The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. No permissions problems and accessible by mac, linux, and older versions of windows. Your advice on formatting the external hard drive is rather insightful. Now, you can follow the steps to be highlighted below to get it successfully formatted. If youre using a mac, you dont need special software to format a usb drive in the fat32 format. On the formatting window, select quick format option, choose file system format, and click start. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac easily recoverit. Choose fat32 and full format, enter a name for it and format the drive. So if you are formatting a drive that has already been used, be sure to copy any files you will ever want to see again onto a computer or backup drive. 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. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Formatting with this tool is much quicker than the command. How to format hard drive to fat32 file system up to 2tb.
If youve ever tried to format an external hard drive larger than 32gb to fat32 in. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. I have a 4tb gpt external usb hard drive that i need to format as fat32. In the format partition section, select the file system. The format is good for handling the files between both os under 4gb size.
Name the formatted disk and choose either exfat or msdosfat32 from the. If given a choice, the two common modes are ntfs and fat32. In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the. Therefore, before you format macpc drive, make sure that you have taken a backup of your important data. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. Fat32 is the crossplatform format for windows and mac os x. It lets you create, delete, and clone partitions in addition to formatting hard drives to chosen formats. Optimization is another good reason for hard drive formatting. How to format external hard drive to fat32 in windows. Please remember that all data will be deleted from the drive, so make sure you have made a backup. H is the drive letter of your external hard drive in windows 10. If it is not ticked, you will lose all of your data. We here will show you the full guides on how to format fat32 and ntfs drives on mac as an example.
People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. 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. In the main interface, locate the seagate drive, right click it and choose format partition. Format an exfat external hard drive to fat32 with easeus easeus partition master free is more than just a disk formatting tool. Also you can enter a name for the drive under volume label. If you want to use your usb drives or hard drive on both the mac and windows pc, then formatting the.
In the fat32 format window, select the drive to format and type a volume label if you want to. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. However, when we connect a ntfs formatted disk to mac, mac os x. How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links.
System prompts formatting removes all data and asks confirmation for the action. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. This will format the drive as exfat format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms. Formatting large hard drive in fat32 is no longer a problem by using the features of format volume and convert to fat32 partition in macrorit partition expert, the former format feature could assist you to reach the format the large drive in fat32 without size limit this feature will erase all data that stored in the target drive, so the. It will erase all the data stored in it, making it empty in one go. Refer to detailed steps of using both tools for fat32 format. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system. You can also format the drive in a variety of other formats depending on your needs. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. There are several reasons to format a hard drive to fat32 in windows 10. Next, drag the usb data to a safe location for backuprecovery measures before. Fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps.
Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Please like, sub, share if you find this video helpful. 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. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. Fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing files on disks and drives. We here will show you the full guides on how to format fat32 and ntfs drives on.
As the internal storage is not much, i am thinking if buying an external hard disk. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. Locate your external drive from the list of devices and drives. Whether youre selling your computer, trying a new operating system, or setting up an external drive for backups, sometimes you need to completely erase and format a. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Select the quick format option, and then click the start button. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b.
If you plan on formatting an external hard drive then make sure its plugged in an appears on your desktop. The format apple support for mac owners for time machine is mac os extended journaled. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. However, single files on a fat32 drive cant be larger than 4gb. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities.
You can use apples builtin disk utility before you format the drive, make sure theres nothing valuable on it thats not also backed up elsewhere, since all data will be lost. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and 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. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. How to free create fat32 partition on external hard drive now you regain the ability to use xbox one external hard drive in windows pc and you can save files to that external hard drive. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Developed by microsoft, this modern file system is optimized for situations where the ntfs file system is not a feasible solution, and the file size limit of the standard fat32 file system is unacceptable. How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux. You can have a drive format to fat32 on an apple mac computer using apples disk utility, which comes with macos. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. How to format an external hard drive for xbox one minitool.
How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also. No matter whats your reason to format your hard drive to fat32, youve landed in the right place. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. 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. Rightclick on the icon for your external drive on mac desktop, then select get info. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Cant format external drive as fat32 apple community. After youre done, dont forget to remove the external hard. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac.
How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. In the popup window, choose exfat or fat32 among the listed file systems here exfat is selected. Both mac os x and windows also support the fat32 file system, but we dont. 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. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. You can format a fat32 usb drive on a mac using disk utility. When you have a new hard drive, or when youre reinstalling windows, the os may ask you to format the drive. 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. Which external hard disk format fat32 or apple community. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use.
The fat32 file system can be used on most operating systems including win98se, winme, win2000, winxp, windows vista, windows 7, mac os 9, mac os x and linux systems but the. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. A window pops up to warn you that all data on the drive will be lost. Windows 10 will go ahead and begin formatting the drive in fat32. Looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. You might already know the consequences of formatting a hard drive. Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. For instance, you want to make your drive faster when writing large files to it or make the drive works with nonwindows operating systems. Formatting an external hard drive or internal hard drive partition. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. I would like to format my external hard drive so that i can edit in on my macbook pro.
Many people think it is hard to format the windows drive on macintosh. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. The usb drivers come with the fat format by default. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. Please guide which format of external hard disk fat32 or ntfs is compatible with my mac. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. I have other 4tb external drives already formatted as. So if you want your external hard drive to be backward compatible with both oss then you need to reformat it with fat32 or exfat. A fat32 partition can reach up to 32gb when formatted on a windows pc.
By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Format external hard drive in fat32 using professional format tool. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. No worry, actually it is not impossible to realize it no matter you use an external or internal drive of your windows system. Now you are sure not to be formatting a wrong disk this way. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Now select the whole unallocated space and choose new simple volume. Backup your files before performing these steps this lee sapara with a 30 second short video on formatting a usb drive to.