How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. Are you about to install macos high sierra or later on the disk. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Copying the files from your mac to an external drive allows you to save data on your own terms. Jan 23, 2020 i hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. I always format a new drive as mac os extended journaled, immediatly and before use. Apart from the fact that one has journaling and the other does not, how does it affect the drive s performance with numbers. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. Formatting your toshiba hard drive for mac is important, as it makes the hard drive best suitable for the mac by formatting it with the osspecific file system and drivers.
If the builtin disk came apfsformatted, dont change it to mac os extended. Mac os x can only be installed on a hard drive formatted in mac os extended journaled, filesystem. Its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. A caution about formatting storage drives afps macrumors. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc.
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 share an external hard drive between macintosh and. Im about to format an external hard disk drive hdd. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and. Solved formatting external drive for mac and pc spiceworks. A case sensitive format considers capitalization, so abc and abc are considered to be different names. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers.
I cant edit external hard drives on macs your business. When you put a new hard drive in your macor connect an external one using firewire or usbyou need to decide how. In case you forgot to backup files before formatting the external drive. How to erase and format an external hard drive on mac and.
This will work in all modern versions of apple mac osx including 10. Make external harddrive compatible with mac and windows computer, how to format using disk utility on mac. Either way there is a solution to having an existing external hard drive for mac and pc. But if you didnt foresee that, you may have formatted your drive with apples hfs plus, which windows cant read by default. 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. 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. I realise that but i dont understand what relevance that is to formatting a hard drive. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube.
A casesensitive format considers capitalization, so abc and abc are considered to be different names. A caution about formatting storage drives afps macrumors forums. Then in install assistant, select the option to restore files from a. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. Feb 03, 2020 are you formatting the disk that came built into your mac. Well show you everything you need to know about the. The case of the case sensitive formatted drive and adobe creative cloud. Time machine and an external hard drive and formated the drive to mac os extended journaled.
Ive just got a new hard drive but my mac wont accept it as boot drive unless its formatted in a macos. The list is longer than youd think, with terms like apfs casesensitive and mac os extended journaled, encrypted to choose from. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all.
In a format which isnt case sensitive, theyre considered to be the same. Feb 20, 2019 some of the wd hard drives are ntfs formatted you can read the files, but not write to it. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. All external usb disks can be formatted to work on mac osx, but not always straight out of the box. The formatting decides the way the files are stored on your hard disk. Format usb or external hard drive for mac using thirdparty usb format tool on a windows 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. Pick the right file system for your macs internal or external storage. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through all connections, be they usb, firewire, or thunderbolt. Mac os extended journaled case sensitive apple community. Your backup plus desktop is formatted as ntfs for compatibility with windows out of the box. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. If you have important data on your external drive, be sure to transfer them to a different location as this operation will erase all the files on your drive. This allows you to copy the entire hard drive of the case sensitive hdd onto the other mac, if space allows.
There are several options which we will look at to help you choose the correct format for you and show you how to ready the disk for use step 1. What is the difference between mac os extended journaled and the same format case sensitive please. Thus, when you are planning to use the same hard drive on any other os, particularly macos, it is always suggested to format your hard drive for mac. The case of the casesensitive formatted drive and adobe. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk. You can use your toshiba canvio drive as a destination for your time machine backups but you can only use drives formatted as mac os extended journaled file system for a time machine backup. If you wish to change to mac os extended journaled. We purchased a pile of 500gb external drives that need to be formatted for both mac and pc, cross platformed if you will. Either way, youll want to format your drive accordingly. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or flash.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. 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. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. If such is the case, you can find the details about how to erase and reformat them in the included instruction files about the mac and pc that are included in the drive. This wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drives format on windows and mac computers. When done, quit disk utility to return to the utilities window. How to use toshiba external hard drive on mac solved. However, ntfs is not fully compatible with mac computers. However, i can only read because the format of the hard drive is ntfs, therefore, i have to reformat my hard drive. 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. Apr 23, 2014 its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. Using disk utility, i have the following options for reformatting. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. Follow onscreen prompts to choose mac os extended journaled file system and allow the disk to format.
File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. Since most external hard drives are formatted for pcs, before the backup of your mac begins you need to format the hard drive for macos. My manager the mac guy is out today and i need to get one of these formatted. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Some of the wd hard drives are ntfs formatted you can read the files, but not write to it. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without.
Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Sep 20, 2019 so youre using disk utility to partition your new hard drive when youre presented with a choice of potential file systems. While this tutorial will cover the procedure for formatting your system drive, the same applies to formatting a new external drive if you bought one for storage purposes. Connect the external drive to the mac via usb or thunderbolt port. The case of the casesensitive formatted drive and adobe creative cloud. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Formatting your toshiba hard drive for mac is important, as it makes the hard drive best suitable for the mac by formatting it. Mac os extended journaled is the normal recomended way to format your drives, internal and external.
Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. If you need a simpler format tool to format usb or external. Convert casesensitive formatted hard disk without reformatting. How to format an external hard drive to work with mac. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured.
How to erase and format an external hard drives on windows. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Mac os extended journaled case sensitive more less. 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. Apart from the fact that one has journaling and the other does not, how does it affect the drives performance with numbers.
Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Now, your external hard drive is formatted and is as good as new. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format a new external drive for use with an apple mac. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. 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. Here comes the cure imyfone anyrecover a onestop solution to recover deleted, lost or. Formatting an external drive for use with an apple mac before you can use a new or old drive with a mac you will need to format it. You can format a drive in os x using two applications. This may be apfs, or it may be mac os extended journaled depending on how the drive is currently formatted and.
Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. How to format an external drive for mac all things how. Launch disk utility open applications utilities, which is found through finder, then open the disk utility. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. Formatting an external drive on your mac is quite easy, though it isnt as evident and obvious as it is on a pc. Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default. How to recover data from formatted external hard drive on mac. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. And we usually perform formatting in our usb or external hard drive when we want to get rid of viruses, or we want to clean the disk as it was when we purchased it. I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it.
Select the second option manage from the rightclick menu. Aug 27, 20 using external drives to save space on your mac. Dec 29, 2015 follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. So youre using disk utility to partition your new hard drive when youre presented with a choice of potential file systems. Using your toshiba external hard drive to backup to. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. 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. To put in simple words, if you want to share the external hard drive between macintosh and windows pc, you need to format an external hard drive for the respective system. Mac os extended journaled mac os extended casesensitive, journaled msdos fat.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Pick the right file system for your macs internal or. Then, after making sure your files are ok, go back to the case sensitive mac and format the drive. Also when we buy a new usb or hard drive, it often comes with windows compatible not the mac so formatting it. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Formatting the hard drive is the only way to properly and completely remove all private data from your mac.
In other words, if i reformatted, say, my external hdd as case sensitive what difference in functionality would i notice if anything. In this tutorial we look at formatting disks via the gui app called disk utility and its equivalent command line tool diskutil. Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Just install it, and mac drives will show up like any other drive. Are you formatting the disk that came built into your mac. Therfore, you can connect backup plus desktop to a windows pc without formatting the hard drive. To expand the storage capacity of your mac, you can connect one or more external drives, including solidstate or traditional movingplatter mechanisms as well as flashmemorybased thumb drives. Im using a late 2011 macbook pro 15 and i want to use my 1 tb western digital elements external hard drive to back up my data. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat.
Mar 23, 2017 formatting an external drive for use with an apple mac before you can use a new or old drive with a mac you will need to format it. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Lets take a look at the different types of formats, and which are best for video production.
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