Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt. But to get a hard drive to be compatible with both mac and pc, you have. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Reformatting external hard drive without apple community. Windows 2000 might let you as well, but i am not sure. To help maintain and resolve performance issues, reformatting the hard drive every year is advisable. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac.
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. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. How to wipe a hard drive permanently erase everything. Jan 23, 2020 i hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. Should i just wait until i get the new laptop and attempt to reformat the drive on it. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Need to reformat wd hard drive for mac if you connect your wd hard drive without reformatting, youll be unable to copy files to the disk as mac read only supports ntfs file system. Thanks for watching and supporting brennans tech bite. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. Macs may also create a protected efi partition on these drives that you cant delete with the usual diskpartitioning tools. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on mac. Open the disk utility app on your mac using one of the following methods, depending on the type of disk or volume you want to erase. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier.
How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. If youve just inserted a new hard drive, it should be listed. Youll want to do it before you sell your machine, for sure, but its also one of the steps you take when you. How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc youtube. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers operating system, as well as fix any nonphysical errors on the drive itself. You may need to reformat it to work with both computers. How to properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. How to convert an external hard drive from apple to pc. May 25, 2017 with a modicum of care, it should never be necessary to reinstall windows any version. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. How to format a hard drive in windows 10 make tech easier. Follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. In the value label field, type a descriptive name for the drive.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Format hard drive on windows 10 if you have windows 10, you can format hard drive from bios via the command prompt. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. How to install and run windows on an external usb drive. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac duration. Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. However, windows xp does not let you format a drive into fat32 unless you partition the drive into 32gb or smaller pieces. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. How to reformat hard drive you can think of reformatting your drive as a way to reset it by putting a new file system into the drive to supplant the old one. But to get a hard drive to be compatible with both mac and pc, you have to. Deleting everything does not wipe a hard drive and formatting does not usually wipe a hard drive. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. To get a clearer picture of things, go to the disk management utility in windows.
Formatting a hard drive is the best way to start from scratch on a geeky project. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Please note that reformatting the drive will erase all the information on the drive. A hard drive can be used on any type of computer pc or mac. Here youll see all the hard drives internal and external connected to your pc. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. Apr 29, 2020 follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. Reformatting your laptop involves completely erasing the hard drive and it is the surest and most effective way to clean your computer. First of all, as i said before, reformating will erase all your data that stored on the hard drive permanently. Now either because of time, corruption or because it may have been formatted for a mac when i plug it into my pc i cant access it. 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. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo software.
How to convert mac hard drive to windows without losing data. Understanding hard drive partitioning with disk management. But if you try to use an external hard drive thats been formatted for mac os. Reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling windows 10. 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 its a protected partition.
To wipe a hard drive means to completely erase the drive of all its information. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdos. Use the exfat file system and never format your external. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Keep clicking next to progress through, you can also choose a name for the drive under the volume label. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot.
It can also mean putting the same file system in the drive to fix it if its faulty. Mar 15, 2018 to use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac. Reformatting is a destructive process, so if you want the drive in a different format such as mac os extended you will need to copy the files off to another location temporarily and then bring them back once the drive is reformatted. Click erase button, the external hard drive will be formatted. So the first step you must do is move all of your important data to your pc mac, or to cloud storage service. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. Seagate backup plus desktop user manual optional formatting. Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows wd community. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives. Erase the mac partitions, including the efi system partition.
In this article, we will learn how to format the hard disk in. Rightclick the hard drive and choose wipe hard drive. You may have to get a program such as partitionmagic to format the whole drive into fat32 if you want partitions greater than 32gb or use win98. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. If you want to reformat the entire disk, including the volume with installed windows os, you need a recovery disk or installation disk of windows xp, windows vista or windows 7. 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. Then, click erase at the bottom to format the drive. How to clone your boot drive to ssd without having to reinstall windows or. To use hfsexplorer, connect your mac formatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. First of all go on the start menu and do the search for the control panel and choose the latest result from the search. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. However, you can format the drive to work with both windows and mac by using the exfat filesystem. Hard drives advertised as being compatible with windows and mac os may have misled.
