Rightclick in the unallocated space on the initialized disk and select new simple volume. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wifi menu in the menu bar. 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. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple.
Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer, or even use a new operating system, you need to format the hard drive on your mac or pc. Open the disk utility app on your mac using one of the following methods, depending on the type of disk or volume you want to erase. Jan 17, 2020 why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Apfs apple file system this is the new file system that apple bought to macs with high sierra and it will be the default if you are using that. Jan 15, 2020 macos recovery makes it easy to reinstall the mac operating system, even if you need to erase your startup disk first. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. Feb 27, 2018 to format external hard drive on mac, all you have to do is plugin your hard drive and launch disk utility. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Mar 10, 2020 how to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on your mac errors can damage your hard disk and prevent it from functioning properly.
How to recover data from formatted external hard drive on mac. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the new disk. Oct 29, 2019 to format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Among other things, disk utility can erase, format, repair, and partition hard drives and ssds, as well as create raid arrays. By default its the disk built into your mac, named macintosh hd. Have you ever tried to format a disk in mac os x and disk utility wont unmount the hard drive for formatting. In the left sidebar, you should see your hard drive and its partitions. How to format an external drive to work with mac from ntfs to mac os extended. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Sep 26, 2018 sometimes, you may want to try format directly to format your external hard drive partition to exfat for mac and windows. How to format external disk for macbook a apple community. Type a name for your disk, then click on the erase button. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. Today im going to show you how to format any hard drive so you can use it to back up your mac as well as answer a lot of questions my.
Select disk utility from the utilities window in macos recovery. Dec 29, 2015 you can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. Make sure that the sidebar in disk utility shows the name of your startup disk. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Cant erase hard drive due to a phishing scam premier tech support, im trying to erase my hard drive on a 2011 mac book pro. 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.
How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as. Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window. Mar 22, 2012 open the start menu and search for disk management. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with your computer. Select the mbr or gpt partition table format and click ok to create a partition table for the disk. To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between mac and pc, you need to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Today im going to show you how to format any hard drive so you can use it to back up your mac as. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other. How to format a drive on a mac heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for windows and mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use.
The volume representing your startup disk is macintosh hd, unless. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on mac. If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device. To learn how to format in mac your hard drive, follow these steps. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. For instance, you might wish to format as sd card, pen drive, external hard disk, etc. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. The quickest way to do this is a simple spotlight search. May 29, 2018 it is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for mac and windows. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. The exfat format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated fat32 format. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left.
Aug 22, 2019 just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. After du loads select your hard drive this is the entry with the mfgr. However, if you want to use part of the drive for os xs time machine backups, you should do this from the mac, since theres an extra step to make the drive compatible for time machine. Feb 08, 2020 how to format an external drive to work with mac from ntfs to mac os extended. Format drive to exfat via diskpart in general, windows builtin tools disk management and diskpart can format drive to exfat easily. 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. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Highlight your macbooks internal hard drive from the list on the left side of the window.
Which mac file system is best for an external drive. After i boot into recovery mode and select mac utilities, i select erase, but it fails stating that the disk cant be unmounted. Select mac os extended journaled from the format dropdown menu. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive.
Aug 25, 2016 how to format a h ard drive for a mac tech talk america. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. The mac os x extended volume format is optimal for macs. Using apples free disk utility app, you can easily format the drive, give it a label, or even. Click on the disk utility option and then click continue. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus.
Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Oct 06, 2016 have you ever tried to format a disk in mac os x and disk utility wont unmount the hard drive for formatting. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. Aug 30, 2016 this is an article for mac, it is erasing a hard drive from a mac command line, it is not a windows tutorial. In this guide, we will show you how to back up and format an external hard drive on macos. Mar 29, 2019 select the name of your startup disk in the left pane of disk utility, then click on the erase tab. Also, you should know that while mac can format the source, it will change its file format in the end.
Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Things have become unruly, and it seems easier to install and start over. However, it is not possible to format hard drive to exfat, the only option under the window of format file system is ntfs default. This post will teach you how to format your mac s hard disk and fix common errors. It can happen for external usb and firewire as well as internal disks. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Some people are asking for a way to format a h ard drive for mac. Disk utility, a free application included with the mac operating system, is a multipurpose, easytouse tool for working with hard drives, ssds, and disk images. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Erase or format your macs drives using disk utility. Jul 19, 2019 thus, if you wish to format ntfs on mac, then you must be using an external storage unit. Jun 02, 2017 in this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. How to format a h ard drive for a mac tech talk america. Click the erase tab, choose a volume format from the dropdown menu and then type a name for the drive. In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. Under the volume scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. Fat 32 is the most compatible disk format which is why its the most widely used on usb thumb drives its compatible with both mac and windows. Use the wizard to create a partition with the ntfs or fat32 file system. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Launch disk utility and then click to select the external hard drive listed on the left.
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