Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. I explain how to format a storage device for your mac. All formatting and editing options grayed out in ms word 16. See troubleshooting for more information on which format to select. Format wd elements for the mac os you have whether you have mac os sierra, high sierra or mojave the way you format your wd elements drive for mac is the same. The macs disk utility app is used to erase and format hard drives and ssds. If a mac owner applies bootcamp or refi, a gtp is a choice once. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os.
If you want the ability to read and write in both windows and mac, format to the msdos dat format. Gif, icns, jpeg, jpeg2000, microsoft bmp, microsoft icon, openexr, pdf, photoshop, png, sgi, tga, tiff. 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. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. Select the type of file system from the dropdown menu of format. How to securely erase data from your mac and external drives. Apple file system apfs, the default file system for mac computers using macos 10. After all, securely erasing your data ensures your personal and private information does not end up being found and abused by someone else. Choose the drive name within the list provided under external. You must format the drive with a guid partition table. Dec 21, 2018 in terms of choosing a file system format when formatting an sd card, its largely a matter of what the intended use is. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b.
However, you can format the drive to work with both windows and mac by using the exfat filesystem. In windows your click the windows button top left corner. After you specify the default file format, all new workbooks are saved in the selected file format unless you specify a different format in the save as dialog box when you save a workbook. Oct 22, 2007 i need to use an external harddrive to move audio files between a pc and a mac mac g5 w os 10. Jul 05, 2017 macs support a variety of file systems. It offers more than 9 tools to help you optimize and manage your mac computer. To format external drive to file system compatible with mac and pc, connect the drive to your computer and follow the detailed steps given below take formatting hard drive to exfat in windows 7 for example. Apfs, or apple file system, is one of the new features in macos high sierra.
So if you think you might need to plug the usb drive into a mac running an older version of macos, format it as mac os extended. Even so, its still easy to create a usb installation disk for os x lion if you want to install lion on a freshly formatted hard drive, if youre in an emergency booting situation, or if you need to repair your mac s hard drive. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Want to format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. 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. May 24, 2017 in this stepbystep tutorial, youll learn how to erase and reformat external disks connected to your mac using macoss disk utility.
For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. The 4 disk formatting software for mac above can help you easily format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under mac os. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Sep 08, 2015 os x extended journaled is for casual mac user. Optional if available, click security options, use the slider to choose. This post will show specific methods to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. If you keep your hard drives outofthebox ntfs format for all the reasons fat32. Although disk utility should always be tried first, a macs terminal can be used to format the drive in.
Here are your macos file system options and how to pick the best one for you. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. In case a user wants to boot linux, windows or another nonnative operating system on apple computer, it is important to pick mbr. The main options for the image format are the following. Then, click erase at the bottom to format the drive. Which mac file system is best for an external drive. When you format data on sd card, it erases all the data. The top 5 usb flash drive formatting software for mac can help us easily and securely format usb flash drive under mac os. It is possible to access the full format list by holding down the option key when clicking the format popup menu. Find out how to format an external drive or usb disk making the drive work with both windows pc and mac can read and write. Use the security options to format a previously used hard drive. A new window pops up prompting options you need to select before starting. You can also change the orientation for specific pages or for specific sections if your document is divided by section breaks.
Part of switching to a mac for dummies cheat sheet. I heard that there is one format option for the drive that will allow it to be recognized for. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. On older mac, you will see an additional scheme option, choose guid partition map. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Select the disk or volume in the sidebar, then click the erase button. Click on the erase button on disk utility and choose the format as either apfs or mac os extended. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. The mac os extended journaled option will have the highest degree of support for mac os x features, and theres no limit to the size of files. Some features and formatting might not be available if you save the workbook in the file format of an earlier version of excel or another spreadsheet program. Stack overflow for teams is a private, secure spot for you and your coworkers to find and share information. If you are trying to encrypt the drive without erasing the contents, it cannot be done since it is not already formatted with a guid partition table. Force an external mac drive to mount via command line terminal commands in mac os x. Today, we will talk about how to format or reformat ssd on mac. Switching to a mac for dummies, mac os x lion edition.
