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Formatting an External Hard Disk Drive From a Mac: To put in simple words, if you want to share the external hard drive between Macintosh and Windows PC, you need to format an external hard drive for the respective system. Hard drives for Windows PC are formatted with NTFS by default, while hard disks for Mac are formatted with HFS+. Click the Windows icon, type Disk Management, then click Create and format hard drive partitions. Right-click the disk that says Not Initialized or Offline, then select Initialize Disk or Online. Some external USB hard drives don't have the option to be initialized. In these cases, they get formatted and are assigned a drive letter. Format USB or external hard drive for Mac using Mac disk utility Format USB or external hard drive for Mac on Windows PC using third-party USB format tool Now, you can follow these two solutions to format any hard drive, flash drive, USB drive, SSD or any other external storage drive so as to make them work on your Mac now.
While most external hard drives are already designed to work for Windows computers, there are times when you need to reformat one. You might want a drive that works with Macs and PCs, or maybe you want to partition it, which will split it up into two different formats. Here's how to format an external hard drive for Windows 10 or partition it.
How to Format a Hard Drive for Windows 10
Note: Formatting your drive will erase all the existing files on it. So if your external hard drive already has important files on it, make sure to back them up before proceeding.
- Connect your external hard drive to a Windows computer. If your external hard drive is working, your computer will automatically detect it, and the drive will appear under Devices and Drives next to your internal drives in the This PC window. You can also find it in the left sidebar of File Explorer.
Note: If you already used your external hard drive on a PC, be sure to back up any files on it. Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it.
- Right-click on the external hard drive and click Format.
- Choose a format under File System. By default, Windows computers will choose NTFS (New Technology File System) for you because that's the native Microsoft filing system. But if you want the external hard drive to also work on a Mac, you should choose exFAT.
Note: The exFAT file system only works on Mac 10.6.5 or later, and Windows XP SP3 or later.
- Check the Quick Format box, and click Start. Depending on the size of the drive, and if there are files to be deleted in it, this can take a few to several minutes to finish.
- Click OK when the Format Complete pop-up screen appears.
Now you have a hard drive formatted for Windows, but what if you wanted to use it with Mac computers also? Mac default paint program. One easy way to have a hard drive that works with Mac and Windows is by partitioning it. This means you're splitting the drive into two formats, one for Mac and one for PC. Here's how to do that:
How to Partition an External Drivein Windows 10
- Open the Windows search box, type 'diskmgmt.msc,' and hit enter. The Windows Search Box is the magnifying button icon in the bottom-left corner of your screen.
- Right-click on your external hard drive and select Shrink Volume. If this option is not available to you, reformat the drive to NTFS and try again.
- Enter an amount of space that you want to shrink your volume by. The remaining space will be displayed in megabytes.
- Then click Shrink. This will split the hard drive, with one part becoming unallocated space.
- Right-click the unallocated space on your drive and select New Simple Volume.
- Click Next.
- Then indicate how big you want the partition to be. If you want to use the rest of the space, enter the maximum disk space indicated above it. Then click Next.
- Next, choose what drive letter you want to use. Letters that have already been assigned to other drives will not be on this list, so don't worry if there are missing letters. Just choose among the drive letters still available.
- Go to File System and choose a format. Windows will choose NTFS for you because that's Microsoft's 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.
Note: The exFAT file system only works on Mac 10.6.5 or later, and Windows XP SP3 or later.
- Check the Quick Format box, and click Next.
- Finally, click Finish. If a pop-up appears telling you to format the disk, click Format Disk. After that, the newly formatted disk will open automatically.
Partitioning your external hard drive will enable you to perform tasks in one section without affecting the rest of the drive. If you want to know how to format a hard drive for Mac, check out our previous article here. Disc drive for mac not working.
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How to format an external hard drive or USB flash on a Mac computer?
With technology growth, use of data storage formats such as CDs and DVDs are on the decline, but physical storage remains useful, especially if you do not have an Internet connection or file sizes are large. In these circumstances, external hard drives help, but unfortunately these are not always reliable. Apple products are usually able to read Windows-based formats such as MSDOS, FAT, FAT32, ExFat, and NTFS. In most cases, however, Mac machines can only read these formats and are unable to write or change data.
The best way to solve this issue is to reformat your external drive. Changing an external drive or USB flash key format is useful if you are planing to use the device only with Apple products, and especially if you wish to store a Time Machine backup file or create a bootable drive. These are not the only reasons to format your drives - they can often show less space than is actually available or require cleaning of junk files. By formatting your external drive, you also can choose an encrypted file system, which decreases the chance of data or file theft. In this article, we describe recommended file system formats for Mac computers and how to perform a reformat.
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How to format an external drive using disk utility?
Format Hd For Mac
Formatting an external hard drive or USB flash key is straightforward. Note: before you start formatting, bear in mind that all data from the drive will be erased, so ensure you have made a copy of your data. Once you have the copy, follow the guide below.
First, connect the drive to the Mac and launch Disk utility, which is under Utilities located within Applications. Find your drive in the left sidebar of the Disk Utilities window, select it, and click the Erase button.
In the pop-up window, choose a format from the drop-down menu. We recommend Mac OS Extended (Journaled). In the second line, enter your drive name or leave it unchanged.
Format External Hd For Mac And Windows
Click the Erase button to confirm the formatting process. The duration of the process depends on the size of the drive and amount of data contained on it. Control alt suprimir en mac maquina virtual. When complete, the external drive or USB flash key will be empty, fully compatible with Mac OS, and ready for work.
Hard Drive Format For Mac
If you are still experiencing problems with your external drive, look for a possible solution in this article, in which we describe the most frequent issues when using external drives.
Format External Hd For Mac And Pc
Video Showing how to format external hard drives on a Mac:
