Mar 16, 2020 choose between the format apfs or mac os extended format carefully. You can disable core storage to solve this problem. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. In this article, we will introduce easytouse tools to help mac users to format mac hard drive partition or mac volume. Open and edit your mac files from the new window or access them direct from windows explorer or your favorite software. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. In the volume format list, select mac os extended journaled. Macdrive 10 features an allnew disk management window that displays any mac disk mounted to your pc and gives you quick access to all of macdrives features. In disk utility on your mac, format a disk that can be used with both windows computers and mac computers. Macdrive 10 features an allnew disk management window that displays any mac disk mounted to your pc and gives you quick access to. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. If you dont know how to format an ehd then please click format, erase, or reformat a drive.
Run it on your mac, choose this mode wipe hard drive. Macdrive is recognized as the leader for accessing mac disks from windows for almost 20 years. Best format for external drive readable in os x and windows. All options, including format, is greyed out except to delete volume. Erase or format your mac s drives using disk utility. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. Enter the amount of space you want to set aside for time machine. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. A good way to make your drive work for both windows and mac is by assigning a partition to one another. If you want to retain windows compatibility with the flash drive, you might need to format it on a windows pc using the ntfs windows nt file system format. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the drive click cancel. For reasons that are a bit hard to fathom, that s not an option in disk utility on the mac. Starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10.
To access the disk management tool, click the windows icon and type disk management. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. If you move a hard drive between the two operating systems, here s what you need to know. In most cases the default settings should be selected.
When done, quit disk utility to return to the utilities window. Lacie setup assistant helps you to quickly format the storage device according to your needs. Fat32 and exfat can be compatible with mac and windows and you can choose one after realizing their respective merits and defects based on your demands. I had information from a broken mac backed up at best buy, but because my mac broke, now i only have a windows computer. If you want to format hard partition or system volume on mac, you are at the right place. How to format a disk or drive in windows 10 format is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solidstate drive, or usb flash drive for initial use to accept windows files. But if you didnt foresee that, you may have formatted your drive with apples hfs plus, which windows cant read by default. To create a partition or volume the two terms are often used interchangeably on a hard disk, you must be logged in as an administrator, and there must be either unallocated disk space or free space within an extended. How to wipe a hard drive in windows 10 and macos techradar. Partitioning a hard drive, especially with windows 10, is essential. The item cant be copied because it is too large for the volume s. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Most preformatted drives are set up for windows pcs.
Sep 26, 2018 need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. The other limitation is the total size of the partition. Find out how to format an external drive or usb disk making the drive work with both windows pc and mac can read and write. Nov 01, 2011 format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows. There are 3 solutions for this case, so please choose the one you like most to format external hard drive windows. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. Once the drive is formatted it will be compatible to be read and written to on both a mac and pc, and the resulting fat file system is compatible with all versions of mac os x, windows 95, 98, windows xp, vista, 7, windows 8, even windows 10, it s one of the most widely recognized. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs.
However, it is not possible to format hard drive to exfat, the only option under the window of format file system is ntfs default. Or it might be that you bought a drive to use with your mac only to discovered it is preformatted for windows. 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. When you connect a new drive to your mac, you may need to format it. For example, all disk icons that you see on a macs desktop are volumes. It seems they formatted the drive to the mac format, but i have no way to access the data, at least i think. Formatting a device using disk management in windows 8. Also, when you plug in your usb flash drive, it will be treated as a volume. Of course, there is free partition manager that can help create a fat32 volume up to 2tb, which also functions correctly.
You could convert the drive to fat32 or exfat that both mac and windows can read. Right click on the partition and select delete volume this will remove the partition. Select the volume in the finder, then choose file get info from the menu bar. Quickly see macformatted disks mounted to your computer. If you want osx and windows access, and you want large files as well exfat should be the choice for you. Click ok step 8 create your volume label, select your file system, and ensure perform quick format is checked. Right click on the drive or partition you want to format, and select format. It s very easy to share it between mac and pc and you also need a windows computer, a mac machine, and the free partition manager minitool partition wizard free edition. It s useful when installing windows 10 on a used drive. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Lacie mobile drive user manual optional formatting and. The file system column on the storage sidebar displays the current file format. File too big error copying to usb flash drive on my mac.
You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. Its recommended to use this format whenever you need to use an external drive with os x only. Cant see the hard drive in windows 10 if the hard drive is improperly installed, or subjected to faulty initialization and format, the hard drive will not show up. How can i format this drive in windows 7 home premium. This is a detailed tutorial on how to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, and windows xp. Continue below to format an external hard drive or learn more about disk management. Select the partition you want to format and click on wipe now button. How to format an external drive in os x make tech easier.
Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Fat32 limits file sizes to 4gb and device sizes to 2tb or 16 tb for 4 kb sectors. Apr 14, 2020 why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Mar 15, 2018 if you know youre going to use a drive on both mac and windows, you should use the exfat file system, which is compatible with both. In this guide, we show you virtually every method to format a usb flash drive and quickly erase its contents or fix data corruption and other issues using windows 10 s builtin tools. 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 it s a protected partition. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Select the mac drive from the list of drives make sure this is the drive you want to work on, if you do it for the windows formatted drive in the list, it may cost you a lot of important data. After all, it is also through partitioning a hard drive that one can organize the files better. Feb 08, 2020 so, you just bought a new external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. Then you need to reformat the drive to mac os extended journaled. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. It is currently formatted to be used with both a pc and os x however you are running into it s limitation in that format.
