By using this format, you can easily share the content between mac and windows. Mar, 2020 however, the thing turns entirely different if you got a fat32 external storage drive, either windows os or mac os x would easily recognize it. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. I have a 4tb gpt external usb hard drive that i need to format as fat32. If you plan on using an external drive with both macs and pcs, you should format the disk with the exfat file system instead. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Now right click on the external drive and click on format option doublecheck the drive name and capacity to make sure you are going to format the right drive. However, the thing turns entirely different if you got a fat32 external storage drive, either windows os or mac os x would easily recognize it. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also. Those apps are available inside the drive in the form of a utility folder. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps.
From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way macs do the formatting on some larger drives, though, so give it a try and if your windows machines dont like it, just format the drive with windows. 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 format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Use the exfat file system and never format your external. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. Which external hard disk format fat32 or apple community. Amazons choice for fat32 external hard drive silicon power 2tb rugged portable external hard drive armor a60, shockproof usb 3. Nov 26, 2011 in this video i go over how to format an external hard drive to fat 32 on a mac. If you want to format your external hard drive, then it is worth mentioning that some of the manufacturers of external hdd have developed thirdparty apps of their own.
Now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. I have other 4tb external drives already formatted as fat32 see. So, if youve bought a usb drive thats formatted as fat32, or any. Hi all, i recently received an external hard drive for my bday and my friend loaded a ton of pictures and movies onto it for me. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
In addition, playstation console players should know that the format of an external usb drive has to be fat32, too. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Formatting with this tool is much quicker than the command. You can have a drive format to fat32 on an apple mac computer using apples disk utility, which comes with macos. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. Click on the format menu and choose either msdos fat32 or. Nov 21, 2019 check the usb label and type format fs. Windows 10 will begin formatting the usb flash drive or external hard drive into fat32. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. If you keep your hard drives outofthebox ntfs format for all the reasons fat32 displeases, theres a workaround that will allow your mac to read and write files to the drive. Format to fat32 for usb or external hard drive in windows.
How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Since the pc and mac are two different operating systems, they use different file systems. Otherwise, you can format your storage device to fat32 by using the windows command prompt program, we will. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. You can also format the drive in a variety of other formats depending on your needs. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. If given a choice, the two common modes are ntfs and fat32. This will format the drive as exfat format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms.
How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. To format western digital external hard drive fat32, you actually have a better choice. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button. Select the quick format option, and then click the start button. Format to fat32 for usb or external hard drive in windows 10. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit.
How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Yes, connecting an external hard drive or usb flash key to a mac will generally read and work fine as is because the mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a windows and mac machine, formatting it to be entirely mac compatible. However, i cant actually use the hard drive myself. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Read and write feature compatible with mac and windows os ideal for flash storage and external drives. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. I will want this drive accessible for both mac and pc.
How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on. Jul 24, 2017 in the fat32 format window, select the drive to format and type a volume label if you want to. Fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing files on disks and drives. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Sep 05, 2011 very easy way to format an external hard drive into fat32 with a mac using the disk utility. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. This will make it readable by both macs and microsoft windows computers. Just because you dont see the option to format your hard drive to fat32 in windows user interface doesnt mean the ability is gone completely. I am formatting a new 1 tb western digital hard drive. The format apple support for mac owners for time machine is mac os extended journaled. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac easily recoverit. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc.
Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. 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. Fat32 is the crossplatform format for windows and mac os x. Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. I was using my external hard drive with my mac and its formatted in the mac hfsomething like that file system. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. If you dont plan on using the drive for time machine, skip steps 5 to 11 below and continue with step 12. You can the close disk utility your drives icon will be on your desktop. You can format a fat32 usb drive on a mac using disk utility. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. How to format a flash drive with a mac to fat32 techwalla. Now here is how to format your fat32 external drive on mac.
Please guide which format of external hard disk fat32 or ntfs is compatible with my mac. In the fat32 format window, select the drive to format and type a volume label if you want to. Aug 07, 2018 format your external hard drive options. Fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing. Further read and know more complete details on formatting external hard drive for mac. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. The usb drivers come with the fat format by default. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with. Oct 25, 2018 to format western digital external hard drive fat32, you actually have a better choice.
Aomei partition assistant standard is professional and easytouse hard drive formatting software that can do you a big favor. I did a little search through these dorums and it seems like i ned to format the hard drive to fat32 in order to add things to it. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. A fat32 partition can reach up to 32gb when formatted on a windows pc. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. However, fat32 is a legacy file system designed for low capacity hard drives and it is not recommended for modern hard drives or operating systems. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. As earlier stated, you need to first back up your usb drive before formatting the drive as you may not be able to recover the contents again. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. A window pops up to warn you that all data on the drive will be lost. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Therefore, scroll down until you see a folder utilities double click on it. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac.
How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system answer id 291 a western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Cant format external drive as fat32 i just bought a brand new 4tb seagate external hdd with the notion that i would hook it up to the back of my time capsule. When you have a new hard drive, or when youre reinstalling windows, the os may ask you to format the drive. It is the fat32 format on mac and it is labeled as msdos fat. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. Dec, 2019 open disk management tool by rightclicking on start menu icon and then select disk management. Now, you can follow the steps to be highlighted below to get it successfully formatted. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. 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. In the format window, keep allocation unit size set to default. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way mac s do the formatting on some larger drives, though, so give it a try and if your windows machines dont like it, just format the drive with windows.
To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. How to format an external hard drive on windows formatting a hard drive on windows is a simple affair, especially if you leave everything as default. 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. For instance, some of the modern video doorbells you buy require your storage devices to be in the fat32 format. How to format hard drive to fat32 in windows with diskpart. Now enter the volume label as you need and change the file system for exfat and click ok. In the popup window, choose exfat or fat32 among the listed file systems here exfat is selected. Dec 11, 2019 fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing files on disks and drives.
Oct 29, 2019 this format is designed to overcome the limitation of format fat32 on mac. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. How to format external hard drive to fat32 for mac youtube. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. How to format usb drive or external hard drive on mac. Format an external hard drive to fat32 using command prompt. How to format external hard drive to fat32 in windows.
Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. As the internal storage is not much, i am thinking if buying an external hard disk. You may want to use the newer system called exfat instead, since it can store larger files than fat32, although some older machines may not support it. I would like to format that external hard drive such that the file system is either ntfs or fat32 so that i can use it on my windows partition running on boot camp. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. 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. Jul 16, 20 when you have a new hard drive, or when youre reinstalling windows, the os may ask you to format the drive. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. The format is good for handling the files between both os under 4gb size. Go finder window on you mac then click on applications the image right. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely.
In the format window, feel free to label your volume as you wish under volume label. In the main interface, locate the seagate drive, right click it and choose format partition. If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next. It allows you to format wd hard disk to fat32, exfat, ntfs, ext2, ext3, etc. Cant format external drive as fat32 apple community.
How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on windows. By default, macs use hfs, while pcs use ntfs, which are not compatible with each other. Just because you dont see the option to format your hard drive to fat32 in windows user interface doesnt mean the ability is. Ntfs3g is an opensource program that, when coupled with macfuse, will let you use your ntfs drive on your mac. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. Retrieve data from macbook, any internal or external storage media. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer.
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