- Format External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Windows 10
- Format External Hard Drive For Mac And Windows Version
- Internal Hard Drive For Mac
Having an external hard drive is advantageous as you can store tons of data on it. Moreover, it is small, light weight and not attached to your computer. This makes it quite handy and allows you to transfer your data from one computer to another easily.
As you connect your external drive to different computers, it might get infected if the host computer is not secured. And in worst case scenarios, chances are the drive would no longer be recognized by your system.
Well, worry not, we have solution for you. Whenever an external storage device gets infected, it is highly recommended to format the device to make it operable.
Part 1: How to Format an External Hard Drive on Windows The Windows users who are going to format external hard drive for the first time, they will get complete information and stepwise procedure of formatting drives. Stepwise Procedure to Format Storage Device on Windows: Before formatting an external hard drive on Windows, back up all the. How to share an external hard drive between Mac and Windows Get the best of both worlds by sharing your data on MacOS and Windows By Tyler Lacoma August 16, 2019 6:30AM PST. How to format a drive for Mac and PC compatibility Posted by Ant on March 11th, 2012 43 Comments If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive that you’d like to use on both Macs and Windows PCs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both Mac and Windows by using the ExFAT file system. You can select the ExFAT format when using the Disk Utility to format the drive. The ExFAT format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated FAT32 format. The best ways to format an external drive for Windows and Mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with Windows and Mac. And, no: the answer isn't always FAT32.
In this post, let’s talk about how to erase and format external hard drives on Mac and Windows.
Erase and Format External Hard Drive on Mac
Step 1: Open your Mac and connect your external hard drive with it.
Step 2: Type Disk utility in the spotlight search or click ‘Go’ from the top toolbar and select ‘Disk Utility’.
Note: There is another way to open ‘Disk Utility’, Go to Finder icon > choose Application > Click on utilities > Disk Utility.
Step 3: Choose the external hard drive from the left-hand side which you would like to format.
Step 4: Select ‘Erase’ tab.
Step 5: Select ‘Mac OS Extended (Journaled)’ beside ‘Volume Format’.
Step 6: Enter a name for the external hard drive in the Name field.
Step 7: Once you hit ‘Erase’ button it will prompt you “Are you sure you want to erase the disk’, So, click Erase to Proceed.
Now, your external hard drive is formatted and is as good as new.
Also Read: Best Free Batch Image Resizer for Mac 2017
Format External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Windows 10
How to Erase and Format an External Hard Drives on Windows
Step 1: Go to ‘Start’.
Step 2: Right-Click on Computer.
Step 3: Select the second option ‘Manage’ from the right-click menu.
Step 4: On management window, choose ‘Disk Management’ from the storage.
Step 5: Now, select the drive which you would like to erase and format.
Step 6: Right-click on the drive and select ‘Format’.
Step 7: Choose the ‘File System’, (you can select ExFAT or FAT32).
Also Read: How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files in Windows 10
Note: Make Sure, you do not “Perform a quick format” as it doesn’t erase the entire data on drive.
Step 8: Hit ‘OK’. Your machine will prompt you to confirm. After confirmation, your drive will start formatting.
Note: Be patient while formatting your drive, as it might take a bit longer depending upon the size.
Formatting your external hard drive will erase all data available on the drive. In case if you’re formatting a drive that you have used before, don’t forget to copy important files you might require in future.
Format External Hard Drive For Mac And Windows Version
You may wish to use an external FireWire or USB hard drive to store your Aperture Library, referenced images, or Vaults. Here are some suggestions on preparing the external hard drive for best performance with Aperture. Many external hard drives come pre-formatted as FAT 32. This is a native Windows file format that can be read by Mac OS X, but is not ideal for use with Aperture.
Before you begin to use your new external hard drive with Aperture, reformat it to the Mac OS Extended file system:
Internal Hard Drive For Mac
- Be sure your drive is attached and mounted.
- If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next step.
- In the Finder, choose Go > Utilities. The /Applications/Utilities folder will open.
- Launch Disk Utility.
- Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left.
- Click the Erase tab along the top of the window.
- From the Volume Format menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
- Enter a name for the external hard drive in the Name field.
- Click the Erase button.