Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. How to use seagate external hard drive on mac, 16 ways. 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. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. The main windows disk format, ntfs, isnt supported by macos. Moving data between two systems using an external hard. It seems they formatted the drive to the mac format, but i have no way to access the data, at least i think. How to use mac formatted external hard drive on windows. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac.
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. Ntfs is the standard for windows users and os x extended journaled is the standard for mac folks. Well show you everything you need to know about the. After youre done, dont forget to remove the external hard. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Ntfs disks can be read by macos, but not written to. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. By default, mac os x will use the guid partition table to format the drive. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. There are 3 solutions for this case, so please choose the one you like most to format external hard drive windows 1087.
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. 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. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different format.
Your old external windows pc drive will work great on the mac. I have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. External hard drives, thumb drives, usb drives, flash memory cards, and devices like ipod are examples of storage devices that you can connect to your mac using thunderbolt, usb, or firewire cables, or connect wirelessly using bluetooth. The default file system in windows is ntfs, while mac os users hfs. Rightclick in the unallocated space on the initialized disk and select new simple volume. How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux.
It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. Thats useful if you need to get some data from a friends windows disk, but if you use both windows and macos, youll need a different option. One primary section capable of storing files larger than 4gb, and a secondary section capable of sharing files between macos and windows 10. Either way there is a solution to having an existing external hard drive for mac and pc. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Apr 21, 2020 i have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. 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. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Feb 08, 2020 so, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. I know mac operating system doesnt fully supports ntfs formatted drive.
Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. 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. While you have bought this drive, you will find the drive already formatted for your mac or windows system. 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. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it. Since users are unable to create a fat32 partition larger than 32gb in windows disk management, they need to use minitool partition wizard free. Rightclick on it and select the format option from the context menu. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. Apple has built os x yosemite and some previous os x releases with the ability to read from those disks just fine. Hard drives can be accessed through this pc where files and folders can be created, saved, and loaded. In this case, you should consider the hurdle that these operating systems support different filesystems. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. Choose this format if the size of the disk is 32 gb or less. The ssds are fast, dont need any external power supply, and have more resistance to shock and vibrations.
A new window will pop up asking which file system youd like to format the external drive to. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. To format your external drive hard drive in windows which works with both platforms, first plugin your drive with windows machine. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. The drive will now be formatted for use by windows systems. Dec 25, 2016 if you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then you have to have the external drive formatted in a file system both oss can read. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. Select that disk and click the erase button, the one highlighted in red in the screenshot below.
Select your drive in the lefthand sidebar and go to the erase tab. How to format an external hard drive on windows 10. Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. Before you can access the files, it needs to be initialized and formatted. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of windows. You can use this and still share fat32 volumes with a pc, but if youll primarily be using the drive with windows, and. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer.
How to format an external hard drive for windows 10. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Want to use external hard drive under both windows pc and mac. Most photographers will want to format their new external hard drives using their operating systems optimal style. 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. Use external storage devices with mac apple support. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers.
Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then you have to have the external drive formatted in a file system both oss can read. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. If the hard drive you want to format is connected to your pc, it should be there. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. There will be no space wasted by protected mac partitions. Jan 23, 2020 i hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. Buying an external hard drive is one of the best options for adding the storage space to the mac computer system.
Select one or more files on the desktop or in a folder, then drag them to the storage device, listed below locations in the. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Storage devices such as external hard drives can also be available. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system. When you format your external hard drive, it should be formatted for mac os extended. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020.
I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. When you use a hard disk drive, time machine will take a while to back up your mac. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. 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. I had information from a broken mac backed up at best buy, but because my mac broke, now i only have a windows computer. Click the format popup menu, then choose one of the following. 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. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. Sep 26, 2018 windows pc and mac use different filesystems. See the above section for more details on which one to pick. Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac. Most external hard drives hd are sold in a format called ntfs, which is designed to work with windows.
Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Use the wizard to create a partition with the ntfs or fat32 file system. Dec 22, 2019 how to format external hard drive mac. Apple mac machines support a different file system. Feb 21, 2012 by default, mac os x will use the guid partition table to format the drive. After that, you can use your external hard drive on both mac and windows machine. Aug 30, 2019 plug in the external hard drive into the system and open windows explorer by clicking on the computer section in the side bar, you will see your external hard drive get attached to your system. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. Under the format menu, choose the file system you want to use. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. May 14, 2015 macs can easily read pcformatted hard disk drives. To format a hard drive for windows, open the file explorer and click on this pc. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first.
Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Plug in the external hard drive into the system and open windows explorer by clicking on the computer section in the side bar, you will see your external hard drive get attached to your system. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac. That said, our guide splits the external drive in half. Besides, you can use it to manage your hard drive partitions such as resize partition, delete partition, split partition, merge partitions, etc. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. Click the finder icon in the dock to open a finder window, then do one of the following to move your files move files to the storage device.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. External hard drives are computer storage devices which use either a spinning disk or memory chips to save and load your files. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. You can also find it in the left sidebar of file explorer.
So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. If you are transferring data from an os 10 system to an os 9 computer, or trying to access the data through os 9 with a drive formatted through os 10, you will need to. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. 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. Make sure your mac is connected to the external storage device for example, using a usb cable or over a network. Mar 15, 2018 to use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Aomei partition assistant is such a great simple tool for formatting external hard drive for mac and windows. However, you have to reformat the drive to make it functional with your mac computer. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods.