With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made. How to perform pen drive data recovery on mac sometimes, users end up formatting a pen drive by mistake as well. Usb is very compatible with mac machines, especially those with older versions. This is a common connection type for many external hard drives. Macs can read ntfs drives, and can read and write to fat32 drives. If you also have accidentally deleted data on mac or have formatted a pen drive, then take the assistance of recoverit data recovery mac.
Formatting the drive will erase everything on it and configure it for macos. But before starting, its worth pointing out that with seagate backup plus drives. Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. How to backup a mac to an external hard drive in 2020. Developed by wondershare, it is one of the most advanced and trusted data recovery tools for mac. Click on the erase button in disk utilitys toolbar, then configure the name, format, and partitioning scheme of your backup disk. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. Whether you prefer hdd or ssd, youre looking for your first drive or your third, an external drive is usually a great solution for data backup and file storage on both your mac and pc. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device.
Rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. It can also back up to a mac or networkattached storage device nas on your. If you need to erase the disk manually, use the disk utility app to erase using the mac os extended journaled format. You can set the name to whatever you like, but set the format to mac os extended. Best external drives for mac and pc interchangeable 2020. 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. Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. 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. Usually, you can use windows builtin tools like diskpart to format seagate drive. As with using time machine, the drive should be formatted as mac os extended journaled for best compatibility with macos. I installed easeustodo program on windows 7 with a my passport essential external hard drive to f, and now on windows 10 that drive is full and i dont know how to format. Backup 1 apply file quit system preferences time machine on. When you want to wipe the backup plus drive clear of everything on it.
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 windows explorer navigate to the external drive, highlight it, right click it and select format. The quickest way to do this is a simple spotlight search. This wikihow teaches you how to format a seagate hard drive on a mac computer. If this is the case, its ideal to keep the drive in the original ntfs format and and simply add the ntfs for mac. Unlock the lock if it is locked add or remove backup disk choose backup 1. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. Select the mac partition we created in windows 10, click erase on the menu bar, choose mac os extended journaled in the format list box, then click erase. However, you can format the drive to work with both windows and mac by using the exfat filesystem. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
Using apples free disk utility app, you can easily format the drive. Find out which hard drive can help increase your storage or safely back up your mac. So if you are formatting a drive that has already been used, be sure to copy any files you will ever want to see again onto a computer or backup drive. Select os x extended journaled as the drive format. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. The backup disk is not in mac os extended apple community. If you read my previous post about how to format an external drive for mac, you know that i bought a 2tb seagate expansion external hard drive and managed to create two partitions on the disk one for mac backup purposes, and the other for personal use in this article, im going to show you how to back up your mac data to an external drive. Backup disks you can use with time machine apple support. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Backup plus portable drive for mac 4tb stds4000400 2year. Preparing your backup disk for a backup of macos carbon copy.
Copying the files from your mac to an external drive allows you to save data on your own terms. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Once you have it, your first task is to pick a suitable file system for that drive depending on your intended usage. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Preparing your backup disk for a backup of os x carbon copy. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. And youll detailed tutorial on how to format seagate drive for mac and windows computer in the following text. When you want to change an ntfs file system to exfat so that you can share your backup plus between a mac. An example of this is creating one partition to store your time machine backup and another to store data. You can format a drive using the disk utility in mac. External hard drives are not only useful for storing data but are an excellent way to transport files from one location to another. Time machine, however, gives you the possibility to create an automatic backup of the data on your hard drive. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format.
Plug your hd into the mac and open disk utility, which can be accessed by searching for it in spotlight. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Types of disks you can use with time machine on mac apple support. How to format an external drive to work with mac from ntfs to mac os extended. Format mac hard drive with time machine formatting an external hard drive with time machine is as easy as formatting it with disk utility. When you take into account price, ease of use, and portability, the seagate backup plus slim is the most reliable hard drive. Before formatting any hard drive, its a good idea to backup any data or files you want to save before formatting. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater.
The format apple support for mac owners for time machine is mac os extended journaled. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. Mac owners have good machines, with plenty of battery life and power. When completed, the drive will be formatted to the mac os x. The easiest way to add storage to your mac is to buy an external hard drive. Its exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a mac. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. An external drives file system is the most important factor that determines whether or not its readable by macs, pcs, or both. And if your disk uses the master boot record mbr partition scheme, some of its partitions might not be available for use with time machine.
You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. Here are the best mac hard drives and external storage options in 2020. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. Currently, hard drives for windows pc are always formatted with ntfs, while hard disks for mac. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide.
How to backup mac to an external hard drive 5 steps. Yet when you connect a mac formatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the drive click cancel. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. Maybe you want to copy something onto a drive to share with a pc or another mac. Then, connect the seagate drive to your pc and make sure that it can be detected by windows.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Since most external hard drives are formatted for pcs, before the backup of your mac begins you need to format the hard drive for macos. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. You can set the name to whatever you like, but set the format to mac. Formatting the drive will permanently erase all the data and files stored on the hard drive forever. Backing up a mac with time machine requires an external hard drive formatted for macos. The most common format for a time machine backup disk is mac os. I plugged the included usb cable into the drive, then its other end into a mac book pro model 10,1, up popped a dialog box asking if i wanted to use time machine apples proprietary backup program. Which mac file system is best for an external drive. Make sure that the usb drive is formatted for time machine.
Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. After formatting the drive, if prompted to back up. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows. Either in disk management or using one of the windows explorers, eg my computer, my documents, etc. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. Please keep in mind that reformatting will result in the loss of all the data on the hard drive so make sure you back up your data elsewhere before starting. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube.
How to format a seagate hard drive for mac steps backup your hard drive. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. With the release of the macos high sierra operating system. Or perhaps you are setting up an external drive for backups. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. Time machine cant back up to an ios device or disk formatted for windows. How to use onedrive for backup on mac microsoft tech. Plug the drive into a usb socket if you have a recent macbook or macbook pro that only has usbc connectors, youll need a usbc to usba adaptor. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. The drive needs to be formatted as mac macos extended journaled.
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