Learn more about erasing hard disks on mac from apple. Give your settings a final lookover and click apply. Now, how can i reformat and install os x from the installer placed in the external hard drive. If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be.
How to recover data from formatted external hard drive on mac. Apfs apple file system this is the new file system that apple bought to macs with high sierra and it. Install, boot, and run mac os x from an external hard drive. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Before you can use it though, you need to properly format or reformat a hard drive so that it will become compatible or readable with the operating system that you are using. However, the new external hard drive comes as formatted drive, but, if you think the external drive should be formatted as another format filesystem. There are several different ways to format external hds using the disk utility app, check this out for future reference.
Or perhaps you are setting up an external drive for backups. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Be sure to doublecheck this you could accidentally wipe the wrong drive if you select the wrong disk here.
If you already used your external hard drive on a pc, be sure to back. How to format an external hard drive for mac duration. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. 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 filesystem is highly recommended, and necessary for time machine and to make disks bootable. I received a replacement 750gb external hard drive from western digital. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. One of the major limitations of this format is that its not able to write files larger than 4gb, which can be quite a setback. Now, i have a new macbook pro and all my data is still on that external hd. Three solutions to format a hard drive under macos 10. Read about it and found that id have to reformat it in mac os extended journaled. How to format a disk to ntfs using mac os x ask different. The command line approach to disk erasure in macos is a bit different and it requires precise syntax to insure that you are erasing the proper disk, making this. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Mac os x can only be installed on a hard drive formatted in mac os extended journaled, filesystem.
Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Fortunately disk utility, built right into macos, can help. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. This is not hard to do, and will take you only about a minutes effort. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. Here are the following most common reasons why would you like to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac under mac os extended journaled. When trying to save large files in final cut pro, the hard drive would save numerous files with none over 2gb in size. If this helped you out show some support below and keep the blog going any amount is appreciated. After realizing that you can reformat wd hard drive to fat32 or exfat to make it compatible with mac os x and still can be used under windows, it is time to check out how to reformat wd hard drive for mac and pc in windows successfully. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also. Format external hard drive for mac reformat external.
Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Where, i am seeing instruction links, for mac operating system, for as far back as mac os x 10. Because fat32 supports only up to 4 gb large files, it should be used only with flash drives. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide.
The tool used to format a drive on mac os x is the disk utility. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Select the internal hard drive and click erase to reformat this drive. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os a hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to format or partition an external hard drive on mac. I explain how to format a storage device for your mac. Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. This mode is only available on apple computers made after 2009 that were running os x lion or later.
How to reformat your toshiba portable hard drive to mac os x. In this article, i will show easy solutions to format a hard drive or external hard drive for macos 10. There are all kinds of reasons why you might want to format a storage drive for your mac from cleaning it up for a fresh install of os x to creating an encrypted drive for work. Mac os x uses the hfs plus file system, while windows uses the ntfs file system. The previous defunct hd was also fat32, which i did not realize upon receiving and using. How can i reformat the internal drive and install mountain. Steps 46 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not mac os extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system not os x has been installed on the drive. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. If your mac is from before 2009 or never had os x lion, click here to jump to the next section. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. This will format the drive as exfat format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms.
After reinstalling the operating system, this internal hard drive could be showing up again. To format external hard drive on mac, all you have to do is plugin your hard drive and launch disk utility. I have backed up all my data i dont have enough hard drive space to make a time machine backup. Then proceed to highlight your computers hard drive.
Click erase and from the format dropdown select exfat. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac. With my previous laptops pcs, ive always stored my data on an external hard drive. How to format external hard drive on a mac latest version. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Os x hard drive formats in keeping with all the hard drive formatting i have been doing lately, i thought this article on different ways you can format an external hd in os x might be useful. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. The following is based on the latest version of macos. Msdos fat is the most popular format amongst external hard disks, as its both readable and writable by nearly all operating systems, windows and os x included.
The internal hard drive cannot be recognized by disk utility. It is not as complicated to reformat an external hard drive for use with mac os x as it may look. Select exfat when formatting an external drive with windows. Some mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on mac os, a task which is typically performed through the disk utility application from the gui. I purchased an external hard drive a seagate 2 tb expansion desktop drive and was told by the mac rep in the store to perform the following simple task to reformat the disk so i could drag and drop files from my imac and store them on the external hard drive. Select the external drive, go to partition, select 1 partition from the dropdown list, name your new drive and select your preferrred format. For example, here wed type select disk 2 finally, type clean and press enter. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. Mac os x sierra open disk utility and click the drive you want to format. If you select the one below it, the partition option will be greyed out and become unclickable. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. When the driver is installed, you format your ntfs disks with disk utility where you select windows nt filesystem as.
The incompatibility of the file system is the main cause of the errorexternal hard drive read only on mac. You can find this program inside the utilities folder. Apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and. For instructions on how to format a drive in mac os 10. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size. It should only take a minute or two for the drive to be erased and reformatted. Dont bypass this, if you will use the drive with your mac only. Now, click on the top partition, name it windows, and change its format to msdos. Ntfs is a file system that is optimal for windowsbased computer.
In this post, im going to show you how to format your external drive for a maccompatible. Make sure you select the disk icon right under external. What disk utility looks like in lion through yosemite. For that, you might buy a new external hard drive and you connected with your mac computer or windows pc. Go back to finder, click on the icon for the toshiba and click get info youll see that the format listed is now mac os x youre good to go. If you have known how to format a hard drive under macos 10. Os x can default read ntfs disks, but not write to them.
If you find your external hard drive is ntfs format, thats what the cause is. Locate the disk utility in the utilities folder and launch it. There are two ways you can install os x on to your external hard disk. I have just saved necessary files and also the installer for os x 10. In order to get started and partition your external hard drive, follow the simple instructions below. Apfs apple file system is only for newer macs running macos. Where and with working to reformat my new hd, i have been directed to base support and then knowledge base answer id 3865.
You are ready to go in a few quick measures, so you can transfer your backup data to the hard disk, keep your documents safe so give you peace of mind. Most external hard drives you buy will come out of the box preformatted for a windows computer ntfs. You should create multiple partitions on your external hard drive, in order to have enhanced file organization. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Here are two ways offered and you can choose on based on your own situation. Use the exfat file system and never format your external. Apple mac machines support a different file system. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. How to format an external hard drive for use with a mac. Thus, having an external hard drive will help you to save your files.
How to format an external hard drive for mac os x youtube. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. This command erases the entire selected disk, including all its files and partitions whether. Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. Then click the second partition, name it mac, and change its format to mac os extended journaled. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you. If you have a mac you should format the drive for your mac first thing, before you start using it.
This is very easy to carry out, and only requires a few moments of your time. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. 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. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. The simplest way to install macos or os x on a new hard drive is by using internet recovery mode. Both mac os x and windows also support the fat32 file system, but we dont recommend it for hard drives. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. 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. Return to macosmac os x utilities in recovery mode and select reinstall macos.
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