Overview of formatting usb drive on mac mac systems have a different os to windows and this is where most of the problems like. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. You can have a drive format to fat32 on an apple mac computer using apples disk utility, which comes with macos. User interface version of free and easy tool that formats hard disk drives, large or small, into fat32 as opposed to the nowdefault ntfs format. Jul 16, 20 when you have a new hard drive, or when youre reinstalling windows, the os may ask you to format the drive. To format western digital external hard drive fat32, you actually have a better choice. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. Compare with the other commonly used ntfs file system on a flash drive, fat32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems. There are several reasons to format a hard drive to fat32 in windows 10.
So i hooked it up to my vaio pc, running xp and formated it. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Connect the external hard drive to a windowsbased computer. Formatting nfts to fat32 external drives for pc wd community. To format the usb drive to fat32, follow the next steps. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. I have a 4tb gpt external usb hard drive that i need to format as fat32. Oct 25, 2018 to format western digital external hard drive fat32, you actually have a better choice.
You can the close disk utility your drives icon will be on your desktop. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support from active platforms, including mac. How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. Go finder window on you mac then click on applications the image right.
Name the formatted disk and choose either exfat or msdosfat32 from the. Jul 24, 2017 in the fat32 format window, select the drive to format and type a volume label if you want to. Therefore, based on these three file systems, we have two methods to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Dec 11, 2019 fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing files on disks and drives. Rather than use a mac formatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfat formatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on windows.
Fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. Two ways to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way mac s do the formatting on some larger drives, though, so give it a try and if your windows machines dont like it, just format the drive with windows.
The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. I am formatting a new 1 tb western digital hard drive. H is the drive letter of your external hard drive in windows 10. Easeus partition master free is more than just a disk formatting tool. When it opens at the centre, it will command you to. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Formatting hard drive partition as fat32 apple community. It lets you create, delete, and clone partitions in addition to formatting hard drives to chosen formats. Formatting a 500gb hard drive with fat32 digital spy. Although other forums suggest starting in os9 and formating to fat32, this option is not listed in the format window. Check to be sure you can read and write to the drive.
This will format the drive as exfat format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms. Dec, 2019 now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Format an exfat external hard drive to fat32 with easeus. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. However, fat32 is a legacy file system designed for low capacity hard drives and it is not recommended for modern hard drives or operating systems. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Includes tests and pc download for windows 32 and 64bit systems. Miniaide fat32 formatter lets you format or create fully customizable partitions in any hard drive.
What you have to do is scroll down through the icons until you find an icon labelled disk. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Unfortunately wont format a hard drive of 500gb in anything other the ntfs. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. I have a 500gb external hard drive, it isnt formatted and because i have a windows vista pc, windows 98 pc and apple imac, the best possible format method is fat32.
Use the mac os disk utility to format the drive to msdos fat32. In the fat32 format window, select the drive to format and type a volume label if you want to. Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. When you have a new hard drive, or when youre reinstalling windows, the os may ask you to format the drive. Now in this interface, you will see a format option.
How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac easily. Formatting a disk using windows maxes out the partition at 32gb, but not if the formatting is done using mac os x. Formatting a disk using windows maxes out the partition at 32gb, but not if the. I have other 4tb external drives already formatted as fat32 see. Feb 21, 2020 how to format a usb flash drive with mac to fat32. When you use a hard disk drive, time machine will take a while to back up your mac. Select disk utility, and then choose the drive to format. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support from active platforms, including mac and windows operating. Once the drive is formatted, the tool will send you a notification.
This will make it readable by both macs and microsoft windows computers. If you want to format an external hard drive, you have to connect the external hard drive to your mac first. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. It allows you to format wd hard disk to fat32, exfat, ntfs, ext2, ext3, etc.
Aomei partition assistant standard is professional and easytouse hard drive formatting software that can do you a big favor. Apr 16, 2020 using the methods mentioned here can help you in formatting your hard drive to the fat32 file system on your windows system. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. Fat32, exfat and ntfs are three file systems for external drive in windows, while ntfs is readonly on mac. A fat32 partition can reach up to 32gb when formatted on a windows pc.
Open disk utility and select the hard drive which you want to format on the lefthand side you will see your external hard drive icon if connected. Once the process is done, you are ready to reuse the drive with fat32. After several minutes of waiting, the process will finish. A window pops up to warn you that all data on the drive will be lost. As earlier stated, you need to first back up your usb drive before formatting the drive as you may not be able to recover the contents again. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. How to format usb drive or external hard drive on mac.
