Format a hard drive for mac and windows 7

Its useful when installing windows 10 on a used drive. How to format a drive in exfat formatting in windows 73 ways. As complicated as that might sound, its not really difficult to format a hard drive in any version of windows. 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. To restore a windows 7 or vista computer, you must have a set of restore discs for the computer or an original windows 7 or vista installation disc. Read mac formatted drives with windows the tech guy. Boot with the windows 7 dvd, proceed as if you were doing an installation but when you get to the right screen, choose custom installation. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt. Jan 15, 2020 macos recovery makes it easy to reinstall the mac operating system, even if you need to erase your startup disk first. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting.

You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. How to format or add a hard drive to a windows 7 or vista pc. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Nov 26, 2017 if youve recently upgraded the hard drive in your ps4 and want to use it on your computer youll find that the drive doesnt appear in windows explorer. If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next. Well show you everything you need to know about the. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting. This will erase all contents on the disk, however, so youll need to. 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. Jan 04, 2012 how to format an external drive for mac compatibility. You can format your hard drive on both windows and mac. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start.

Format is the process of preparing a partition for data storage by deleting all the data on it and set up a file system for the drive. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Plug in the external hard drive into the system and open windows explorer by clicking on the computer section in the side bar, you will see your external hard drive get attached to your system. Feb 08, 2020 so, you just bought a new external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. Starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. It is recommended to choose the compatible format that the system lists. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt toms. First of all, as i said before, reformating will erase all your data that stored on the hard drive permanently. However there is a simple solution you can format the drive to fat32 or exfat that performs better than fat32. Create a bootable usb drive for ubuntu using mac or windows how to. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. You cannot format the whole hard drive doing so would erase your operating systembut you can format a portion of the hard drive after creating a partition.

Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. How to format a new ssd clone the data from old hard drive to the newly installed ssd formatting and data migration. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. In general, when it comes to formatting a hard drive in windows, there are several ways to complete this task. Format or add a hard drive to a windows 7 or vista pc. Add virtual cd and dvd drives to your pc with alcohol how to. If you need to format a hard drive, try these methods. How to format a hard drive with windows 7 digital trends.

How to convert mac only external hdd to windows compatible. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. If you format your fat32 drive in windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32gb. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format ps4 hard drive for pc in windows 1087.

With the drive selected in disk utility, click partition. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. You will need to format a hard drive in some specific situations like when your hard drive has a raw file system, windows reports disk not formatted, or your hard drive is infected by a virus. Deleting everything does not wipe a hard drive and formatting does not usually wipe a hard drive. 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.

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. Jul 26, 2019 when do you need to format a hard drive in windows 7. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. You can format your external hard drive from either the pc or mac. Jan 17, 2019 starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10. Formatting a hard drive or ssd is the same as buying a new hard drive since the process erases all the data in one fell swoop. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. The drive size is the most important factor if we talk about the time this formatting process will take, also depends on the overall speed of your computer. Apr 12, 20 this video will walk you through a few simple steps to reformat your glyph hard drive in windows 7. Mar 19, 2020 to format a hard drive means to erase any information on the drive and to set up a file system so your operating system can read data from, and write data to, the drive.

Macos extended if you primarily use mac with a secondary exfat partition, or ntfs if you mainly use windows 10 with a secondary. Formatting windows 7 hard drive will erase all the data on the drive and rebuild a file system. With macdrive 9 standard, you can access, manage, and even create and format disk drives for apples mac os from inside windows explorer. How to format a hard drive with ease in windows 1087. The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Sep 20, 2019 this wikihow teaches you how to format your computers builtin hard drive. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. And if you have any problem about minitool partition wizard, please feel free to contact us via. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. To format a hard drive means to erase any information on the drive and to set up a file system so your operating system can read data from, and write data to, the drive. A user has to know how to convert mac formatted hard drive to windows formatted.

You just need to know how to format external hard drive for ps4. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. 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. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different. Want to format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Aug 17, 2018 how to format a hard drive using the command prompt. In conclusion, we have introduced four methods to format a hard drive and one way to format a hard drive for mac. Super eraser for mac best mac disk format software. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. With our this guide you can format the drive for windows xp, windows vista, windows 8, windows 10, and windows 7. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.

Feb 08, 2012 to partition and format your drive, you can use windows builtin tool called disk management. So the first step you must do is move all of your important data to your pc mac, or to cloud storage service. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Copy a data disk uing one optical drive using disk utility on os x how to. 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. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. How to partition and format your hard drive in windows. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central.

You can format your hard drive on both windows and mac computers. Jun 20, 2019 for mac, the mac os extension is the file system included in mac os 10. Want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. But using a third party all the time for accessing a hard drive on windows is not good.

