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#Format external hdd for mac and windows how to#
#Format external hdd for mac and windows mac os x#
#Format external hdd for mac and windows mac os#
#Format external hdd for mac and windows full#

The alternative solutions do require more tinkering. The good news is, it's not exFAT or nothing. OK, what are my alternatives to using exFAT? And the same can be said for a Windows HD, if you only plan on connecting it to a PC, then NTFS is the way to go. However, if you plan on only using a drive on your Mac and it has MacOS High Sierra or newer installed, you'll want to stick to Apple's APFS format. And if that's how you plan on using your drive, then you're right - exFAT is the way to go. It comes down to which OS are you going to use the drive with?Īccording to the list above, formatting your hard drive to exFAT so that you can read and write on either a PC or Mac seems like the obvious solution.

Natively read/write HFS+ on MacOS High Sierra and newer.

#Format external hdd for mac and windows mac os#

Required for local Time Machine backupsĪPFS (Hierarchical File System, aka Mac OS Extended).

#Format external hdd for mac and windows mac os x#

Natively read/write HFS+ on MacOS up to Mac OS X Sierra.HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, aka Mac OS Extended)

#Format external hdd for mac and windows full#

Full NTFS support on Mac requires paid third-party app.

Natively read/write exFAT on Windows and MacOS.

But before I can dig into what makes sense when, look over this quick rundown of the different standards and which OS each one is compatible with. Click Cancel and it will turn off the Time Machine.Īfter you turn off the Time Machine, redo steps 4 to 6.The file format standard you use for your external drive will depend on how you plan on using the drive.

Time Machine in menu bar.” This will open another window. You can do this by opening System Preferences and unchecking the box This is an issue caused by Time Machine running on your external Click done toĬontinue,” don’t freak out about it. If you get an error message that states, “Erase process has failed.

This will immediately wipe the entire drive.

When you’re done with providing the setup details, click Erase.

MS-DOS (FAT) is also compatible with Mac and PC, but you can only transfer files smaller than 4GB.

exFAT is compatible with both PC and Mac.

APFS (Apple File System) is only for newer Macs running macOS 10.13 or later.

Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is the best option for most Mac users since it is compatible with all Macs.

However, you can choose between the following formats: You can choose whatever name you want, and you should choose GUID Partition Map for the Scheme in most cases.

Choose a name, format, and scheme for your drive.

This will open a small pop-up window with a warning that erasing the drive will delete all data stored on it and that it can’t be undone. For the best result, select the disk (the highest option in the external tree). You can find this on the left-hand side of the screen under External Hard Drives.

Click the external hard drive you want to format.

Then click View in the top-left corner of the window and select Show All Devices.

This will open the Disk Utility app, where you will find all the internal and external drives that are connected to your Mac.

Go to Spotlight Search, type in Disk Utility, and click the first option.

Some external hard drives need to be plugged into an outlet to work.

Connect an external hard drive to your Mac.

Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it.

Note : If you already used your external hard drive on a PC, be sure to back up any files on it.

#Format external hdd for mac and windows how to#

Here’s how to do that: How to Format a Hard Drive for Mac So if you’re trying to connect an external hard drive to a Mac, you might have to format the drive before you can use it. Most external hard drives are designed to work for Windows computers.