You should go ahead and format your storage drive with exfat. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os. Want to use one external drive for both your windows pc and your mac. For now, the only reason to format a drive with apfs is to experiment with it. One hurdle youll face is that, by default, these platforms use different. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then you have to have the external drive formatted in. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple support. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. When you connect a mac formatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x.
How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. When you plug a drive thats been formatted for mac into a windows pc, you may find that it isnt readable. Simple and easy to use, macdrive is recognized as the leader for accessing mac disks from windows for almost 20 years. How to use mac formatted external hard drive on windows. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. Macos extended if you primarily use mac with a secondary exfat partition, or ntfs if you mainly use windows. Apfs vs mac os extended which mac disk format is best. Macs and pcs use different file systems, which can make it tricky to put data from your mac on a flash or hard drive and give it to a windows. 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.
In this case, you can partition your drive so that part of it works properly with macos and part of it works properly with windows, avoiding the. Apple system disk for mac free download and software. If this isnt a systemapplication drive and its just a drive for content like documents and media, you can format the external drive as exfat to have native readwrite support from both windows and os x with no third party software needed. Apple is targeting a final release in 2017, and your mac s system driveand the drives inside iphones, ipads, apple tvs, and apple watchesshould automatically convert to apfs at that point. While check in the app, you can find the photos, videos, music and folders from your phone or usb disk. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. So how we can format ann sd card correctly on man and windows.
Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. If you wish to boot the drive on a pc or use it with older versions of windows. It seems they formatted the drive to the mac format, but i have no way to access the data, at least i think. How can i format this drive in windows 7 home premium. Hi, im stuck trying to get my apple formatted drive to be read on my pc laptop. Windows has absolutely no support for the mac hard disk file format. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. Sep 26, 2018 need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. But if you try to use an external hard drive thats been formatted for mac os, youll find that it will not work on your pc. Ntfs for nonmac bootable, but any mac os readonly without third party software larger hard drives you can use with any version of.
Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. This version allows you to fully test the application engine, the disk access routines and the graphical interface under windows. On the web i have seen several warnings that if one formats an external hd for exfat using disk utility, it will still not work on windows. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. But luckily, there are file systems well supported by both mac and windows pc, and they are fat32 it might be called msdos on mac and exfat. In disk utility on your mac, format disks or volumes using apple file system. Some drives are even sold as mac formatted drives this just means they come with the. Therefore, its perfect for a usb flash drive or external disk, especially when you need to save files more than 4gb in size. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows.
File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. Refer to detailed steps of using both tools for fat32 format. Jun 16, 2019 this format was created for microsoft and allows users to quickly plug their drives into windows machines and work with files. You can run easytouse mac disk formatting software to easily format internal ssd or external ssd under mac os. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system.
In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Right click on the partition and select delete volume this will remove the partition. External hard disk not detecting in windo apple community. Today, we will talk about how to format or reformat ssd on mac. How to convert an external hard drive from apple to pc small. If you want a hd that truly works on both platforms windows and os x you need to format it to exfat from within windows. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line. One simple way to make the drive readable on both platforms is to format it to exfat, which both operating systems can understand. Macos extended if you primarily use mac with a secondary exfat partition, or ntfs if you mainly use windows 10 with a secondary. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format.
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. Y disk can support different files in different format, like pictures in gif, videos in mkv, audio in m4a, word, ppt ect. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi.
How to view mac files on a windows pc online tech tips. It is freeware software available easily on the internet and can be used to read mac files on windows interface. Downloading center solutions for macpc data and file. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. 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. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. 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. Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. Macs may also create a protected efi partition on these drives that you cant delete with the usual disk partitioning tools. Formatting for exfat using disk utility apple community. However, you can format the drive to work with both windows and mac by. Granted, os x cant write to a windows formatted disk, but at least it can read the contents of the drive and you can copy the data to your mac computer. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows.
