By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Formatting a hard disk drive hdd in an external hard drive enclosure is done the same way like an internal drive. However, if you want to test apfs out before then, youll have to wipe a drive and reformat it with the apfs file system. I received a replacement 750gb external hard drive from western digital. Hard drive format mac software mac dvd to hard drive converter v. Then you can choose one of the hard drive and format it by click on format button. Wipe external hard drive on mac via terminal command line. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
Most users use disk utility to erase a disk or hard drive. Solving read only external drive problems on your mac. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. How to format an external drive in os x make tech easier. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. I do not wish to use a partition as i want to access the hard drive through mac and windows at the same time on my laptop and i also want to be able to access the mac things on.
Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. The easiest way to format the drive for mac is by using macoss builtin disk utility for fat32 or exfat. How to erase a disk from command line in mac os x osxdaily. This is an article for mac, it is erasing a hard drive from a mac command line, it is not a windows tutorial. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line. Like paragon, users can use the finder to work with the drive. Connect your hard drive or external hard drive to your mac. The first step in the process is to connect your external hard drive. Likewise, the mac os x operating system can read from, but cannot write. Unformat mac hard drive recover formatted hard drive on. First, let us look at how to create a bootable drive using terminal. Choose another file system from the format box and click erase. How to erase or format a mac hard drive via command line.
Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on. These processes will work for hard drives, external drives, and flash. How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux. You can, however, format a windows hard drive from a mac if you. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata.
How to install os x after formatting your hard drive. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Verify and repair volume via terminal mac os x launch terminal from your dock, utilities folder, or via an app launcher like alfred. How to format an external hard drive focus photo school. How to install macos on an external drive macworld uk. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. Navigate to applications utilities and choose terminal. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. But both of them cant format the hard drive which the mac os is installed on. Apple really, really wants you to download apps from the app store so. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. To do that, the only thing you need is a bit of precise.
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. Additional information how to format a hard drive for mac. You need to name your external drive untitled for the terminal command to work. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Easiest way is to type the command cd followed by a space, then drag the icon for the external onto the terminal window, then hit the return key. Here, you will learn three ways to format a hard drive in windows 10 by using. In this video i show you how to reinstall mac os x on your apple computer. How to format toshiba harddrive for mac apple community. In this tutorial we look at formatting disks via the gui app called disk utility and its equivalent command line tool diskutil.
Simply connect the external drive via thunderbolt, usb. If you connect your wd hard drive without reformatting, youll be unable to copy files to the disk as mac read only. Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive.
Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. You can format an external drive in os x using disk utility and terminal. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. This mac propriety file system and is used in ios and mac. The disk manager tool is able to list all hard drives and external devices on your mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Information on how to partition the drive via terminal is also wanted.
The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. How to format a drive with the apfs file system on macos. The first step in the process is to connect your external hard drive to your mac. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Cannot mount external hard drive on mac, how to fix. The previous defunct hd was also fat32, which i did not. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can.
Instead of a menu bar, tuxera installs an optional control window. Open terminal, either by spotlight or by opening the app from applications utilities. After you connect an external hard drive to your mac, if everything is working fine, the operating system will automatically recognize, read, and mount your external drive, as well as show it in. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk utility. Choose a file system to which you want to format your external drive. Some mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on mac os, a task which is typically performed through the disk utility application from the gui. 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. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. The command line approach to disk erasure in macos is a bit different and it requires precise syntax to insure that you are erasing the proper disk, making this method of erasing any disk only. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb.
Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. I just did the first step, then i finished with disk utility to change it into the format i wanted. The two hard drive formatting software for mac can help you securely format hard drive or device under mac os. Fortunately, there are some mac hard drive format software or smart disk formatting applications can help you securely and easily format, reformat, or erase hard drive under mac os. If you format your external hard drive to hfs, you can use it on mac and linux by removing journaling. This guide covers how to format a hard drive using macos. Diskutil list this is going to list all the mounted drives on your mac.
If you are having trouble with the disk utility app for erasing or formatting a drive, you can try using the command line in terminal to erase or. Now, im trying to format it so that i can use it on pc instead of mac. How to access external hd thru terminal apple community. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. While its convenient to purchase the hard drive that will work with your computer right out of the box, most external hard drives can also be reformatted so youre not limited to your initial. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Then in the next method, we will format usb drive from mac terminal. But some mac users might need to erase them from the command line on mac os. This article shows you how to format an external hard drive via different methods, and you can follow these methods to format external hard drive for pc, mac or linux. Worried about installing the latest version of macos on your mac. My disk utility cant read my ubuntu usb installer so i needed to format it using the terminal. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. Just launch the disk utility, rightclick or controlclick the drive containing your apfs partition, and select erase.
This method should work on all apple computers and with all recent versions of mac os. 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. Rightclick on the icon for your external drive on mac desktop, then select get info. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. To this day, a pc cannot read from a hard drive that has been formatted for the mac without additional software. To format an external disk using terminal, simply follow the steps below. It can happen for external usb and firewire as well as internal disks. Paragon disk wipe allows you to create a bootable usbflash drive or external hard drive that will help you to completely. So first, we will use the disk utility program, which is a gui and very. This will completely wipe the drive, deleting all the files on it and converting it to whatever file system you choose.
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