Time machine ran onto external hard drive i put a new drive into mac mini. It is the best way to ensure full mac compatibility of a new external hard drive or flash disk. Usually this is reserved for more advanced users, as a clean install means the hard drive is formatted and completely erased, removing the existing mac operating system, and erasing all contents, data, files, applications everything from the mac is completely removed. Why wont my macbook recognise my new internal hard drive. And apfs takes the advantages of strong encryption, space sharing, disk snapshots and is compatible with ssd on new mac. 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. If your answer is yes, you just come the right place.
How to format a startup drive for a mac if you want to format a drive that will be used as your macs startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary. Then after installing it in the mac the os x installer recognized the drive and prompted me to format it using the erase feature in disc utility. To learn how to format in mac your hard drive, follow these steps. It could be an internal drive but most likely it is an external hard drive that has firewire 400, firewire 800, usb 2 or esata ports on the back for connectivity to your mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the. Here, easeus partition software is available for free download to help. The usb drivers come with the fat format by default. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. This is the best format to pick if you have an external ssd or usb flash drive that you dont intend to use with a windows device.
You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Download hard drive format software for mac and use it to format hard drive on mac. How to format a hdd on mac with super eraser for mac. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux. Formatting your macbook pro involves reinstalling os x, and can be useful when your computer runs slow or malfunctions due to the installation of adware or faulty software, you accidentally installed an. High sierra wont format new drives macrumors forums. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting.
How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. Nowadays, all new macs come with the operating system preinstalled on apfs, as this system is optimized for use with ssd and flash storage drives. When prompted, select the mac os extended journaled format. But, how to format a localexternal hard drive under mac os. To format external drive to file system compatible with mac and pc, connect the drive to your computer and follow the detailed steps given below take formatting hard drive to exfat in windows 7 for example. Want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. The way i solved this was i connected the hdd to another system i used a pc and formatted it from within the os does not matter what file system you use. If your mac is using apfs, select apfs from the format list.
How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. If you are planning to sell your old mac to help pay for a new one, youre going to want to clear it of your personal data first. Actually, most external hard disks could be compatible with mac and pc as long as you format them correctly. Once it is done, you can do hard disk format for mac and pc to enjoy the following advantages. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Format hdd on mac with doyourdata super eraser for mac. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a. Easeus partition software is a popular disk partition management tool which is available for all hard disk. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. 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.
However, it still works with traditional hdd drives too. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. Give the partition a name and select exfat for the format. This is a detailed tutorial on how to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, and windows xp. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows.
To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between mac and pc, you need to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. In security options, move the slider to select how many times you want the system to erase over the data. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. Starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra tuesday, november 28th, 2017 author. There are many reasons why a mac user need to format a hdd on mac.
Dont worry, there is a safe solution to format hdd on mac and permanently wipe all data on the hdd. How to format a new or second hard drive on mac mac is obviously a very much different operating system from windows, let alone their features and steps to format a hard drive. Owc ben m recently, some owc customers have reported experiencing a situation where their new ssd will not show up in disk utility in high sierra. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you.
How to format a startup drive for a mac if you want to format a drive that will be used as your mac s startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. 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. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. The msdos fat32 or exfat volume formats are compatible with windows computers. Make sure to select the parent hard disk in the sidebar. So, you just bought a new external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. Being able to create a bootable usb flash drive and start from the disk, this program is a popular bootable partition tool that can help you format hard drive without windows installation cd. You can select the exfat format when using the disk. Use the security options to format a previously used hard drive. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on a mac. Select the new untitled partition so we can format it as exfat for use with both mac and 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.
During the formatting process, the system erases and writes over old data, preventing old information from being accessed through. You cannot format the whole hard drivedoing so would erase your operating systembut you can format a portion of the hard drive after c. How to format new or second hard drive on windows 10mac. Ok you have the drive installed, now using the grey dvd boot up your mini. For example, when you purchase a new hdd and want to sell your old hdd, you have to format and wipe the old hdd so that. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Fat32 is the crossplatform format for windows and mac os x. You have just purchased a brand new hard drive for your mac. The format is good for handling the files between both os under 4gb size. The status bar says unmounting disk it barber poles for a minute or so then give an. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. It will help you get rid of any sensitive data from your hard drive, so that the other user cant access it. See troubleshooting for more information on which format to select. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need.
It is recommended to choose the compatible format that the system lists. Erase or format your macs drives using disk utility. This wikihow teaches you how to format your computers builtin hard drive. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. Therefore, it is necessary to present a tutorial guide here to format or partition a hard drive within mac os. The mac os x extended volume format is optimal for macs.
Rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra. Bootable usb hard disk format tool free download easeus. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. For mac, the mac os extension is the file system included in mac os 10. If you want to insure full mac compatibility of a new external hard drive or flash disk, youll want to format the drive to the mac os extended filesystem. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. The format apple support for mac owners for time machine is mac os extended journaled. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. Once the disk is formatted, it will make it empty and let you store new content on it. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. February 1, 2010 formatting a hard drive for the mac by ken stone. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years.
Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Some mac users like to perform a clean install when a new operating system is released.
Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Release the keys when the apple logo or a spinning globe appears. Although disk utility should always be tried first, a macs terminal can be used to format the drive in these cases. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. This drive will only be used for audio and i was told to format the drive in mac os extended with journaling disabled and a single partition. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.