For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Whether it is a hard drive or usb or internal drive, mac uses different format support. Format your portable hard drive to fat32 and exfat can achieve the purpose of use it in both windows computer and mac computer.
Want to format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Dont know how to format portable hard drive for mac and pc. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly with macs. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Then click the second partition, name it mac, and change its format to mac os extended journaled. Jul 29, 2019 its possible to format your external hard drive with windows and without a mac but without erasing the disk isnt possible and you will have to keep back up if you want your data and you will need a thirdparty tool or software for that.
How to format a mac external hard drive to be compatible with. Understanding hard drive partitioning with disk management. All options, including format, is greyed out except to delete volume. How to format hard drive to exfat in windows 7810 three ways. Apple mac machines support a different file system. It can be fully supported by windows systems and readonly supported by mac os. So, you cant simply use the same drive with both windows and mac. Formatting windows 7 hard drive will erase all the data on the drive and rebuild a file system. However, if one attempts to format their external hard drive in this format using the disk management utility you will see the option is not available for the drive.
Seagate backup plus hub 6tb external hard drive desktop hdd usb 3. Lacie rugged mini 4tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. To do this on windows 8 or windows 7, press the windows key once. In this tutorial, we explain how you can format a hard drive using the command prompt. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. You can also use exfat to format the external hard drive of yours. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to find the program. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Stepbystep instructions to format a hard drive in windows 7, including screenshots for each step to make the process easy to follow. Plug in the external hard drive into the system and open windows explorer by clicking on the computer section in.
Mar 15, 2018 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. Jul 26, 2019 a new hard drive has to be formatted with some specific file systems before being used in windows 7 operating system os. Thats why were using a bootable windows 710 installation dvd or usb drive which allows us to format the hard disk. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and 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. As you have mentioned that the external hard drive is recognizing in the windows 7 but not accessible. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt toms.
Since users are unable to create a fat32 partition larger than 32gb in windows disk management, they need to use minitool partition wizard free. Apr 16, 2020 in a while, it will format your hard drive to fat32. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or flash. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive.
Aug 30, 2019 how to format an external hard drive on 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, or some other reasons. 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. So, the possible reason could be that the external hard drive is formatted in macintosh file system. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. Although it is possible to format a drive as exfat from disk utility on. External hard drive is accessible in mac but not in windows 7. Click options, select master boot record, and click ok. Now, click on the top partition, name it windows, and change its format to msdos.
If you want to use the usb devices in windows you have to know how to do it. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. 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. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. The system tells you what key to press during the restart, so pay attention to your screen and be quick at pressing the right key. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. When you format your hard drive, you can clean internal as well as external storage media. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in thefile explorer window and select format.
To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select 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. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. Dec 22, 2019 how to format external hard drive mac. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. To do this on windows 8 or windows 7, press the windows key once, type. In addition to that, if you are a pc user, then you must have windows sp1, windows 8 or 7, or newer like windows 10. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Select that disk and click the erase button, the one highlighted in red in the screenshot below. How to format an external hard drive as fat32 in windows 7 the fat32 file system has some advantages over ntfs in that it is more commonly readable by other operating systems. But, it is not compatible with older operating systems. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. How can i format this drive in windows 7 home premium.
How to format a startup drive for a mac if you want to format a drive that will be used as your mac s startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary. But i only got windows was unable to complete the format when i tried to format it form windows explorer. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Micro center how to format an external hard drive as fat32. Here are the detailed steps to format external drive in exfat formatting. 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. Windows, macos, and linux can all read and write to fat32 drives without an. Use external storage devices with mac apple support. Here provides you two methods to formatting external hard drive for mac and pc. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Wd external hard drive wont format what should i do.
How to format a drive in exfat formatting in windows 73 ways. If you are a mac user, then you at least have mac os x 10. This tool allows you to manage the partitions on drives connected to your computer internal ones or external ones. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. Feb 08, 2020 so, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. Insert the drives usb cable into one of the thin, rectangular slots in your computers casing. Oct 25, 2016 usb devices,that are formatted in mac format. Give your settings a final lookover and click apply. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt tom. If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next. Rightclick on the unallocated space, and select the new simple volume option on the popup menu, as shown. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac.
Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. 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. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Using the mac preferred file system is important otherwise the files will be of no use to you. If youre using an imac, you may find the usb ports on the side of your keyboard or on the back of the imacs screen. Jul 31, 2019 unable to format wd passport external hard drive having a 1tb wd passport external hard drive with raw file system, i want to format it to exfat for using in mac and windows computer. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. Buying an external hard drive is one of the best options for adding the storage space to the mac computer system. If you need to make the external hard drive be compatible with. Apr 14, 2020 there are 3 solutions for this case, so please choose the one you like most to format external hard drive windows 108 7. Fat an ideal file system to use for usb flash drives or external hard drives that are.
Different os has different default file system, and windows default file system is ntfs, os x nfs plus, and linux ext family. Hence, if you want to access the external hard drive then you may try to format it through windows 7. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac youtube. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the formatting option for pc.
Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator. While you have bought this drive, you will find the drive already formatted for your mac or windows system. A new window will pop up asking which file system youd like to format the external drive to. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Format hard drive on windows 7 or earlier versions step 1 restart your computer and press f8 or del key to enter the bios settings. Rightclick on the start button and select disk management on the popup menu. As a result, you will need to format the hard drive for mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side.
There are times when you end up losing your important data after performing drive formatting to fat32. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. If you need to expand your storage space with an external hard drive and you use both mac and pc, youll likely run into a few obstacles. If you want to format fat32 in windows 7, then you can do that using powershell as well as the command prompt. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have to choose the. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. 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. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube.
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