window and mac, you need to format hard drive to exfat or fat32. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. At the time of the original posting in 2011, there were some problems getting a mac formatted exfat drive working with windows, it had trouble recognizing those drives. Format wd elements for mac and pc have your drive for both. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label if you want, and then click start. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process.
Its much simpler to format any drive thats isnt running the operating system such as the c. You should then a see it mount on the desktop, and b automatically get a prompt to use the drive for time machine if not, you can go into the time machine menu top right of the screen, go to tm preferences, and select it. It wont work with linux unless you install linuxs exfat drivers. This is very easy to carry out, and only requires a few moments of your time.
This is a file system limitation that affects both mac s and pcs, and the only workaround is to format the drive. The following tutorials will teach users how to format an external hard drive for both mac and pc to exfat on mac osx and windows 10. A quick format only deletes the organizational structure of the files on the drive, without removing the actual files. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. Select your thumb drive in the disk utility window then click the erase tab. You can also use exfat to format the external hard drive of yours. Whats the difference between fat32, exfat, and ntfs. Exfat external hard drive opens readonly apple community. Rightclick the drive icon in the finder sidebar or on the desktop and select get info.
This article will show you how to successfully format hard drive to exfat in windows 1087 within few steps. And it can format seagate drive as fat32 without the limitation of 32gb in partition size as well. The format dates back to 2006, and was made by microsoft to provide some of the crossplatform compatibility of the older fat32 format without the file and partition size limitations. If the external hard drive is pre formatted for mac, disk management will list 3 partitions and you will not be able to delete the health efi system partition because its a protected partition. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Heres how to correctly format the drive to work on both. The format dialog in windows doesnt explain the difference, so we will. At this window, you are allowed to specify partition label, file system as well as cluster size. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings.
File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Using an external drive between mac and windows computers can be a hassle, since you constantly have to reformat it to fit which computer. How to format an external hard drive and remove errors. From then on, that drive should work fantastically between mac and windows machines. This is a file system limitation that affects both macs and pcs, and the only workaround is to format the drive. The other is to format your drives with the exfat file system. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. How to format your hard drive to exfat file system on windows 10. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. So if you want your external hard drive to be backward compatible with both oss then you need to reformat it with fat32 or exfat. In addition to that, if you are a pc user, then you must have windows sp1, windows 8 or 7, or newer like windows.
Apfs also doesnt work with time machine, so you should format any drive you want to use for backing up your mac using mac os extended. 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. Dec 31, 2019 if you recently purchased an external hard drive or portable ssd for your mac, you probably noticed that mac os x doesnt allow you to write data on to the drive. Format external driveusb exfat in windows 10 in simple steps. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. You received a message that your disk isnt readable by this computer.
Is it a good idea to format my external hard drive as exfat. Format external hard drive for mac and pc with exfat. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility.
How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Whether youre formatting an internal drive, external drive, usb flash drive, or sd card, windows gives you the choice of using three different file systems. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. For those who are running windows computer, they can format hard drive as ntfs and for the mac users. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. It can support various file systems including ntfs, fat32, exfat, ext2, ext3 etc. Your wd elements drive will be on your macs desktop under the name you gave it. Select your external hard drive or usb flash drive from the list on the left. Macyourself blog archive how to format a drive for mac and pc.
How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. But formatting a drive with exfat offers one huge advantage. However there is a simple solution you can format the drive to fat32 or exfat that performs better than fat32. Choose this format if the size of the disk is over 32 gb.
Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Although it is possible to format a drive as exfat from disk utility on the mac, that drive will not work with windows pcs, and thats not what. In the resulut, your external hard drive will work just fine with mac and windows. Then your western digital external hard drive is ready to use on your mac and on your windows pc. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Jan 14, 2020 and in a few minutes your wd elements drive is exfat formatted ready for you to use on your mac and windows pc. If you are a mac user, then you at least have mac os x 10. 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. Use the exfat file system and never format your external. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. Formatting an external hard drive will remove all the data already present on it. Although it is possible to format a drive as exfat from disk utility on the mac, that drive will not work with windows pcs, and thats not what were after. Formatting your drive to exfat file system is very easy. This format was optimized to minimize the amount of drive storage space used for a single file the previous version used sectors loosely, leading to rapidly lost drive space.
