Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. 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. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Rather than use a mac formatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfat formatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the.
Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. 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 the easy way in 2020.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Heres how to format a dr ive if you are planning to use it with a mac. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. 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 properly format a new hard drive on windows 10.
The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar.
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