Format a hard drive for mac and pc how to#
Format a hard drive for mac and pc portable#
Format a hard drive for mac and pc pro#

You can also check to see if the format was successful. Step 4: Wait until the erasing process is complete.ДЇor me, it took less than a minute to format my 2TB Seagate Expansion. You may also want to rename your external drive here.

Format a hard drive for mac and pc pro#

Pro tip: If you want to use the external drive for both Mac and PC, you can also select вЂњExFATвЂќ. By default, itвЂ™s the Windows NT File System (NTFS). Step 3: Select вЂњMac OS Extended (Journaled)вЂќ in Format.ДЄ new window will pop up asking which file system youвЂ™d like to format the external drive to. Click on this icon on the top left corner and select вЂњShow All DevicesвЂќ. Note: if your hard drive is not showing on the left panel, it must have been hidden. Select that disk and click the вЂњEraseвЂќ button, the one highlighted in red in the screenshot below. It should show up on the left panel under вЂњExternalвЂќ. Step 2: Highlight your external drive and click вЂњEraseвЂќ. The quickest way to do this is a simple Spotlight search (click the search icon on the upper right corner), or go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. They might be different if your Mac has a different version. Note: The tutorial and screenshots below are based on macOS Sierra 10.12.5.

Format a hard drive for mac and pc how to#

How to Format an External Drive for Mac (from NTFS to Mac OS Extended) The problem is that on macOS, you canвЂ™t work with files saved on an NTFS drive unless you use a paid app like Paragon NTFS for Mac. What is NTFS? IвЂ™m not going to explain here you can read more on Wikipedia. I then right-clicked the external drive icon on Mac desktop > Get Info.

If I wanted to use it with Mac OS or Time Machine backup (which is my intent), IвЂ™ll need to format the drive for my Mac. It brought me to a webpage on SeagateвЂ™s site, where it clearly indicated the drive was initially set up to work with a Windows PC. Since I wanted to use it on Mac, I clicked the blue logo with the text вЂњStart_Here-MacвЂќ. When I opened it, the default content was all there. When I connected the Seagate to my Mac, the drive icon showed up like this. Three weeks ago, I bought a brand new 2TB Seagate Expansion to backup my MacBook Pro before I updated it to the latest macOS. Most External Hard Drives Are Initiated with NTFSДuring the last several years, IвЂ™ve used a few external drives, including a 500GB WD My Passport, 32GB Lexar flash drive, and a few others. I highly recommend you also create multiple partitions. Pro tip: If your external drive has a large volume, like mine вЂ“ a 2TB Seagate Expansion. The operation will erase all data and your files will be gone for good. Important note: If you have useful files stored on the external drive, be sure to copy or transfer them to another safe place prior to formatting. Just follow this easy step-by-step guide and youвЂ™re all set. In this post, IвЂ™m going to show you how to format your external drive for a Mac-compatible file system i.e. Apple Mac machines support a different file system. ThatвЂ™s all because itвЂ™s been initialized with Windows NT File System (NTFS), which is primarily for PCs. But somehow, macOS doesnвЂ™t allow you to write data to the drive.

Format a hard drive for mac and pc portable#

So, you just bought a new external hard drive or a portable SSD and wanted to use it on your Mac.