You will learn how to format the external hard disk which has default ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. In the disk utility app on your mac, choose file new image, then choose image from folder. With disk utility i split mac partition into 2 partitions and made second one ntfs. Most or we can say almost every external hard disk comes in ntfs windows nt file system format but ntfs format is not supported by mac os. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. While apfs is optimized for the flashssd storage used in recent mac computers, it can also be used with older systems with.
How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. In the volume format dropdown menu, select mac os extended. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, flash drive, or other storage device for mac. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. Disk utility is a builtin app in mac os that can help you format external hard drive on your mac. Download paragon partition manager free if you have not already, then install the software.
Please note that once the hard drive is formatted by aweeraser for mac, all the data on the hard drive will be permanently erased, cant be recovered by data recovery software or. The 4 disk formatting software for mac above can help you easily format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under mac os. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. It is the reliable disk formatting tool for windows mac. How to format a disk to ntfs using mac os x ask different. Run aweeraser for mac choose erase hard drive select hard drive click on erase button format the selected hard drive.
How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. Select the hard drive in the left hand column and click on the erase tab. However, when you format your hard drive with super eraser for mac, all your data will be permanently lost. Select the disk format to macos extended journaled. The higher a disk s rpm, the faster its working speed. Jun 30, 2018 you will learn how to format the external hard disk which has default ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. Step 2 now, go to the applications folder on your mac, and launch the disk utility from the utilities folder. The only reason to do it on a pc over the mac is that a lot of tv s are picky when it comes to mac stuff so it might be best to format on what the tv will best recognize which is windows. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive.
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. So you might want to use other applications to format your external storage devices. How to format an external hard disk mac o apple community. Select the volume format from the volume format popup.
You can do that by typing disk format or disk management in windows search or going to control panel administrative tools create and format hard disk. Enter a filename for the disk image, add tags if necessary, then choose where to save it. Choose mac os extended journaled or another file system if you. I hope wd will put both approaches on one knowledge base page to clarify the options. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Macs arent immune from hard disk corruption and failures. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility.
Can a windows computer read a macformatted hard drive. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. Although most macs have solidstate drives, even these systems can. This mac propriety file system and is used in ios and mac. Next to name you will see untitled 1 where you can name the drive. Matter of fact, youll be seeing this tool a lot throughout the article. Feb 25, 2015 how to make external hard drive work with mac and pc set up guidehow to use hdhow to use hd duration. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk. If you format your external hard drive to hfs, you can use it on mac and linux by removing journaling. 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. Traditional hard disks are the most common options of external drives for mac, but you can also use them as laptop internal hard drives. This is the name that appears in the finder, where you save the disk image file.
Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. This is particularly necessary for purchases of generic pc drives, which almost always come preformatted to be windows compatible rather than for mac os x. Macdisk is a 32bit application and runs under all recent versions of windows vista and 78 included, even 64 bits. Pres ok to affirm you really want to destroy the data on this hard drive. This is a default file system for linux os including raspberry pi. Select the external hard disk that at the left column i. How to make any external hard drive mac compatible youtube. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator.
Its good to have an external hard drive which can be used for backup and other purpose. Hvordan formatere en harddisk for bade windows og mac infotime. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on mac. Start med at tilslutte din eksterne harddisk eller usbenhed. The disk utility tool shows an external disk drive of 128 gb but the disk has 250 gb. Open disk management tool by rightclicking on start menu icon and then select disk management. After youre done, dont forget to remove the external hard. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities.
How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Still with the external disk selected in disk utility go to the erase tab, select mac os extended journaled from the format dropdown, choose to name the disk and then click erase. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Os x extended casesensitive, journaled for using with mac servers. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. You will learn how to format the external hard disk which has deafult ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. Mac format disk software free download mac format disk. Then i used time machine to determine mac partition to use with backup. Open disk utility go to the applications folder and then to another folder, known as utilities.
And there you have it one read and writable disk ready for osx. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Then your hard drivemac computerdevice is able to reuse, resold, recycled or can be safely donated or lent to other people.
You may also set a direct connection to your computer. Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. For example, in the screenshot below, the mac formatted drive is disk 2. Whether you use disk utility or wdd drive utility, the key step to take is that you choose the correct file system in the format dropdown options window. Formater en ekstern harddisk eller usbenhed macweb. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep. While the program loads, it will scan the disks attached to the system and present a list.
Then i would suggest you to search for a third party software which directly converts the to ntfs format for windows operating system. Here are the following most common reasons why would you like to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac under mac os extended journaled. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Select the partition tab on the right hand side of the disk utility window. Even though mac computers are capable of reading hard drives that are formatted for windows, if you intend on using your external hdd as a bootable disk or want to use it to backup files with your mac s time machine, you must format it to be entirely mac compatible. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Mac format disk software aide format disk recovery v. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk. There are two mac disk formatting applications can help you easily format a seagate hard drive for mac. Exfat more modern ms file system any file size can be used. Disk utility is a smart hard drive format tool built in mac system. For this reason, a mac formatted hard drive is not directly compatible, nor. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive.