Better western digital fat32 formatting utility for windows 7 810. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. Aomei partition assistant standard is professional and easytouse hard drive formatting software that can do you a big favor. In this article, we will introduce some mac disk formatting software tools to help mac users easily and securely format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card or other device under mac os. The other limitation is the total size of the partition. This video will walk you through a few simple steps to reformat your glyph hard drive in windows 7. If you need to expand your storage space with an external hard drive and you use both mac and pc, youll likely run into a few obstacles. No need to worry or try to claim warranty because your new external hard drive is fine. You can repartition and format your hard drives in windows using the disk management tool.

However, it just wont recognize it, even though the hard drive is showing up on your computer. 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. In this video i help you guys convert your mac only external hdd into a windows compatible one. Jan 25, 2014 installing new 4tb hard drive with gpt wont format i am trying to install a new 4tb hdd, to be used as extra storage windows installed on different hdd on my windows 7 system. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Windows formatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. How to install the microsoft windows operating system. This will give you the screen with all the partitions on the drive.

Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. Follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. About how to format external hard drives for both macs and windows pcs, and what is the best format for using usb external drives on mac. 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. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Once the drive is formatted it will be compatible to be read and written to on both a mac and pc, and the resulting fat file system is compatible with all versions of mac os x, windows 95, 98, windows xp, vista, 7, windows 8, even windows 10, its one of the most widely recognized. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. It is able to format seagate hard drive or usb flash drive as exfat file system easily and effectively in windows 108 7, xp and vista. Jan 24, 2020 if you dont have access to windows installation media, but you do still have access to a working copy of windows 10, windows 8, or windows 7, you can create a system repair disc or recovery drive depending on your version of windows and then boot from that and format c from there. How to initialize and format a new hard drive in windows 10. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. And apfs takes the advantages of strong encryption, space sharing, disk snapshots and is compatible with ssd on new mac.

In the resulut, your external hard drive will work just fine with mac and windows. Stepbystep instructions to format a hard drive in windows 7, including screenshots for each step to make the process easy to follow. Format usb or external hard drive for mac using mac disk utility format usb or external hard drive for mac on windows pc using thirdparty usb format tool. To format western digital external hard drive fat32, you actually have a better choice. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. You can select to use a fat, fat32, exfat, ntfs, or refs file system when formatting. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. How to format a mac drive in windows 7 microsoft community. This wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drives format on windows and mac computers. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer.

Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Rather than use a mac formatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. This is because the ps4 uses a format not recognised by windows. Before digging in, select a primary format youll use the most. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. It allows you to format wd hard disk to fat32, exfat, ntfs. Not just hard drives, but removable usb drives, too. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Mar 31, 2020 if you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. To be specific, we can turn to disk management, diskpart, thirdparty tool, and others. When you plug a drive thats been formatted for mac into a windows pc, you may find that it isnt readable.

If you are preparing this hard drive for use as an offsite backup, you may want to add two partitions to the drive if you feel confident doing so. When you format your hard drive, you can clean internal as well as. Now, you can follow these two solutions to format any hard drive, flash drive, usb drive, ssd or any other external storage drive so as to make them work on your mac now. Simply put, your ps4 isnt recognizing the file system of your drive, which is most probably. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.

People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac in disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. You cannot format the whole hard drivedoing so would erase your operating systembut you can format a portion of the hard drive after creating a partition. For instance, users want to write data to and read data from, to do a clean installation of the windows system, to get rid of a virus or malware, to erase the data before giving the drive to someone else or throwing it away, or some other reasons. How to unformat hard drive disk hdd after accidentally. One simple way to make the drive readable on both platforms is to format it to exfat, which both operating systems can understand. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. The hard drive will be erased, and windows 8 will be reinstalled. How can i format this drive in windows 7 home premium. All options, including format, is greyed out except to delete volume. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers. This wikihow teaches you how to format your computers builtin hard drive. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through all connections, be they usb, firewire, or thunderbolt. Plug the disk into a windows vista sp1 or windows 7 computer.

Mar 15, 2018 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. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. Youll need to take an extra step to wipe the hard drive so the data cannot be easily reconstructed later. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wifi menu in the menu bar. How to format a disk or drive in windows 10 format is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solidstate drive, or usb flash drive for initial use to accept windows files.

Another common reason why your hard drive cannot be detected in the volume file format. A new hard drive has to be formatted with some specific file systems before being used in windows 7 operating system os. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and 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.

This will stop one user going over his or her quota of disk space. After learning about the partition scheme and file system, we could begin to format the newly installed ssds in windows 7 10 and mac os. Windows usually read ntfs file format, so if your hard disk is new or was previously used in ubuntu, mac or linux, there is a possibility that its file format is unreadable by the windows setup. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. I understand as my new hdd is over 2tb needed to be converted from mbr to gpt to work.

Simple delete the partition with the mac files and folders on it, then recreate the partition and format. And it can format seagate drive as fat32 without the limitation of 32gb in partition size as well. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly with macs. How to wipe a hard drive permanently erase everything. If you just want to start with a fresh installation of windows 7, see how to reinstall windows 7 to learn an easy way of doing so.