How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Mar 31, 2020 if you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. 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. But if you didnt foresee that, you may have formatted your drive with apples hfs plus, which windows cant read by default. Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default. Pick the right file system for your macs internal or external storage. Well show you everything you need to know about the. So, if you have got your hands on a drive which is formatted as fat32 of any other format instead of mac os extended or apfs, then you should go through this article. Youve formatted your external drive to be compatible with mac os x, and have confirmed that the formatting process was successful. Jan 02, 2016 formatting a drive on your mac is quite easy. Format external hard disk drive for mac os and windows. The list is longer than youd think, with terms like apfs casesensitive and mac os extended journaled, encrypted to choose from.
If you wish to change to mac os extended journaled. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. Help formatting external hard drive to hf apple community. If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. Here, we are going to learn the procedure to format a usb drive and an external hard drive on mac. If the builtin disk came apfsformatted, dont change it to mac os extended.
Find your external hard drive in the list of drives. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. You can now edit, read, and write files, as you wish. 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. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the.
Or as exfat can have files transferred without driver software on your mac. How to use toshiba external hard drive on mac solved. Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. This may be apfs, or it may be mac os extended journaled depending on how the drive is currently formatted and. What is the difference between mac os extended journaled and the same format case sensitive please. Aug 27, 20 using external drives to save space on your mac. Pick the right file system for your macs internal or. A format popup window will give you the opportunity to choose one of the following. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. I always format a new drive as mac os extended journaled, immediatly and before use. While its convenient to purchase the hard drive that will work with your computer right out of the box, most external hard drives can also be reformatted so youre not limited to your initial choice. But before you can do anything, you need to make it clear that the hard.
Formatting an external hard drive will delete any information on the device, likewise reformatting your system will essentially bring your mac back to. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Next to format, it should say mac os extended journaled. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Jul 08, 2009 hi, i have the external drive formated as fat of 1tb. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac. Mac os extended journaled case sensitive apple community. Nov 27, 2012 how to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. If you work solely on a mac, but need to send files to someone working on a pc, your external hard drive needs to be set up for both operating systems. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Mac os extended journaled is the native file system your mac uses.
Cant format external drive to mac os extended journaled. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Hi, i have the external drive formated as fat of 1tb. Lets take a look at the different types of formats, and which are best for video production. The following is based on the latest version of macos.
How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. If you need to erase your disk before installing high sierra or later for the first time on that disk, choose mac os extended journaled. A casesensitive format considers capitalization, so abc. The formatting decides the way the files are stored on your hard disk. How to format or partition an external hard drive on mac. Dec 29, 2015 follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers.
Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Sep 20, 2019 so youre using disk utility to partition your new hard drive when youre presented with a choice of potential file systems. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. Mac os extended journaled uses mac formatting to protect. 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. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured. Jun 30, 2018 you will learn how to format the external hard disk which has deafult ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. When you put a new hard drive in your macor connect an external one using firewire or usbyou need to decide how. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on.
A casesensitive format considers capitalization, so abc and abc are considered to be different names. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. Feb 03, 2020 are you formatting the disk that came built into your mac. In case you forgot to backup files before formatting the external drive. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. Mac os x can only be installed on a hard drive formatted in mac os extended journaled, filesystem. You should know that only a toshiba drive formatted as mac os extended journaled.
Either way there is a solution to having an existing external hard drive for mac and pc. Oct 29, 2019 even if you try to format fat32 drive on mac, you might end up causing more issues. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. Jan 23, 2020 i hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Mac can read all the file system formats including windows msdos, fat, fat32.
Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. When done, quit disk utility to return to the utilities window. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. The application disk utility libraryutilitesdisk utility. 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. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or flash. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support.
You can format an external drive in os x using disk utility and terminal. You will learn how to format the external hard disk which has deafult ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. For instructions on how to format a drive in mac os 10. Mac os extended journaled is the normal recomended way to format your drives, internal and external. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Formatting a hard drive will permanently erase all of the data on it. How to format usb drive or external hard drive on mac. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. How to recover data from formatted external hard drive on mac. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. If you want to format a drive that already contains data, be sure to back up the data to another drive beforehand.
If youve got a mechanical hard drive, and you intend to use it only with macs, its probably best to stick with mac os extended. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x.
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