Now either because of time, corruption or because it may have been formatted for a mac when i plug it into my pc i cant access it. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. Without that, windows can not even recognize the existence of mac os extended formatted drives much less read. If your hard drive icon doesnt appear there, go to go computer, then click the hard drive icon under devices. There are a number of tools that can help you in this regard. There is only one rule that you need to keep in mind when reformatting a drive. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. If the drive is not formatted, you may get a message saying that the drive. Here are two ways offered and you can choose on based on your own situation. In a few simple steps you are ready to go and can save your backup files to the external drive, keeping your information safe and giving you peace of mind. Yes, connecting an external hard drive or usb flash key to a mac will generally read and work fine as is because the mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a windows and mac machine, formatting it to be entirely mac compatible. Its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine.
Your first step to using your toshiba external drive on your mac is to plug your toshiba drive in. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to your mac. While you can physically connect a mac hard drive to a windows pc, the pc cannot read the drive unless thirdparty software is installed. Before you can use it though, you need to properly format or reformat a hard drive so that it will become compatible or readable with the operating system that you are using. In this guide i will show you how you can properly formatreformat a. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. If you re using seagate external hard drive and you want to reformat your seagate external hard drive, then you came to the right place. Click the file menu, and select get info, or press comandi on your keyboard. It is not as complicated to reformat an external hard drive for use with mac os x as it may look. 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.
Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. This file system is specifically for mac systems and windows can t read this file system. Apple mac machines support a different file system. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. For example, keep a backup on your local devices, and store backup copies with a cloud storage provider as well. Format external hard drive for mac reformat external. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Its actually quite simple to reformat ignore the person who wrote that it took him nearly 20 hours to reformat. How to check a macs free hard drive space macworld. In the lefthand side inside of disk utility you will see a list of all the connected hard drives.
Because fat32 supports only up to 4 gb large files, it should be used only with flash drives. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. How to format your hard drive seagate support asean. So if you re trying to connect an external hard drive to a mac, you might. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Most external hard drives are designed to work for windows computers. At this point you can discard the original drive or else format it also and then copy the files back. After realizing that you can reformat wd hard drive to fat32 or exfat to make it compatible with mac os x and still can be used under windows, it is time to check out how to reformat wd hard drive for mac and pc in windows successfully. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Both mac os x and windows also support the fat32 file system, but we dont recommend it for hard drives. 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. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab.
Or you can choose wipe hard drive to completely delete the hard drive. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with your computer. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. Right click on your toshiba external hard drive icon and pick get info from the menu. The drive should automatically mount on your macs desktop if the finder preferences are set to show external drives. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. 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. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another.
To make it compatible with both macos and windows, you need to reformat the external hard drive. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. If you dont want to worry about losing all your data on the chance your external hard drive becomes corrupted, you should keep multiple backups of the data in different places. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. You are ready to go in a few quick measures, so you can transfer your backup data to the hard disk, keep your documents safe so give you peace of mind. If youre not erasing the disk your mac started up from, you dont need. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
It took less than a minute and im not that tech savy. How to reformat your toshiba portable hard drive to mac os x. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Is it possible to reformat an external hard drive made for. A hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac.
All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Whether you re selling your computer, trying a new operating system, or setting up an external drive for backups, sometimes you need to completely erase and format a hard drive. You can reformat a hard drive on mac os x by using disk utility. Sometimes, users need to use the same external hard drive interchangeably on mac and pc. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. How to format an external hard drive for windows 10. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. In this post, youll learn how to format an external drive to a mac compatible file system and recover files from a reformatted hard drive.
Keep in mind that a mac can generally read other file formats, but for the best performance. I would like to format my external hard drive so that i can edit in on my macbook pro. 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. Because on this article, ill show you the easiest, fastest, and the safest way to reformat a seagate external hard drive. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. How to format an external drive for mac from ntfs to mac os extended. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. To format external hard drive on mac, all you have to do is plugin your hard drive and launch disk utility. The tutorial and screenshots below are based on macos sierra.
How to use toshiba external hard drive on mac solved. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as difficult as it might seem. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar.
Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. If you see the drive is ntfs then you ll either need to reformat the drive or use a ntfs driver.
Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. I attached a macformatted lacie 320gb ruggedized drive to the pc and opened computer management to reformat the drive as ntfs. How hard is it to reformat the hard drive on a mac. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Because the two systems use different file systems for storage. Windows will choose ntfs for you because thats microsofts native filing system. But if you want the external hard drive to also work on a mac, you should choose exfat, which is an upgraded version of fat32. From many limitation that it has, one limitation would make me not using it. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. So if youre trying to connect an external hard drive to a mac, you might. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. You cannot reformat a volume when you are currently booted to an operating system on. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. Rightclick the hard drive and choose wipe hard drive. How hard is it to reformat the hard drive on a mac computer. To make an external drive accessible by a mac and windows computer, the easiest way is to format it using dos fat32 format. Each physical drive is shown with the partitions of that drive nested below.
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