Windows uses nfts file format while mac drives use hfs, this means macs cant write to ntfs drives while windows cant read or write hfs. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Read this stepwise tutorial and learn how to format hdd for mac and windows like a pro. However, fat32 has a maximum 4gb file size limit whereas exfat can work with files as large as 16eb. If youre going to be using the drive with a version of windows prior to windows vista, youre going to want to go with mbr. If you move a hard drive between the two operating systems, heres what you need to know. This will prompt a new window asking you to select a partition style for your disk. How to format a hdd from ntfs to apple os x file system quora.
Though the default hard disk file system also known as format of windows and mac are different, there should be some ways to format an external drive for both mac and pc. How to format a mac hdd to win ntfs using win 10 microsoft. Jul 19, 2019 how to format hdd on mac ideally, hard drives can either be of two types hdd hard disk drives or sdd solid state drives. Rightclick on it and select the format option from the context menu. Disk utility in macos high sierra or later can erase most disks and volumes for mac using either the newer apfs apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. Similarly, macs can use different file formats that are not recognized by windows, although some formats are universal, like. Sep 26, 2018 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. Plug your hd into the mac and open disk utility, which can be accessed by searching for it in spotlight. This mac propriety file system and is used in ios and mac. Fat32 works for both oses, but has a 4gb size limit per file, so it. A complete solution do you wish to format hard drive for mac and pc, but cant find a solution. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to find the program.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Read mac formatted drives with windows the tech guy. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a. Note that using a drive frequently between windows and mac could increase the. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. 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. Dec 02, 2019 usb drives and external hard drives use the windows fat32 to format for compatibility. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. However, i only have spare macbooks pro hdd internal and same type as the one that crashed in a pc.
A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux. You will find that os x is very stable in comparison, it defragments its hard drive on an ongoing basis and it does not get bogged down with additional software in the way that a windows machine does. You would be surprised how much better windows is at reading a variety of file systems. I would also try plugging it into a windows machine and see if you can read it or copy it to somewhere. Your old external windows pc drive will work great on the mac. You can use this and still share fat32 volumes with a pc, but if youll primarily be using the drive with windows, and. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Ntfs is the default file system for windows operating system and hfs for mac operating system. This also allows you to restore time machine backups on windows. Windows cant normally read macformatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead.
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. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. Plug the disk into a windows vista sp1 or windows 7 computer. When you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. Mar 15, 2018 windows cant normally read macformatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. Accessing mac formatted drive on pc external drives for pc. Just a car has its own system and a bus has its own system. This will erase all contents on the disk, however, so youll need to. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux.
Oct 25, 2016 usb devices,that are formatted in mac format. Windows uses nt file system ntfs and mac os x uses os x. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. It is compatible with various devices like dvd player, game console etc. Since mac also supports hdd, you can easily take its assistance to format a. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer.
I understand that you are facing issues with windows 10. I will leave windows instructions below for the benefit of windows users. Can a windows computer read a macformatted hard drive. If you have a mac drive lying around and you no longer have a mac, youre not stuck with the mac file system forever. Most external hard drives hd are sold in a format called ntfs, which is designed to work with windows.
The best news is that most devices included mac computers can read and write from fat32 devices. Mar 31, 2020 how to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. In this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. This is a default file system for linux os including raspberry pi. There are a number of tools that can help you in this regard. File systems compatible with windows include fat32 and ntfs why not. There may be occasions, however, when you want to reformat your mac s hard drive. About how to format external hard drives for both macs and windows pcs, and what is the best format for using usb external drives on mac. Meanwhile, the ntfs system used by windows 10 supports large files, but this format cant be read natively by macos. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac.
Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. How to view mac files on a windows pc online tech tips. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it.
Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc youtube. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. 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 fact, there are four ways you can format an external or usb flash drive to achieve varying degrees of compatibility. Jul 15, 2009 format a drive for mac os x and windows. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. If the hard drive you want to format is connected to your pc, it should be there.