For instance, you want to make your drive faster when writing large files to it or make the drive works with nonwindows operating systems. Format external hard drive in fat32 using professional format tool. You can format a fat32 usb drive on a mac using disk utility. Now, you can follow the steps to be highlighted below to get it successfully formatted. Nov 26, 2011 in this video i go over how to format an external hard drive to fat 32 on a mac. Oct 29, 2019 even if you try to format fat32 drive on mac, you might end up causing more issues. If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. Once the process is done, you are ready to reuse the drive with fat32 file system to save data again.
A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line. Formatting an external hard drive or internal hard drive partition. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Format 500gb external hdd to fat32 within few clicks. Rename the usb drive optional, and choose the msdos fat for format. Which external hard disk format fat32 or apple community. Select your hard drive in the drives list, rightclick on it, and select format. Select the drive you want to format and click on erase. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need.
How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. Miniaide fat32 formatter free download and software. 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. Maxone 1tb ultra slim portable external hard drive hdd usb 3. Click the done button to finish formatting the external hard drive for mac and pc to exfat. Here, we are going to learn the procedure to format a usb drive and an external hard drive on mac. Formatting with this tool is much quicker than the command. To format a hard drive on your mac, follow these instructions. Please remember that all data will be deleted from the drive, so make sure you have made a backup. Mbrformat tells disk utility to format with a master boot record.
Most usb flash drives on sale are designed to work with windows operating systems that run on fat32. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Download fat32format easily get your hard disk drive formatted in the fat32 system with the help of this lightweight but powerful software application. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. Please guide which format of external hard disk fat32 or ntfs is compatible with my mac. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. The duration of the process is based on the external drives total storage and rpm. How to format a flash drive with a mac to fat32 techwalla.
In the format partition section, select the file system. Ive heard there are programs that will format a hard drive of this size in fat32, but dont know where. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. How to format external hard drive to fat32 in windows. Now here is how to format your fat32 external drive on mac.
Many computer users who use a removable flash drive have the demand for formatting it to the fat32 file system. Then select master boot record for scheme, hit erase. It merits using just for the detailed information it gives you about your computers hard drive. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. Now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. Select the quick format option, and then click the start button. Oct 16, 2019 if you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. Therefore, scroll down until you see a folder utilities double click on it. 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. Windows 10 will go ahead and begin formatting the drive in fat32.
The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also. If given a choice, the two common modes are ntfs and fat32. As the internal storage is not much, i am thinking if buying an external hard disk. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. Formatting hard drive partition as fat32 this has been at me for days, i am trying to format my hard drive as fat32 for use with windows, i have got myself some software, ipartition and im trying to boot from the disk as i know this software is fully capable of the function but i can not get my macbook to boot from it, ive tried. No matter whats your reason to format your hard drive to fat32, youve landed in the right place. The disk utility will automatically begin to format the external hard drive for mac and pc. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Seagate backup plus desktop user manual optional formatting. While it may sound like a weightloss product from a latenight infomercial, exfat is a hard drive format that feels like the child of ntfs and fat32. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. You can also format the drive in a variety of other formats depending on your needs. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. Rename the usb flash drive, choose the format as msdos fat for format, master boot record for scheme.
How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. So, if you have got your hands on a drive which is formatted as fat32 of any other format instead of mac os extended or apfs, then you should go through this article. 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. This operation will clean all data on the selected drive. Feb 21, 2012 the best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. Easiest way to format 500gb external hdd to fat32 in. May 01, 2020 how to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Format your removable flash drive to fat32 with your mac if you anticipate using the drive with more than one operating system. Please backup data to cloud or other safe places in advance if necessary step 1.
Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on a mac. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. 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. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Select your usb flash drive on the sidebar, choose erase.
The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Format fat32 format partition hard disk formatter format formatter fat32 hard disk. Formatting a large drive greater than 32gb with a fat32 file. In case if there is data loss after formatting the drive, using recoverit is as soon as possible is strongly recommended to recover your lost files. How to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc. Please follow this procedure to format a large drive greater than 32gb with a fat32 file system using seagate discwizard. How to format external hard drive to fat32 for mac youtube.
Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac easily recoverit. Fat32 is a universal format that is compatible with mac os x, windows, linux and dos systems. Formatting a large drive greater than 32gb with a fat32.
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