Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for Mac. 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.
FonePaw - Solution - Eraser - Format A Hard Drive for MacOS
But before you can do anything, you need to make it clear that the hard drive you want to wipe or format would be an external hard drive or an internal hard drive. We can easily format external hard drive for Mac. But when it comes to format internal hard drive for mac, things are getting a little more complicated. Maybe we will go through with the way to format a startup drive for Mac later. But now in this guide, we will cover the situation of formatting an external hard drive in steps.
Notice that you need to backup your importanct files on the hard drive you are going to format as the procedure would delete all of the data and bring it back to the factory settings.
Aug 22, 2018 While it’s convenient to purchase the hard drive that will work with your computer right out of the box, most external hard drives can also be reformatted so you’re not limited to your initial choice. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on Mac and Windows. How to Format a Hard Drive For Both Windows and Mac. But other versions of Windows from Windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exFAT for use with Mac as well.
Format an external hard drive for Mac
How to Format External Hard Drive for Mac
If you are trying to format Mac external hard drive, you can go over the process step by step:
Step 1. Connect your hard drive to your Mac.
Step 2. Open Finder and choose 'Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility' to launch the app on your Mac.
Step 3. Once you open the Disk Utility app, you can see all the drives on your Mac are listed on the left-hand sidebar. Just select the one you want to format and click on the 'Erase' tab.
Format an external hard drive for Mac
Step 4. Now in this interface, you will see a 'Format' option. In this drop-down box, you are allowed to choose different format.
OS X Extended (Journaled) should be selected if you are going to use the drive as a system or 'boot' drive on macOS.
Mac OS Extended should be selected if you will be using the drive as a media or 'scratch' drive on Mac.
Mac OS (FAT) is compatible with both PC and Mac platforms. However, there's a limit to transfer files within 4GB.
ExFAT is similar with Mac OS (FAT) but it can work with files as large as 16EB (exabytes)
So if you are going to use an external drive for both your Windows PC and your Mac, you should choose the ExFAT or FAT format.
Choose format for hard drive
Step 5. Name your drive you like but it would be better to choose something specific, so that you can make things clear every time when you look at its name.
Reformatting External Drive For Mac
Step 6. Click on the 'Security Options' button and you are able to choose the way (fastest or more secure) to format your external disk. The fastest way will save your time but it erases the drive only by removing the header information. That is to say, you can easily restore the hard drive using a data recovery software if the files haven't been overwritten. It is not good and the format process is meaningless in some way. So maybe you can try the more secure one. It may take quite a long time, but it will erase the drive in a deeper way.
Step 7. Click on the 'Erase' button to start erasing the external hard drive or USB. Formatting a hard drive will take a while and wait for it patiently. Once the progress bar is at 100%, the job is done!
How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive on Mac
As it is mentioned above, after formatting a hard drive, all data on the hard drive will be erased. But what if you have second thought and need to recover files from the formatted drive? Is it possible to recover files from formatted drive on Mac? Yes, it is possible. But you'll need FonePaw Data Recovery, a Mac data recovery program that can recover deleted files from hard drive, SD card, USB drive even the drive has been formatted.
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Step 1. Run FonePaw Data Recovery on your Mac. Remember that you should not install the application on the formatted drive. Otherwise, some of the files could be overwritten by the application.
Step 2. When the application is open, select the files you want to retrieve from the formatted drive. Tick the formatted hard drive. And click Scan.
Step 3. The application will first quickly scan some easy-to-get files on the formatted hard drive. If you need more files. Click Deep Scan to find files that are buried deeper.
Step 4. View the results by file types or path. Tick the files you need and click Recover. If you have deleted files that haven't been found, do not save the recovered files on the formatted drive. Instead, save them on other drive, such as your USB drive.
If you have any problem when following the steps to format hard drive for Mac, please leave us a message on the comment box below!
You’ve got your external hard drive with your documents, photos and videos on it. You used the hard drive on your Windows PC and now you want to use it your Mac.
And why not?
It has plenty of space on it. But when you plug it into your Mac you find you can read the documents on it. You can even copy them onto the Mac. But when you try to copy a file from the Mac to the external drive it says no.
Arhhhh! You could just pull your hair out.
It’s so frustrating.
You don’t want to format the drive. Because you’ll loose all the documents and files that are on it.
And you can’t copy them off because your Windows PC hasn’t enough room to hold them. Even temporarily.
So how do you make an external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC without reformatting it.
In the post you’ll find various methods that work. You can choose the best method you think will works for you.
Whether it is a drive you can’t write to on your Mac or whether it’s the other way round. An external hard drive that when you plug it into your Windows PC it says no way.
Adium for mac. There is an answer for you.
__________
Options For Having An External Hard Drive for Mac and PC Without Formatting
1. Use a Software Solution – You get a piece of software that sits on your Mac. Or one for your Windows PC. This software acts like a translator. It interprets what is on the external hard drive so that your Mac or PC can read and write to the drive.
2. Use a Hardware Solution – An extra external hard drive. This allows you to have your documents set up so that both computers can use them without you loosing any data.
So, What is the Issue? Why Doesn’t the External Hard Drive Just Work?
Each drive, whether internal, external, a hard drive or an ultra fast SSD has a file system on it.
A file system is how your Windows PC or Mac stores and finds your documents on that drive. There are different sorts of file systems. The one your Windows PC writes on the drive by default and the one your Mac writes are different.
And there is the problem.
Unless you started out with a file system that they both can read and write you’re going to run into problems.
You’ll also see the file system referred to as the drive’s formatting.
Typically, an external hard drive that works on a Windows PC uses an NTFS file system.
And an external hard drive that works on a Mac is in HFS+ format. The faster SSD drives on a Mac may well use an APFS file system.
To check, right click on the external hard drive. Then you can check the drive’s properties if you’re not sure what file system it uses.
Before you Decide How You’re Going to Fix Your External hard drive for Mac and PC without losing Any Data
There are some questions to ask yourself before you go ahead.
1. Which computer are you planning to use the external hard drive the most on?
Because if your using your external hard drive mostly on your Windows PC. Then you just need to fix the issue on the Mac for the odd time you need to use the drive there.
Fusion for mac. If mostly on your Mac then the same thing holds true. You just need to fix the issue on the Windows PC for the short time you’ll use the external hard drive there. Kaspersky internet security for mac.
If your answer is, you will use equally on both. Then you’d be better off with your documents on your hard drive in a format both computers can read freely. I’ll go into this later.
2. How much do you want to spend on the problem?
You may get lucky and find there is a free solution. Or you may need to spend some money.
Options For Making An External Hard Drive for Mac and PC Without Formatting1. Software Solutions
What Software Solutions are good for:
Downsides
Finding a Free Software Fix
The manufacturer of your hard drive may provide a free solution.
So it is well worth checking the model of your external hard drive on the manufacturers site.
For example Seagate provides a free NTFS reader for the Mac on their support downloads page.
Check the software is compatible for the operating system you’re running. And check it’s compatible with your model of Seagate external hard drive.
You can check this on the Seagate site here.
Paid Software Solutions
The two front-runners in this space with the best reputations are:
Paragon software and Tuxera
Both companies have tools that make an external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC without formatting.
Paragon Software
The good news is that you can download the software and have a 10 day free trial. That allows you to test out the Paragon software and make sure it’s for you and your particular set up.
The Paragon Software set of tools has more options compared to Tuxera.
You can get:
Tuxera Software
Tuxera also has a free trial period that you can take advantage of before you buy. In Tuxera’s case the trial period is15 days.
Tuxera NTFS for Mac – Sits on the Mac. It allows the Mac to read and write to a Windows PC NTFS formatted external hard drive.
2. Hardware solution
What This Option is Good For:
Downside
Buy a 2nd External Hard Drive
What! I hear you say. Bear with me.
Buy a 2nd external hard drive. You can find some I suggest here.
1. Format that drive to ExFAT.
ExFAT is an efficient, fast, compatible file system. ExFAT works freely with both Macs and Windows PC. Plug an ExFAT drive into your Mac and you Mac can see all the files on it. Read and write document to the drive. And you can do the same on a Windows PC.
You can find out how to format an external hard drive to ExFAT in my document here.
2. Next. Once you have your new or loan external hard drive formatted to ExFAT. Plug both external drives into your Mac. By this I mean the NTFS drive with your documents on and the newly formatted ExFAT drive.
3. You then open two finder windows on your Mac. One finder window on the NTFS formatted drive. And the other Finder windows on the ExFAT drive.
4. And because your Mac can read the NTFS drive. You simply copy all your documents off the drive using the finder window, onto the ExFAT drive.
5. And there you go. You have all your files on a drive that is compatible with both Mac and PC. You can plug that drive into either and use it.
Yes, you had some formatting to do but it was on the new drive. And you did it without losing any data.
And What Do you Do with the Spare External Hard Drive When You’re Done?
Use your second external hard drive for backup.
A good idea as you should never only have one copy of your documents on any drive.
OR indeed in any one place.
As drives as well as cloud storage have been known to and do fail.
And that would mean you loosing all your documents, files, photos, music …
Loan a Drive
If you can, find a good friend to loan an external hard drive from. You’ll need a drive with nothing on it.
Just as if you bought the drive yourself, you follow my directions above.
Formatting External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc
You format the drive to ExFAT. Copy your files across as I explained for buying a drive.
Then you format your own drive – Don’t worry all this formatting only takes a few minutes.
Copy the files back onto your own external drive.
Return the loaned hard drive to the person you borrowed it from.
Last Words
I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC without reformatting.
Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. And which you find the easier to use.
Youtube Formatting External Hard Drive For Mac
Either way there is a solution to having an existing external hard drive for Mac and PC. And without formatting the drive.
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