If youre going to be using the drive for mac devices, you can keep it in the default setting of mac os extended journaled. If you want to make your drive compatible with mac and windows, you need to format it with a common file system for mac and windows. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. See our article how to partition a hard drive in windows for instructions. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. 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. Aug 16, 2019 in this guide, we show you virtually every method to format a usb flash drive and quickly erase its contents or fix data corruption and other issues using windows 10 s builtin tools. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. 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. However, if you want to think about the portability of your drive then you may want to format it differently.
Apple core storage is a logical volume format introduced by apple that. Sometimes, you may want to try format directly to format your external hard drive partition to exfat for mac and windows. Here is a tutorial help you read mac drive on windows. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Ive ordered a usb to sata cable to format the drive from another mac, but can i format the drive, as os x extended journaled, in windows. Step 6 right click the removable disk and select format step 7 the following warning will appear. Since windows isnt equipped to understand any of apple s file systems, it will try to convert them to a usable file system. For instance, users want to write data to and read data from, to do a clean installation of the windows system, to get rid of a virus or malware, to erase the data before giving the drive to someone else or throwing it away, or some other reasons. How to format an external hard drive on windows 10 sweetwater. It is advised not to change the builtin apfs format into mac os extended under any situation.
Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. Your internal macintosh drive is also formatted in this format. So what is the best format so that all can readwrite to it normally. Lacie porsche design mobile drive user manual optional. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. The ntfs file system is another option to use for windows formatted drives and volumes, but it has limited compatibility with mac os by default. Jul 15, 2009 format a drive for mac os x and windows. Here s how to split your mac hard drive into multiple partitions or volumes so that you can run more than one os on your mac, or divide up your mac so different users can have their own space. External hard drive does not appear external hard drives may also not be included in the list, especially when the drive becomes corrupted or damaged. Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, here s a stepbystep guide. Nov 12, 2016 this is a typical partitioning format that is supported by practically all computers windows, linux and mac os. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it.
However, before format your mac hard drive partition or volume, please back up your data to icloud or a secondary hard disk drive. Choose this format if the size of the disk is over 32 gb. Create and format a hard disk partition windows help. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows 10 backups.
So for the users who uses windows 10, we will show you how to partition a hard drive in windows 10. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows central. Fat32 limits file sizes to 4gb and device sizes to 8tb. May 29, 2018 if you want to make your drive compatible with mac and windows, you need to format it with a common file system for mac and windows. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. The file system column on the right shows the format of each volume. Jun 06, 2019 one of the main characteristics of a storage volume is that it can contain multiple partitions. This also allows you to restore time machine backups on windows.
Lacie mobile drive is preformatted exfat for compatibility with both mac and windows computers. Here s how to wipe the data off a hard drive, ssd, or external drive in windows 10 and macos. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. To find out the current format of the drive, you can look into the system information. 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. Macdrive 10 features an allnew disk management window that displays any. From floppies to hard drives, macdrive can handle almost any disk you toss at it. Once partitioned, return to this page for help formatting the drive. Jan 02, 2016 note that exfat is only compatible with versions of windows later than vista. You can use lacie setup assistant to format your lacie hard drive when it is first connected to a computer windows or mac.
And in the event that your mac disks is having a problem, our robust repair feature can fix basic disk issues. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. I had it formatted for mac os journaled but it wasnt readable in xp or windows. Unpartitioning merges the partition back into the original drive. How to use mac formatted external hard drive on windows.
Some hard drives may also include drivers, firmware, or format wizards so be sure to check the user manual before formatting the hard drive. Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default. If you know youre going to use a drive on both mac and windows, you should use the exfat file system, which is compatible with both. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows.
If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows youtube. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. The drive is most likely formatted as fat32 system. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag.
Formatieren einer festplatte fur windowscomputer apple support. Mac users upgrading to the catalina need to convert their drives to apfs first. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows. 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. Windows cant normally read mac formatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. Another format, called fat32 is compatible with both os platforms. Step 9 once format is complete you can access the drive in windows. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. The get info window shows the format of that volume.
The title really should be how to partition and format a drive. This tool will quickly format the selected mac hard drive partition and permanently erase all data information on the hard drive partition. But before you click the format disk button and erase all the contents of the mac formatted drive, consider the alternatives. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. How to access a mac drive from a windows or linux system.
If you are planning to sell your computer, it is a good idea to unpartition your hard drive in order to restore it to the factory default. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. External data storage devices such as usb flash drives, external hard disk drives hdds, and solid state drives ssds provide one of the easiest ways to transfer files between separate computers without accessing the. A volume has a file system and a name along with its size. The maximum length for the volume name is 11 characters. Aborted lacie setup assistant while it was formatting. How to partition a hard drive in windows open disk management, the tool included in all versions of windows that lets you partition drives, among a number of other things. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows. If you format your fat32 drive in windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32gb. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac in disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. Macdrive also includes powerful features that enable you to create and partition mac disks direct from your pc. This mac disk formatting software is pretty simple to use.
A stepbystep guide on how to partition a hard drive on. Beim formatieren einer festplatte oder eines volumes werden. How to manage disks and volumes with os xs disk utility the. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Yet when you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. You can select to use a fat, fat32, exfat, ntfs, or refs file system when formatting. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. This is a typical partitioning format that is supported by practically all computers windows, linux and mac os. This partition is marked as protected, so you cant just rightclick and. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Jan 17, 2019 starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10.
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