Dec 20, 2017 hvordan du formaterer en ekstern disk i windows. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. Ntfs format hard disks can be connected to mac os but the drive will run with readonly permission which means you can only copy from hard disk but cant add or. How can i format the external usbfirewireharddisk 250 gb mac os extended journaled. When the driver is installed, you format your ntfs disks with disk utility where you select windows nt filesystem as the format. At the volume format select mac os journaledextended if you confirm to format your hard disk, click on erase button. This process erases everything on the disk, including its files and all its partitions. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. I havent tried this one, but it should also do the job. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Usb disk storage format tool by authorsoft corporation is a free utility that allows you to easily format your usb flash drives. How to identify and fix hard disk problems on a mac.
All external usb disks can be formatted to work on mac osx, but not always straight out of the box. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Paragon disk wipe allows you to create a bootable usbflash drive or external hard drive that will help you to completely erase a whole hard disk, a separate partition or just clean free space. However, to use it on windows you can hfs explorer read only. Sep 08, 2015 os x extended journaled is for casual mac user. Now right click on the external drive and click on format option doublecheck the drive name and capacity to make sure you are going to format the right drive. Msdos fat outdated ms file system, can be used for pc mac compatibility but with files less than 4gb. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
For a windows computer to be able to read a hard drive, it needs to have a file system format that is compatible with windows. The release date of usb disk storage format tool for mac is unknown and we cannot say for sure if it will be released at all. Techtool pro 8, techtool pro classic, and diskstudio. Disk utility can erase disks, add volumes, check disks for errors, and more. Select the folder or connected device in the dialog that appears, then click open. Apr 19, 2012 if you select a format the mac can read, ntfx3g for instance, it will work. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. You can get an apple external hard drive in any size ranging from about 60gb to 20tb. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. File systems compatible with windows include fat32 and ntfs. Now you will need to select the disk you wish to format.
How to format a mac hdd to win ntfs using win 10 microsoft. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac. Best format for an external hard disk apple community. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Files lost due to whatever reasons, such as deleting, formatting, virus infection and more, can easily be recovered by this powerful data recovery.
How to format a ntfs hard disk to mac format apple ios. Mac hard drives typically spin at rates of 5,400 to 7,200 rpm. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system part 3. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Now enter the volume label as you need and change the file system for exfat and click ok. When the installer screen appears, do not click continue. Instruksjonene nedenfor er for windows10, men andre versjoner av windows fra windows 7 og oppover kan ogsa formatere en ekstern harddisk som exfat for bruk sammen med mac, sa vel.
Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Before starting the formatting hard drive in mac, you have to connect your mac system to external hard drive. 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. This professional mac data recovery software can recover lost files including documents, pictures, videos and more from mac hd, external hard disk, memory cards, usb drive and other storage devices. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. If you are not comfortable with the previous method. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. This will work in all modern versions of apple mac osx including 10. Immediately after the startup sound, press and hold the c key to start up from cd.
Now my mac automaticly starts backuping when disk is connected and if i boot into windows i can also use ntfs partition for local data and it is also recognised on other computers. Follow the steps to format your toshiba hard drive for mac step 1 connect your toshiba hard drive to your mac using a compatible medium and make sure the connection remains uninterrupted. I need to reformated my wd 1tb external hard drive and was wondering what is the best file format to use ms dos fat32, mac os extended journalled etc all i store on it are all my videos, tv shows, and backups of all my work, documents etc, but i dont use it with time machine. Mac os x can only be installed on a hard drive formatted in mac os extended journaled, filesystem. It just securely formats your mac hard drivedevice and permanently erases all the data. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Apr 04, 2014 apple supports a number of options here, including mimicking the partition scheme of a hard disk vs a cd, dvd, hard disk, or hard disks with various partitioning standards like master boot record or guid. Format external hard disk drive for mac os and windows. To erase this partition, well have to wipe the entire disk.
Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. One example here is the use of a disk image as a netboot device, where it will require a guid partition map. So please back up your important files before you run super eraser for mac to format. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Super eraser for mac is a thirdparty application that can easily format your seagate hard drive and thoroughly erase all the data on the. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Create a disk image using disk utility on mac apple support. Mac can read all the file system formats including windows msdos, fat, fat32. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. In this tutorial we look at formatting disks via the gui app called disk utility and its equivalent command line tool diskutil. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. After you plugin your new hard drive and attach it to your mac via a firewire cable, the hard drive will mount on your desktop. Apple file system apfs, the default file system for mac computers using macos 10.