In most cases, your mac will show the supported format by default and you dont need to change it. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. You can run easytouse mac disk formatting software to easily format internal ssd or external ssd under mac os. Jan 04, 2012 smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. In the volume format list, select mac os extended journaled. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Although disk utility should always be tried first, a mac s terminal can be used to format the drive in these cases. The mac os has an experimental support for writing to ntfs drives. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. You can format a disk or volume using one of the following file system formats. 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.
In default settings, the compatible formats will automatically displays and usually choose the default option mac os extended journaled. In this stepbystep tutorial, youll learn how to erase and reformat external disks connected to your mac using macoss disk utility. Why partition option grayed out in mac and how to resolve it. During the formatting process, the system erases and writes over old data, preventing old information from being accessed through data recovery programs. Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window. Jun 20, 2019 for mac, the mac os extension is the file system included in mac os 10. So despite the disadvantages, exfat is your best option for crossplatform hard drives. Usually, it is disabled by default and needs some messing around in. Msdos fat outdated ms file system, can be used for pc mac compatibility but with files less than 4gb. As the article mentioned, this is one of the common formats in external hard drives. To start up from macos recovery, turn on your mac and immediately press and hold one of the following.
If youre using tiger client or server or panther server version only, when you format a drive you will be presented with an additional format option. Exfat more modern ms file system any file size can be used. 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. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac.
Disk utility does not show apfs format apple community. Dec 01, 2017 how to format drives with terminal on a mac kumar priyansh. Recently, some owc customers have reported experiencing a situation where their new ssd will not show up in disk utility in high sierra. Click the format popup menu, then choose a volume format. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra tuesday, november 28th, 2017 author. The mac os extension file system is introduced in the mac os 10. Everyone needs to securely erase data at some pointeven on a mac. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra.
Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac apple. For sd card size greater than 64gb and mac os lion and greater, usually exfat is used. Disk utility provides four options for securely erasing the data on a volume. Well educate you about the partition maps that macos supports and detail other important options that are at your disposal within disk utility. Make sure that the sidebar in disk utility shows the name of your startup disk. This is particularly necessary for purchases of generic pc drives, which almost always come preformatted to be windows compatible rather than for mac os. The default, xmlbased document format for word 2008 for mac, word for mac 2011, word 2016 for mac, word 2007 for windows, word 2010 for windows, word 20 for windows, and word 2016 for windows. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. Oct 25, 2019 you follow the steps above to format to mac os extended journaled first. Sure, you could read a mac formatted drive on windows or read a windows formatted drive on a mac, but both solutions either cost money or are unstable. Often, the best option to fix these problems would be to reformat your computer and reinstall your os, but since most of us dont plan on ever taking this drastic measure, we. High sierra alters the guid mac os extended journaled volume to apfs when it sees a ssd. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Apfs is optimized for ssd solid state drive such as flash drives, so if you reformat a flash drive on a mac, you should definitely choose apfs unless you plan to use it with a prehigh sierra mac, of course. You can do that if you erase the drive with disk utility. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. It can help mac users securely and quickly format usb flash drive under mac os.
In other cases, your mac can be experiencing some major malfunctions. And apfs takes the advantages of strong encryption, space sharing, disk snapshots and is compatible with ssd on new mac. Open disk utility by going to applications, then select utilities disk utility. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Click the format popup menu, then choose a choose a file system format. If youre intent is to only read files loaded from a pc from a mac, the standard windows ntfs format should suffice. In security options, move the slider to select how many times you want the system to erase over the data. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
Apfs also isnt compatible with time machine at this time, so youll have to format backup drives as mac os extended. Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. If your mac is using apfs, select apfs from the format list. How to create a bootable macos sierra installer drive as much as you want the very latest macos i caution you not to. Tips to help you choose between guid and apple partition. Choose mac os extended journaled, encrypted as the format. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. This may be apfs, or it may be mac os extended journaled. Following the erasing of your macs hard drive, you are returned to the os x utilities options. Just select one of them to format usb flash drive under mac os. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os.
And then youll be able to use disk utility to partition your t5. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. So please back up your important files before you run super eraser for mac to format. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread. And forget about reading an apfs drive from windows. Apple file system apfs and in the disk utility help article.