How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Ok, maybe i need to be a little bit clearer reformatting a drive will wipe out everything, however if you just want to change the file system from fat to ntfs you do not have to reformat the drive you can do this by converting the file system and this means you can leave the files in place afterwards, assuming the convert runs cleanly, you should be able to access them just as before. The manufacturer either provides the owner with a copy of the operating system os or they create a restoration partition on the hard drive. Yes, its recommended to format the drive on a windows computer. There would be any number of similar utilities on the net i would have thought try googling it maybe. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for windows and mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use for time machine. Formatted external hard drive without backup and want to recover the data. Reformatting a drive in windows vista is usually a pretty simple process, which might lull you into the misconception that reformatting a drive in windows vista is no big deal. Dec 29, 2015 windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. A computers hard drive experiences malfunctions over time, which are caused by multiple factors like viruses, or sketchy or incompatible software, or the computers old age. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. When the wizard is finished you will now have a new drive available in windows explorer for the old ps4 hard drive. Or you can choose wipe hard drive to completely delete the hard drive. Jun 12, 2006 reformatting hdd when i bought my lacie drive it came with its own format utility for mac and pc formats.
But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. The procedure to reformat a laptop is rather simple in todays world. The two most popular operating systems, windows and mac os both have formatting utilities builtin, which makes formatting external drives even more convenient. How to format the hard disk drive in windows 7 computer. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows.
Nov 26, 2017 connect the ps4 hard drive to the computer e. Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. Mar 29, 2019 reformatting your laptop involves completely erasing the hard drive and it is the surest and most effective way to clean your computer. Well show you everything you need to know about the. So the first step you must do is move all of your important data to your pcmac, or to cloud storage service. Dec 24, 2010 reformatting a hard drive on windows machines let us see how to format a hard drive on windows machines. Mar 11, 2020 to wipe a hard drive means to completely erase the drive of all its information. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. There are specific thirdparty systems, like digital camcorders, and sony playstation 3, which need the drives to be formatted in either fat32 or exfat format to perform read from and. Reformatting an external hard drive dell community. Reformatting a hard drive on windows machines let us see how to format a hard drive on windows machines. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. 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 part 3.
Reformatting a drive means taking the drive back to a blank piece of hardware. What disk utility looks like in lion through yosemite. I attached a macformatted lacie 320gb ruggedized drive to the pc and opened computer management to reformat the drive as ntfs. Please see the link below for instructions on how to format the drive on a windows computer. But dont forget to back up your important data in the drive into a safe place. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. To do this, you have to create an installation media either a bootable cd or usb flash drive with the windows 10 media creation tool. Rightclick the new hard drive and select the format option. Since the mac can read the old drive, an external drive formatted mac os extended could be attached as well.
How to format a hard drive so it can be read on both a mac and pc. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Formatting hard drives and external hard drives is usually a fairly straightforward process. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. Format your western digital my passport external hard drive to fat32 or exfat format so to transfer the data between a mac and windows system conveniently.
To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. Press the win key, type disk management and select create and format hard disk partitions. However, you can format the drive to work with both windows and mac by. A hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac. 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. Then proceed to highlight your computers hard drive. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Either way there is a solution to having an existing external hard drive for mac and pc. This is the easiest way and simply requires you to plug in your usb drive, open the windows file explorer and right click your drive to view a number of actions that you can perform. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Reformatting your drive will get rid of your files, of course, but it also gets rid of any errors.
Jan 17, 2019 rightclick the new hard drive and select the format option. Youll need to take an extra step to wipe the hard drive so the data cannot be easily reconstructed later. Oct 18, 2019 this wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drive s format on windows and mac computers. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device. There is the best method to reformat hard drive on windows 10 by using the windows builtin disk management tool. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support.
Jul 16, 2016 how to format an external hard drive on windows and mac duration. In disk utility on mac, you can erase and reformat storage devices to use with your mac. Before you can use it though, you need to properly format or reformat a hard drive so that it will become compatible or readable with the operating system that you are using. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. 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. Hard drive reformatting procedure for mac and windows. Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. How to format ps4 hard drive for pc in windows 1087. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or.
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