How To Format A Hard Drive For Mac And Windows

Posted on

I get this question a lot – I have an external hard drive that is NTFS formatted (Windows format), and I want to reformat it for my Mac (HFS). Formatting From a Mac. To format a drive as FAT32 from a Mac, follow these simple steps. [ Further reading: Best NAS boxes for media streaming and backup ] 1.

Choose a File System for both Windows and Mac. If you want to format Transcend hard drive for both Mac and Windows PC use, you can format it to FAT32 or exFAT. These two File Systems can be used in both Windows and Mac. However, which one is better. If your hard drive is more than 2TB and you need to store a file more than 4GB, you can choose exFAT.

[1] Office 365 is compatible with Windows 7 or later, and Mac OS X 10.10. Application availability and features that come with Office 365 vary by platform and device; current Office application versions for Office 365 are Office 2016 for Windows and Office 2016 for Mac. Microsoft office for mac free trial.

Format A Hard Drive From Dos

Advertisement Updated by Tina Sieber. Windows and Mac OS X use What is a file system and why do they matter? Learn the differences between FAT32, NTFS, HPS+, EXT, and more. Windows uses the NTFS file system for its internal drives, while Macs use HFS+. External hard disks and USB drives are generally formatted with the Windows FAT32 file system for maximum compatibility — most devices, including Macs, can read and write from FAT32 devices. Some Mac drives may be formatted with the HFS+ file system — some drives marketed to Mac users may even come pre-formatted with HFS+. Windows can’t read this file system by default, but there are ways to read that HFS+ drive from Windows.

I get this question a lot – I have an external hard drive that is NTFS formatted (Windows format), and I want to reformat it for my Mac (HFS). How do I do that?

For more information about what these limitations are please see. The easiest way to format the drive to or is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility or Windows' built-in Disk Management.

Identify the drive that needs to be partitioned and formatted, and make sure that all critical data on this drive has been backed up elsewhere. If there is already a partition on the drive, the bar above that drive will appear blue. If there is no critical data on the drive, or the data has been successfully backed up, right-click the bar and click Delete Volume. Important: If Disk Management shows the drive as Not Initialized, the drive will have to be initialized. For assistance initializing a hard drive, please see. • If there is no partition and data on the drive, it will appear as Unallocated, with a black bar on top.

Alternatively, you can opt for paid software like instead. Option 3: Create two partitions on your hard drive to use with each OS, separately. Expansion hard drive for mac. This solution is a little different than the previous two because instead of having one hard drive that works with both machines, you're splitting your HD into two sections, each dedicated to a different OS. For example, if you have a 1TB hard drive, 500GB of storage can be used with your Windows computer, and 500 will be dedicated to your Mac computer. You won't be able to write to the Mac side from your Windows computer, and vice versa, but it's a good solution for people who want all the advantages each format has to offer for its respective system. Here's how to do it: Step 1: Connect the empty external HD to your Mac and launch Disk Utility.