Format usb hard drive for windows and mac

However, fat32 has a maximum 4gb file size limit whereas exfat can work with. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. This is the easiest way and simply requires you to plug in your usb drive, open the windows file explorer and right click your drive to view a number of actions that you can perform. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. If you plan to use the usb drive on linux computers, you can format it to this file system. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. It is a dedicated system utility tool that stores all the vital details and parameters related to windows settings. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. The extended file system ext was the first file system created specifically for linux. 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 drive with compatible file system for mac. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. I have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer.

Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Set up your drive following the manufacturers instructions. Most accessory manufacturers tend to build accessories for the more dominant platforms, which is why many computer peripherals tend to be more focused on. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. But to get a hard drive to be compatible with both mac and pc, you have to choose the. Follow these next steps to create one skip to step 2 if youve got a dvd already. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdos is the formatting option for pc. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers operating system, as well as fix any nonphysical errors on the drive itself. Click the link below to download the 5 day free trial of a great utility macdrive install that, then restart your pc, start the utility and connect the drive, you will then have access to that mac drive like any other pc hard drive. For example, in windows xp my computer is equivalent to this pc on windows 10. The first technique to format write protected usb drive is by using the registry editor on windows. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows.

How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Seagate backup plus slim, especially for largecapacity removable storage devices. Thus in order to make the hard drive windows formatted, you have to convert the file system to ntfs or fat32. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide.

It is recommended to use ntfs if youre working strictly with windows computers. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between 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 external hard drive get attached to your system. Other than using the thirdparty tool, you can also format your hard drive from usb with the help of windows installation disk, which, as you will know, is relatively more complicated than using a bootable format tool as shown in method 1 step 1. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. As mentioned before, macs can only read ntfsformatted hard drives by. Now in this interface, you will see a format option.

Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. This wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drives format on windows and mac computers. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Plug in your external hdd to the usb port of your computer then go to my computer find your external drive rightclick it and select format. Windows formatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. Paragon disk wipe allows you to create a bootable usb flash drive or external hard drive that will help you to completely erase a whole hard disk, a separate partition or just clean free space. Im here to use a windows 10 based hp laptop to format my lexar drive.

How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a. 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. This works with any hard drive, flash drive, ssd, usb drive, or just about any other. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive.

The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. As a comprehensive data erasure tool, aweeraser for mac can help you securely and permanently format a hard drive or device under mac os. Cant access mac hard drive on windows 10 microsoft. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. 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. Connect the power supply if necessary, connect to the mac via usb or firewire, and turn on the drive. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. I know mac operating system doesnt fully supports ntfs formatted drive. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers.

Windows cannot natively access a mac formatted drive. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Formatted external hard drive without backup and want to recover the data. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format.

Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Create a windows installation disk and boot your pc from it. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. 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. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.

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 to share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from. Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. It is the reliable disk formatting tool for windows mac. Download the windows 7 usb dvd download tool to format the hard disk now and install windows 7 later or the windows 10 media creation tool to format the hard drive now and install windows 10 later. All data has to be put in a file format that the operating system can read off the hard drive. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. To learn how to format write protected usb drive via the registry editor, follow these steps. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc.

Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Guide how to format hard drive from usb with bootable. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Rather than use a mac formatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. If you are on an earlier operating system like windows 7, xp, etc. Follow the instructions to create a bootable usb drive. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. On windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. External data storage devices such as usb flash drives, external hard disk drives hdds, and solid state drives ssds provide one of the easiest ways to transfer files between separate computers without accessing the. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility.