You will be asked to provide the disk name and then select the file system as exfat. Then your western digital external hard drive is ready to use on your mac and on your windows pc. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Whats the difference between fat32, exfat, and ntfs. First to format your wd elements external drive to mac os extended journaled file system. Please, backup any data you are interested in keeping which is already. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. Formatting an external hard drive will remove all the data already present on it. Apr 17, 2020 there are various methods to format your external hard drive to exfat on windows 10. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. Then select the default guid partition map gpt scheme.
Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. Rightclick the new hard drive and select the format option. Buying an external hard drive is one of the best options for adding the storage space to the mac computer system. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Ntfs has quite a lot of strong advantages, which may actually make it a good format choice for certain external hard drives, depending on the circumstances. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Seagate backup plus desktop user manual optional formatting. From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way macs do the formatting on some larger drives, though, so give it a try and if your windows machines dont like it, just format the drive with windows.
Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Its the most secure, robust file system that a windows user could wish for. Video showing how to format drive for mac and windows computers. If you have a usb flash drive inserted in your mac, you can see it under the external in the disk utility. Apple mac machines support a different file system. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. You cant format the hard disk on which windows is stored while windows is running, for the same reasons that you cant work on a cars engine while you. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. This is a file system limitation that affects both mac s and pcs, and the only workaround is to format the drive. A window will pop up where you can choose the format ntfs, fat32, or exfat. Although it is possible to format a drive as exfat from disk utility on the mac, that drive will not work with windows pcs, and thats not what. Select your thumb drive in the disk utility window then click the erase tab. This means its the format of choice for system drives on windows computers.
Its a direct continuation of the original dos format used on floppy diskettes and hard. To format the primary drive the hard disk where the operating system resides you need to boot into the setup program on windows 7 or windows 10 and use it to format your drive. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Right click on start and select command prompt admin. Macyourself blog archive how to format a drive for mac and pc. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. When you have a new hard drive, or when youre reinstalling windows, the os may ask you to format the drive. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. However, you have to reformat the drive to make it functional with your mac computer. Fat32 is most compatible file system format that can be readandwrite in many. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. How to format a drive in exfat so it works on both windows.
That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Also, if your current hard drive is more than 5 years old, it probably is nearing the end of its service life and needs to be replaced. While it may sound like a weightloss product from a latenight infomercial, exfat is a hard drive format that feels like the child of ntfs and fat32.
We dont recommend you to use any paid tool for this purpose, as there are betterintegrated features with windows 10 that can help you with the process of formatting your hard drive to exfat file system. How to format a drive in exfat so it works on both windows and mac. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. Ntfs, a modern file system, is used in system drive by default due to its advanced features what benefit system running. The maximum length for the volume name is 11 characters. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Click erase and from the format dropdown select exfat. Format external hard drive for mac and pc with exfat. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. However, it is not possible to format hard drive to exfat, the only option under the window of format file system is ntfs default.
How to format your hard drive to exfat file system on windows. You will probably find that the programs for unlocking the drive require it to be formatted to ntfs, so if you need to change the formatting of the drive you will almost certainly lose that functionality. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Now your usb flash drive is formatted with ntfs format. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. It seems a hassle process if you use an external drive between mac and windows systems, as you might have to format drive to fit computer. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and.
The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Windows will choose ntfs for you because thats microsofts native filing system. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data.
Use the file system dropdown menu, and select ntfs recommended. How to format an external hard drive for windows 10. Format external hdd for mac and windows exfat youtube. You have to format the drive to exfat or fat32 if the burning process failed due to the wrong partition scheme. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. But, it is not compatible with older operating systems. 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. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to find the program. Another way to format drives is to go to windows explorer, rightclick on the drive to format and select format. In the value label field, type a descriptive name for the drive.
Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. May 25, 2012 do you need to use the drive with windows pcs as well as with your mac. Sep 12, 2019 when you format a partition or drive in windows 10, there are three types of file system you wont be unfamiliar, ntfs, fat32 and exfat. Format wd elements for mac and pc have your drive for both. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it.
How to format your hard drive to exfat file system on. Heres how to correctly format the drive to work on both. How to format usb to fat32ntfsexfat on windows and mac. Open up windows explorer and rightclick on your drive in the sidebar. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. Do you need to use the drive with windows pcs as well as with your mac. If so then format it to fat32 or exfat using a windows pc. Finally, when all preferences are set, click the erase button. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. Choose this format if the size of the disk is over 32gb. Feb 08, 2020 so, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. So now carefully read the tips guide below and format an external hard drive on mac, windows pc. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. The format dialog in windows doesnt explain the difference, so we will.
The good news is that formatting usb on mac is also as easy as on windows 10. Dec 29, 2015 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. Aug 22, 2019 just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. 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. Mar 15, 2018 rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. Sometimes, you may want to try format directly to format your external hard drive partition to exfat for mac and windows. The formatting process duration depends on size and type of the drive. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. Format external driveusb exfat in windows 10 in simple steps. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. You can use fat to format the external hard drive for pc and mac. From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way macs do the formatting on some larger drives, though, so give it a try and if your windows machines dont like it.
Rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. While you cant select an individual drive letter, this is still an easy way to format any drive into fat32, ntfs, or exfat. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. So i needed a format which is both read and write on both the systems. Exfat external hard drive opens readonly apple community. Dec 22, 2019 how to format external hard drive mac. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. Yes, but you need to make sure you format the hard drive in exfat so it is both readwrite in windows pc and. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. Whether youre formatting an internal drive, external drive, usb flash drive, or sd card, windows gives you the choice of using three different file systems. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. If you wish to format external hard drive in exfat follow the steps below. Select your drive from the list and rightclick on it.
But, you cant format that file which is larger than 4 gb in size. If given a choice, the two common modes are ntfs and fat32. The only free application that will let you do this we are aware of is hfsexplorer, which uses java and is really only suitable for the odd file transfer fat32 the most compatible option. While you have bought this drive, you will find the drive already formatted for your mac or windows system. There are various methods to format your external hard drive to exfat on windows 10. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. Open disk utility and click the drive you want to format. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. 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. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac.
From then on, that drive should work fantastically between mac. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly with macs. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. A hard disk drive will take longer to format than a flash drive. Boot camp software for running windows on a mac and the microsoft office productivity suite. Creating windows 10 bootable usb on mac is a common task for people who have multiple computers at home. The following tutorials will teach users how to format an external hard drive for both mac and pc to exfat on mac osx and windows 10.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. When you format a partition or drive in windows 10, there are three types of file system you wont be unfamiliar, ntfs, fat32 and exfat. In the file system dropdown, choose exfat instead of ntfs. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. May 29, 2018 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. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Apple file system apfs apple file system apfs, the default file system for mac computers using macos 10. You can also use exfat to format the external hard drive of yours. This is a file system limitation that affects both macs and pcs, and the only workaround is to format the drive. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label if you. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. Mac os lets me format this internal drive as exfat but windows 7 wont let me format it. External hard drive can be used under various oses such as windows and mac osx.
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