How to format an external drive to work seamlessly with macs. This tutorial explains how to format external hard driveusb flash drive exfat in windows 10. You should create multiple partitions on your external hard drive, in order to have enhanced file organization. Use the exfat file system and never format your external drive. Additional disks are generally used for data storage and data transfer, such as an external usb hard disk, memory card, or a thumb drive. Locate your external drive from the list of devices and drives. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. This tutorial explains how to format external hard drive usb flash drive exfat in windows 10. If it is not ticked, you will lose all of your data.
You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. Is it a good idea to format my external hard drive as exfat if i use it for both mac and windows. You do not need to do anything special on the disk utility simply insert the usb drive and open finder. Before formatting external hard drives, make sure you have created backup for the all important digital data. Youre trying to resolve a disk issue that disk utility cant repair. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. In order to get started and partition your external hard drive, follow the simple instructions below. Sure, you could read a mac formatted drive on windows or read a windows formatted drive on a mac, but both solutions either cost money or are unstable. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both macs and pcs, you should format the disk with the exfat file system instead.
I did exactly what you said to do in order to format a lacie 160gb external hard drive to exfat for use on a mac osx 10. You can format the drives file system to fat32, ntfs, exfat, ext2, ext3, satisfying all your needs. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. 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. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly. But when it comes to format internal hard drive for mac, things are getting a little more complicated. Find out how to format an external drive or usb disk making the drive work with both windows pc and mac can read and write. Mac os lets me format this internal drive as exfat but windows 7 wont let me format it probably because it is an internal drive. Ill store my media files on it while keeping the internal hard drive clear for apps and the os. Now your entire wd elements external hard drive is in a format both computers can use. How to format or partition an external hard drive on mac. After comparing ntfs vs fat32 vs exfat, you can choose a suitable file system for your drive according to your needs. If you want to switch a partitions file system to exfat, you need to format the partition, which is different from fat and ntfs conversion.
This is the required format for a bootable mac hard drive. Jan 10, 2018 how to format hard drive to exfat in windows 7810. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Click erase and from the format dropdown select exfat.
Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. Exfat should basically only be used on drives that need to work with both windows and macos computers. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. How to format your hard drive to exfat file system on. Sep 20, 2019 but formatting a drive with exfat offers one huge advantage. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. This is because the drive has been initialized for windows nt file system, ntfs for short, and ntfs is primarily for pc use.
Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Format your internal hard drive to exfat file system through diskpart just like formatting the drive to any other file system, you can use diskpart to format your drive to exfat file system as well. By default, mac os x can only read ntfs drives, not write to them. You can format your external hard drive from either the pc or mac. Youre changing the format of a disk, such as from a pc format fat, exfat, or ntfs to a mac format apfs or mac os extended. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Maybe we will go through with the way to format a startup drive for mac later. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first.
Unfortunately, now my mac doesnt see the hard drive anymore and my pc tells me the device is not. Please, backup any data you are interested in keeping which is already. Thus, you can make hard drive be compatible with windows and mac. So despite the disadvantages, exfat is your best option for. Select exfat when formatting an external drive with windows. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. But now in this guide, we will cover the situation of formatting an external hard drive in steps. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility posted by ant on march 11th, 2012 43 comments if you have an external hard drive or usb flash drive that youd like to use on both macs and windows pcs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. Choose this format if the size of the disk is over 32gb.
How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. 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. You need to run a few commands to format your drive to. First to format your wd elements external drive to mac os extended journaled file system. Format drive to exfat in windows 10 so it is readandwrite in mac os as well. 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. Then, you need to choose the best file system for your external hard drive and follow these steps. Formatting a disk using windows maxes out the partition at 32gb, but not if the formatting is done using mac os x. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide.