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. For successful hard drive recovery on your mac, it has to be able to spin up and respond. You may want to get rid of all this junk data and reuse your hard drive. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. Top 5 usb drive formatting software for mac doyourdata. This start menu for mac allows mac users to format hard drive or external device on mac. Formatting a hard drive is the best way to start from scratch on a geeky project. I know mac operating system doesnt fully supports ntfs formatted drive. Please note that once the hard drive is formatted by aweeraser for mac, all the data on the hard drive will be permanently erased, cant be recovered by data recovery software or. Using windows builtin hard drive format tool disk management to format hard drive is a great choice for users who dont want to install thirdparty software.
Just connect the cloned hard drive to another computer, and select to boot up from this cloned drive and youre good to go. Most users dont have a habit of classifying data, files on their hard drives. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the. Dec 08, 2016 in this video i show you how to reinstall mac os x on your apple computer. As a mac fan, you know the significance of data backups. Need to format portable hard drive for mac and pc if you have a portable hard drive with ntfs file system, you can use it in windows computer easily. Here are top 5 usb flash drive formatting software tools for mac to help in formatting, reformatting, erasing usb flash drive under os x or macos. Disk drill is the free top data recovery app for mac os x. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool.
Here are two hard drive format software applications to help you format, reformat or erase hard drive. I hope you enjoyed my article on how to make an external hard drive compatible with mac and pc without reformatting. It can easily format hard drives, storage devices and permanently erase all the data on the targeted media. Download the best free hard drive format tool and format hard drive. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. Apr 16, 2020 data recovery on mac hard drive can be tricky. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Then yes you need to put the wd elements drive in a format your mac can read and write to. A cloned hard drive copy allows you to work on your files and apps without waiting.
There are also dozens of online backup services to choose from if you prefer not to carry a physical drive around. What disk utility looks like in lion through yosemite. Just run this builtin application on your mac, and use it to. A hard drive can be used on any type of computer pc or mac. Quickly determine the condition of the drive in your. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. Return the loaned hard drive to the person you borrowed it from. Format mac drive partition formatting external hard drive for os x. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. This hard disk formatting software can help you formatwipe your entire hard drive in a single step. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. 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.
If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Once in the folder, youll see an application named disk utility, doubleclick on it to launch the program. 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. Be sure to doublecheck this you could accidentally wipe the wrong drive if you select the wrong disk here. Format hard disk software free download format hard disk. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac. May 01, 2020 how to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. As a result, many of you may have valuable data saved in the hard drive which you tend to format. For this guide i used a friends macbook pro that they had accidentally formatted the entire hard drive on, erasing all of their information but also the operating system. Aug, 2018 need to format portable hard drive for mac and pc if you have a portable hard drive with ntfs file system, you can use it in windows computer easily. Launch it from launchpad, disk manager can help you format usb flash drive on mac. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard drive under mac os.
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. Instead of reinstall the operating system, the better choice is to format mac hard drive. Automatically back up all your important files from your computer to your storage device. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Select your macs hard drive in the lefthand column, to reveal more options, then select the partition button. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Tips on formatting mac hard drive there is a builtin tool named disk utility in mac which allows you to perform the format process by hitting on the erase tab when specifying the disk or the volume. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. Free8 best diskusb format tool for hard drive usb tested.
Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. The formatted data also can be recovered by data recovery software. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Top 10 hard drive repair software for windows and mac. Open windows file explorer, locate and rightclick on the target hard drive which you need to format, select format. This command erases the entire selected disk, including all its files and partitions whether. Rename the hard drive, reset its file system to ntfs or other formats.
Download hard drive format software for mac and use it to format hard drive on mac. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. A hard drive format refers to how the operating system stores the data on the drive. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. Browse and download the latest software, apps, utilities, plugins, and firmware content. How to install os x after formatting your hard drive. Apr 21, 2020 i have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. Disk utility is a smart hard drive format tool built in mac system. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard.
Formatting hard drives and external hard drives is usually a fairly straightforward process. Apr 14, 2020 why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. This method should work on all apple computers and with all recent versions of mac os. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page.
It provides functions that you can use to manage and repair your hard drives. Then proceed to highlight your computers hard drive. With an easytouse interface, this software is also able to help delete or initialize a drive or partition smoothly. The good news is, disk drill takes a complicated task and makes it simple. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Utilize windows builtin hard drive format tool disk management. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
If you want to use your wd elements drive without any special software on your mac. There are three common filesystems that are used today. Run aweeraser for mac choose erase hard drive select hard drive click on erase button format the selected hard drive. When you need to recover files from a mac hard drive either internal or external, disk drill can help you get your data back quickly.
Mar 12, 2018 want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. Free download disk formatting software for mac to easily format mac hard drive, format external hard drive, usb, memory card under mac os. For example, here wed type select disk 2 finally, type clean and press enter. Time machine, apples builtin backup software, makes it easy to save multiple copies of your mac data to an external hard drive or airport time capsule. Moreover, it recovers all files that lost due to some human makes like unknowingly format tedre format ted hdd, while resizing the hard drive, malware or virus infection, bad sectors on hard disk, using third party. In the partition layout dropdown menu, select 1 partition. But if you connect it to a macbook, you will find that the operating system cannot recognize it. Select the hard drive and click erase, then disk utility will help you format and erase the hard drive or device. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows.
Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Find the hard drive you want to format, and highlight it. Here, easeus partition software is the toprecommended free bootable usb hard drive format utility that can help format any hard drive storage for normal use. Bootable usb hard disk format tool free download easeus. Yet when you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. Apr 16, 2020 here, easeus partition software is the toprecommended free bootable usb hard drive format utility that can help format any hard drive storage for normal use. With a simple click, it reads the damaged directory and finds all recoverable files and folders and rebuilds a new errorfree, optimized directory for you to u. To conclude now, you have known how to recover formatted mac hard drive and why you need to format a hard drive.
If you only want to format the usb flash drive on mac, disk utility is the best choice. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. Os x, windows, and linux all use different hard drive formatting for normal system operations. Easeus partition software is a popular disk partition management tool which is available for all hard disk related jobs such as format disk partition. Want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. In the partition information box, enter an appropriate name for. How to unformat mac hard drive formatted mac hard drive. 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. With highly interactive graphical user interfaces, this mac formatting software is very useful for all mac users, who face difficulty in formatting volumes with disk. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp.
If you dont see this option, try typing create and format hard disk partitions into start. And yes if you want to use your wd elements drive for a time machine backup. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os. Being able to create a bootable usb flash drive and start from the disk, easeus partition master has become a popular bootable partition tool that can help you format hard drive even when. Usb flash drive formatting software for mac can help us format, reformat or erase usb flash drive on mac. Super eraser for mac is a very powerful tool to permanently erase data from mac hard drive or storage media. Diskwarrior is one of the highest rated hard drive repair software for macos. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar.
Click your hard drives name in the window near the bottom of the screen. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. But in order for the computer and drive to talk to one another, the drive has to be formatted. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. If the external hard drive is pre formatted for mac, disk management will list 3 partitions and you will not be able to delete the health efi system partition because its a protected partition. Software and firmware downloads seagate support us.
I have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. Formatted hard drive data recovery is the fantastic software for people who lose their important files on computer hard drive. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Top 5 disk formatting tool for windows and mac os magoshare. Best 4 free hard drive format tool download easeus.
For the following scenarios, you may need to format the hard drive on your mac. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. If you are trying to format mac external hard drive, you can go over the process step by step. With a simple click, it reads the damaged directory and finds all recoverable files and folders and rebuilds a new errorfree, optimized directory for you to use. Whether you go the software or hardware route depends on your situation. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt. It also can format ssd hard drive and erase data under mac os. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Tokiwa fat32 formatter is also a free disk formatting program which also helps everyone format hard disk and partition into fat32 for free. This mac format data recovery software can also be used for recovering files from emptied trash on.
Open finder and choose applications utilities disk utility to launch the app on your mac. Youll want to do it before you sell your machine, for sure, but its also one of the steps you take when you. You can continue using recoverit data recovery to retrieve deleted, lost or corrupted files from a hard drive that is damaged, crashed, not detected, etc. However, it is not as powerful and easytouse as thirdparty software like minitool partition wizard free edition. The two most popular operating systems, windows and mac os both have formatting utilities builtin, which makes formatting external drives even more convenient.
Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. After years of use, thousands of files and gbs of file fragments have been stored on your mac hard drive. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Everything you need to know about your macs hard drive. Best 5 usb flash drive formatting software for mac. However, the formatted data can be recovered by data recovery software. Theres another good use case for mac hard drive cloning. Just run it on your mac, it will show all the hard drives and external devices on your mac. How to unformat mac hard drive formatted mac hard drive recovery.
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