If you want to use the usb devices in windows you have to know how to do it. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Even though os x can read windows formatted hard drives just fine, the opposite is still not true, even with windows 10. Although you can find thirdparty software to get mac hard drives to work with ntfs, and windows to work with hfs, these cost money, and you may have to deal with bugs or request for permission to install. Fat32 and exfat can be compatible with mac and windows and you can choose one after realizing their respective merits and defects based on your demands. Cant erase and format my hdd is disk utility in the mac. In addition, a backup program designed for the mac is generally not able to restore to a windows pc. Jan 27, 2019 mac instructions above will now work for exfat. Cant access mac hard drive on windows 10 microsoft. 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. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. If youre looking to dualboot with linux or run windows boot camp, you can format the partition as msdos fat, however, these programs.
Converting the files on your drive is possible, but it certainly wont be easy. Aug 30, 2017 if this doesnt work, dont format and blow it away just yet. Oct 11, 2017 4 ways to read a mac formatted drive in windows. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have. However, you can format the drive to work with both. If you run into the issue of not having enough space format it to be the ex fat as. If you format your external hard drive to hfs, you can use it on mac and linux by removing journaling. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Aug 22, 2019 how to format hard drive on mac and pc.
How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. Windows has absolutely no support for the mac hard disk file format. How to format a hdd from ntfs to apple os x file system. To learn how to format in mac your hard drive, follow these steps. May 21, 2018 in this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc.
Jan 24, 2016 each operating system has their own file system. This partition is marked as protected, so you cant just rightclick and delete it the delete option will be disabled. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Since mac os x and windows use totally different file systems, the way a drive is formatted can determine what type of computer it will work with. Cant access mac hard drive on windows 10 microsoft community.
If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Oct 29, 2019 to format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. With the advancement in time, most of the systems use hdd these days. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Apple has built os x yosemite and some previous os x releases with the ability to read from those disks just fine. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Since mac also supports hdd, you can easily take its assistance to format a hard drive as well.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Accessing mac formatted drive on pc external drives for. New apple devices will be formatted with apfs while old mac drives can use the hfs file system. For this reason, a macformatted hard drive is not directly compatible, nor readable by a windows computer. This file system is specifically for mac systems and windows cant read this file system. You can format a hard drive or usb flash disk specifically so that it will be compatible with both mac os x and windows pc computers. Even though its a 1tb wd blue fully formatted from windows.
Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. 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. Similarly each operating system works on different file system and it is unique. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Try it on another machine not running high sierra but something earlier. After click erase and choose the format as mac os journaled or whatever the whole name is i click the erase button and then it unmounts the drive, reformats it and stays unmounted.
If this is the case for you, rightclick the drive you want to format and click initialize disk. Meanwhile, the ntfs system used by windows 10 supports large files, but this. Although it is possible to format a drive as exfat from disk utility on. One simple way to make the drive readable on both platforms is to format it to exfat, which both operating systems can understand. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. Keep in mind that you can only format storage devices that are currently.
How to format hdd on mac ideally, hard drives can either be of two types hdd hard disk drives or sdd solid state drives. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly. However, windows by default cant read these file systems. For a windows computer to be able to read a hard drive, it needs to have a file system format that is compatible with windows. By default, mac os x will use the guid partition table to format the drive. The mac drive you are trying to read on windows may not be broken. 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.
How to convert mac hard drive to windows without losing. Use the exfat file system and never format your external. If you want to make your drive compatible with mac and windows, you need to format it with a common file system for mac and windows. How to convert mac hard drive to windows without losing data. May 29, 2018 if you want to make your drive compatible with mac and windows, you need to format it with a common file system for mac and windows. 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. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc. When you plug a drive thats been formatted for mac into a windows pc, you may find that it isnt readable. However, to use it on windows you can hfs explorer read only. To format a hard drive for windows, open the file explorer and click on this pc. Out of the box, windows can not read or write hfs drives, and macs are. Feb 03, 2020 disk utility in macos high sierra or later can erase most disks and volumes for mac using either the newer apfs apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. If this doesnt work, dont format and blow it away just yet.