Owc ben m recently, some owc customers have reported experiencing a situation where their new ssd will not show up in disk utility in high sierra. From this you can select one of two options in order to restore the operating system. At one point, i realized that there were plenty of files on my mac that i didnt need any more, but too many to delete individually. Booting an os x from the target drive makes gpt the preferred option. How to format a startup drive for a mac if you want to format a drive that will be used as your macs startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary.
If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Formatting your macbook pro involves reinstalling os x, and can be useful when your computer runs slow or malfunctions due to the installation of adware or faulty software, you accidentally installed an. As ive said before, slowing down is not an option for me. Format to ntfs, and use ntfs3g to readwrite on mac. It is important to be aware of the format type you are going to perform, which will depend upon the size of sd card and the osx version you are running. The first option allows you to restore your machine to the latest time machine backup, if you have one. Sep 20, 2019 if theres an older mac you need a drive to work with, apfs is a bad choice for that drive. Worldwide shipping payment options customs and vat. How to format drives with terminal on a mac youtube. Starting with os x lion, apple did away with dvds and other media as a method of installing software and switched to a download model instead. Apr 04, 2014 in addition to the options for mac os extended, you can choose fat and exfat.
Locate your usb stick under this pc, rightclick on it and select the format option. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility. Mar 01, 2018 all formatting and editing options grayed out in ms word 16. Step 2 after that, rightclick on the partition on your ssd you would like to format and select the format option as shown below in the figure. You can also specify which pages you want to print and print on both sides of the page. The only thing you have to check is under file system, make sure you have chosen exfat.
The volume representing your startup disk is macintosh hd, unless. Format command examples, options, switches, and more. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. Select disk utility from the utilities window in macos recovery. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. Those who wish to start os x ppc from the target hard drive must stop on apt. And you can be confident that apple hasnt changed the way you format an external drive on a mac. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive.
Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. If you want to insure full mac compatibility of a new external hard drive or flash disk, youll want to format the drive to the mac os extended filesystem. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. You can also open a finder window, select applications in the sidebar, and head to utilities disk utility. Choose this option to save words such as theatre to your exclude. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both macs and pcs, you should format the disk with the exfat file system instead. Erase or format your macs drives using disk utility lifewire. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support us. Exfat, fat, and ntfs are generally broadly compatible and offer solutions for for both mac and windows pc compatibility, whereas selecting macos and os x as the format are pretty much mac compatible only. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple support. Readonlythis is for creating a disk image from the contents of a folder or another disk, and packages them so they cannot be modified.
But formatting a drive with exfat offers one huge advantage. By default, they format disks with the mac only os x extended file system. How to format drives with terminal on a mac kumar priyansh. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Disk utility is a useful application inside your mac system. Disk utility will automatically choose the format for you. The default file system on mac os for ssds is the apfs. Thus, it is advisable to backup any filesdata you want beforehand it is important to be aware of the format type you are going to perform, which will depend upon the size of sd card and the osx version you are running.
For earlier versions of the mac operating system, screens may be slightly different. How to format a startup drive for a mac if you want to format a drive that will be used as your mac s startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. However, the format command is only useful from within windows if youre formatting a partition that can be shut down, or in other words, one that isnt currently dealing with locked files since you cant format files that are in use. How to use os x boot options to troubleshoot your mac. It is recommended to choose the compatible format that the system lists. To format your external disk to be compatible with macos, connect your hard drive to the mac and follow these steps. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive.
Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. Os x extended casesensitive, journaled for using with mac servers. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. My disk utility doesnt have encrypti apple community. Msdos fat can be used for earlier versions and smaller sizes. Heres how to find the guid option so you can format a drive to install and boot macos high sierra and macos mojave. The family of macintosh operating systems developed by apple inc. Youll first need to format it to mac os extended journaled. However, when you format your hard drive with super eraser for mac, all your data will be permanently lost. Change the file format for saving workbooks in excel for mac. Most external hard drives and usb drives are compatible for use on mac computers as long as you format the devices for use with mac os x.
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