How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. You can format external hard drive or other external drives with exfat or fat32 file system for mac and windows, so that both mac and windows computer can read and write it. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. How to read a macformatted drive on a windows pc safe. Oct 28, 2019 so how we can format ann sd card correctly on man and windows. May 19, 2017 how to format and install windows 10 on apple mac book pro from bootable disk or usb. So if you are able to see your hard disk when connected to mac computer and if you do not have any important data in the external hard disk then go to disk utility and format the external hard disk in msdos fat and then try to connect to your windows laptop and see if it detects. Macyourself blog archive how to format a drive for mac and pc. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. All options, including format, is greyed out except to delete volume. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different format. After recovering the files from your drive with one of the tools above, you can then format the drive and convert it to a standard fat32 partition that will work with most devices. Just carry on reading to learn the methods in real.
How to format and install windows 10 on apple mac book pro. Macdisk is an utility for reading, writing and formatting apple macintosh magnetic media on an ibm compatible pc, without any hardware modification of the computer and without any addon. 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 internet. Before digging in, select a primary format youll use the most. How to format a drive, or disc for maximu apple community. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Choose view show all devices from the menu bar in disk utility. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. Disk utility is a useful application inside your mac system. Under the volume scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Macdisk is a 32bit application and runs under all recent versions of windows vista and 78 included, even 64 bits. Mar 31, 2020 before digging in, select a primary format youll use the most. I had information from a broken mac backed up at best buy, but because my mac broke, now i only have a windows computer.
Feb 21, 2020 for apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. Then select disk utility from the utilities window and click continue. Using exfat on macos and windows while you can only use an apple file system like apfs and mac os extended for your main system drive, another file system is also worth considering for external drivesexfat. Dec 05, 2019 rightclick on windows icon, select disk management. Read mac formatted drives with windows the tech guy. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows.
I understand that you are facing issues with windows 10. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. Ive just got a new hard drive but my mac wont accept it as boot drive unless its formatted in a macos readable format its simply not readable by the volatile system which is whats run if no os is found. The latter requires to you to use a command line interface, while the former uses a graphical user interface. Plug your hd into the mac and open disk utility, which can be accessed by searching for it in spotlight. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. Rightclick on windows icon, select disk management. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. 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.
The new apple file system is currently experimental. How to format a drive with the apfs file system on macos. Mar 03, 2020 as you can see, exfat is the only file system that works with all versions of windows and macos and does not have any max filesize or partitionsize limits. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. Fat32 for nonmac bootable, but any mac os readwritable 4 gb and under drives you can use with any version of windows to boot windows. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Downloading center solutions for macpc data and file transfer.
If you are not comfortable with the previous method. As ntfs is proprietary, apple would need a special license to use it. Accessing mac formatted external hd from windows pc. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Mar 15, 2018 when you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. When you get a new hard drive, it may already be formatted for windows or mac. Im using model 15au123cl hp laptop intel core i5 7th gen and wd external drive wd3200h1q00. Otherwise, you can only use data recovery software to recover data from a.
Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. Select your external hard drive or usb flash drive from the. Even though os x can read windows formatted hard drives just fine, the opposite is still not true, even with windows 10. All os x boot drives must be formatted in apple s disk utility as minimal 1 partition. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. However note that there is a 4gb file limit with fat32 and use the mac to format as an xp pc can only format a 32gb partition though it can read bigger fat32 partitions. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Here in this article we would use certain third party tools to read the mac formatted drive on windows.
Or format the mac drive for windows if you have a mac drive lying around and you no longer have a mac, youre not stuck with the mac file system forever. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. After du loads select your hard drive this is the entry with the mfgr. In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Click the format popup menu, then choose one of the following.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Macs may also create a protected efi partition on these drives that you cant delete with the usual diskpartitioning tools. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. Connect the hdd to a mac and format the drive as fat32 and then connect the same mac hdd to windows and convert it to ntfs.
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