Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other. Quit disk utility and continue with a reinstall of os x mountain lion. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. Format usb or external hard drive for mac using mac disk utility format usb or external hard drive for mac on windows pc using thirdparty usb format tool.
Mac secret trick how to clone mac hard drive with disk. Why cant i see my external hard drive icon on my desktop. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Open disk utility applicationsutilitiesdisk utilities 2. If you only need to format a hard drive securely, free partition manager easeus partition master free can be your best choice.
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. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. If you want to recycle a ssd, formatting is the best way to remove all history data from the ssd. Well show you everything you need to know about the. The reasons for wanting to format your mac storage drive may vary depending on immediate need. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. But both of them cant format the hard drive which the mac os is installed on because the mac system doesnt allow other software to destroy the system.
You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. Heres our guide recovering data from a damaged hard disk, including how to recover data from an external drive, what are the best drive recovery sevices and the best data recovey software, and. But before you can do anything, you need to make it clear that the hard. 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. Lets take a look at the different types of formats, and which are best for video production. Select the seagate drive on the left that shows the capacity. The tool can be used for recovering data from various brands of formatted external hard drive in a matter of minutes. Format the external hard drive using disk utility or other thirdparty disk formatting tools. But, the formatted data by disk utility can be recovered by data recovery software. Top 5 best data recovery software for mac april 2020.
There are various reasons why you might need to format external hard drives. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. You can run easytouse mac disk formatting software to. Besides formatting, you can enjoy more advanced features such as shrinking, extending, merging hard drive partition, clone hard drive, etc. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through.
My hard drive crashed on my imac took it to computer repair they installed new hard drive, tried to recover data but could not, when we presented the imac to the apple store they told me i would have to buy back my old hd from them um hello no way, so thats why we went to another place that works on macs, so apple said i had lion on the mac, i. Then proceed to highlight your computers hard drive. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. Remove write protection from read only mac external hard drive either by editing preference file or using fuse package. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Formatting a hard disk drive hdd in an external hard drive enclosure is done the same way like an internal drive. Paragon disk wiper for mac allows 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.
Mac free seagate external hard drive recovery software is fast, safe and recovers all files lost from seagate external hard drive due to various reasons, such as such as virus attack, power surge. Because mac os x mountain lion does not natively support writing to an external ntfs drive, you must erase your hard disk and format it. Understand some hard drives arent compatible with lion. What disk utility looks like in lion through yosemite.
How can i erase my computer without a mountain lion install disc. Youll use os xs disk utility app to format the drive. Best 4 free hard drive format tool download easeus. Paragon disk wiper 15 for mac os x free paragon software. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution.
The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. All external usb disks can be formatted to work on mac osx, but not always straight out of the box. Some people may want to format a storage because they want to clean hard drive mac and others might want to install fresh os x. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. Feb 08, 2020 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. Other logical errors occur to the external hard drive, and later it becomes inaccessible. In addition will also need to turn on the power switch if you are using an external drive. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Dec 29, 2015 follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. Shut down your mac, then unplug all nonessential devices from your mac. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Mac hard drives, external hard drives, flash memory devices like memory cards, sd cards, xd cards, thumb drives and many others. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Mac free external hard drive recovery is the leading mac data recovery software specially designed for external hard drive to recover files lost due to deletion, format, raw, virus attack, system.
By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk utility. How to remove read only on mac external hard drive without formatting updated on april 4, 2020. To use hfsexplorer, connect your mac formatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. If nothing works, use remo mac data recovery software and recover data from it before reformatting the drive. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac.
Methods to recover read only external hard drive on mac. Everyone these days has an external media like a flash drive or an external hard drive which they use to expand their storage space, or transfer files and folder between two computers or to keep some personal or confidential documents separate from the computer. Before we recycle, lend, sell or abandon a usb flash drive, we should remove all the personal data on the usb flash drive. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drive device under mac os. Power on the computer while holding down the option key. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc.
Because mac os x mountain lion does not natively support writing to an external ntfs drive, you must erase your hard disk and format it using a compatible file system. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Mac free seagate external hard drive recovery for mac free. Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc.
This holds true for both internal and external hard drives. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep. A new external hard drive or a usb flash drive that. To format an external storage device, connect it to one of the ports on your mac. Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as difficult as it might seem.
The two most popular operating systems, windows and mac os both have formatting utilities builtin, which makes formatting external drives even more convenient. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. Using an external hard drive on mac without formatting. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. Simply connect the external drive via thunderbolt, usb, firewire or esata to your computer, turn on the power and then use the native disk utility of the operating system or a 3rd party program. It interprets what is on the external hard drive so that your mac or pc can read and write to the drive. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected directly to your mac using a cable that you know is good. Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. If this is so, can someone recommend an external that is. 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.
Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How can i reformat the internal drive and install mountain lion from. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Open the disk utility and select the external drive. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. You can erase the drive and reinstall os x using the recovery system.
Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. May 01, 2020 shut down your mac, then unplug all nonessential devices from your mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. How do i reformat my hard drive in os x mountain lion. While mac os x can read hard drives formatted as ntfs, write access is. Mac free external hard drive recovery free software, apps. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Mac only drives are just marketing bs although sometimes hard drive companies ship unnecessary software with their drives which may be os specific. Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support us. If you purchase an external hard drive as an addition to expand the storage space of your computer, most likely you would need to format it.
A solid state drive is primarily used on mac machine. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. To use my old external hard drive without formatting it, on my new mac. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. External hard drives are handy tools in storing files, data and documents.
How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. Remo recover mac provides easy steps to restore data from the external hard drive that is formatted accidentally or intentionally. 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. 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. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. Click on the given link in order to perform mac mini data recovery operation. That being said windows and mac are on different file systems so you will need your drive to be in fat32 or else use a software like paragon ntfs if you want to share between windows and macs.
This wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drives format on windows and mac computers. The two hard drive formatting software for mac can help you securely format hard drive or device under mac os. Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. 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. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. How to recover data from external hard drive on mac with easeus data recovery wizard. A progress bar will show how the formatting of your drive is going and how long, roughly, it will take to complete. Simply connect the external drive via thunderbolt, usb, firewire or esata to your computer, turn on the power and then use the native disk. How to format hard drive for mac compatibly in os x disk utility. Options for having an external hard drive for mac and pc without formatting. Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive.
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. In disk utility, of os x utilities, select the partition in the lefthand. Today, we will talk about how to format or reformat ssd on mac. Do i really need a macspecific external hard drive. One of them is that you might purchase a new usb flash drive which is preformatted for windows os and you will be unable to use it on your mac. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive.
Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Seagate backup plus hub is available in two models, windows and mac. Formatting hard drives and external hard drives is usually a fairly straightforward process. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. It supports to format hard drive in computers without any technical skill. This free data recovery software can recover data from mac notebooks, desktops, hard drives, usb drives, sd cards, memory cards, digital cameras, etc. Oct 22, 2018 formatting a hard disk drive hdd in an external hard drive enclosure is done the same way like an internal drive. After booting your mac with the bootable media you will be able to use wipe wizard to irreversibly remove your confidential data. I bought a toshiba stor e 2tb external hard drive which comes factory formatted for windows pcs only and tried to format it for mac using the same instructions as found in this forum for os 10. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. The g drives mobile works with my macbook pro with lion as os, but im concerned about the imac. The first step to formatting your drive for mac and pc format is to connect both the data and power cable to a mac. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Learning how to format an external drive on mac is necessary for numerous reasons. You can run easytouse mac disk formatting software to easily format internal ssd or external ssd under mac os.
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