Afterwards plug back the windows drive and choose what drive to boot with f11 key when you start the pc. Now, im trying to format it so that i can use it on pc instead of mac. When you format a hard drive the operating system erases all bookkeeping information on the disk, then it tests the hard drive to make sure all sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors that is, those that are scratched or otherwise damaged, and creates internal address tables that it later uses to locate information. Sep 05, 2015 heres how you can erase and change format of an external hard drive or usb stick on mac os x. In conclusion, formatting a mac hard drive is a simple task that you can perform at any given time without any hassle.
Will formatting an external hard drive erase everything. If your hard disk is ntfs it works in windows but in mac is readonly. Im usually change hard drives to a bigger capacity ones and sold the old ones to others. It will erase all the data stored in it, making it empty in one go. That means that while macos can read ntfs drives, it is unable to write data to them without thirdparty. Jun 02, 2017 in this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. This guide provides effective and safe methods to wipe your hard drive or ssd. Why youre prompted to erase an external drive when you use it with. May 29, 2016 i got around the issue by using the erase command instead of partition. How to format a hard drive for mac that would be sold to another person. However, my mac doesnt recognise his hard drive, and his pc wont. But to get a hard drive to be compatible with both mac and pc, you have to choose the exfat.
How to erase everything on macbook pro hard drive befre selling. I often transfer data music, movies, etc between a windows desktop and my mbp so fat32 would be ideal for me. A hard drive can be used on any type of computer pc or mac. This is a great thing to do when you first purchase a drive or when you are looking to. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. In many cases, we learn that the native format of external drives that work.
Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. So, we suggest that its better to use a pc to partition an external hard drive for macos and windows. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Select the partition you want to format and click on wipe now button. Now, i have a new macbook pro and all my data is still on that external hd. Thus, having an external hard drive will help you to save your files.
Choice of scheme when formatting usb flash drive in macos. How to reformat external hard drive without missing data. How do you extend c drive in windows 7 without formatting. This mode wipe hard drive will help you format a selected hard drive device and erase all data from it. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. Here are the steps of formattingreformatting portable hard drive on mac with super eraser for mac. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. The process involves the erasing of computer data and is often employed to remove errors and bring the computer back to its original settings.
Mar 21, 2017 connect the drive you want to securely delete, then click it in the sidebar. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Formatting a hard drive is the process of dividing a computer hard disk into marked sectors in order to prepare the disk surface to accept and store data. Not enough space to partition when formatting in mac osx. Is there a way to completely format or erase the data from hard drive so it cannot be recovered by another user. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. It said the ntfs is as good and sometimes a little faster than mac s native formatting. Weve checked our advice in this guide and found that no steps have. How to reformat to mac without losing files external drives. Backup entire mac hard drive to a usb drive and later restore. Once it is done, you can do hard disk format for mac and pc to enjoy the following advantages. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Ntfs is a file system that is optimal for windowsbased computer.
Then proceed to highlight your computers hard drive. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. Just remember that the format options on the erase panel change with time. Ask different is a question and answer site for power users of apple hardware and software. Hi, i am using an imac with the latest version of operating system. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Remember that this method can only be used to erase the hard disk drive which does not have the mac os installed on it. Thank you for helping us maintain cnets great community. However, the new external hard drive comes as formatted drive, but, if you think the external drive should be formatted as another format filesystem. When you attach an external drive to a mac to use with time machine and.
Learn more about erasing hard disks on mac from apple. Thus, the professional partition manager minitool partition wizard is recommended. Formatting a hard drive is the best way to start from scratch on a geeky project. Time machine requires that the drive be in a certain format. This mac disk formatting software is pretty simple to use.
Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. Jul 05, 2017 again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac apple. Installed a new debate 500gb 7200 rpm 32mb cache sata ssd hybrid hard drive on a mid 2009 macbook pro unibody.
So, now you know how to reformat a hard drive for mac. How to format external hard drivedisk on mac using disk utility. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. Its the safest way to try the mac os x beta software, without ever. You might already know the consequences of formatting a hard drive. Dec 05, 2019 before going ahead and formatting your hard drive for windows, you should get a backup. Hard drive to go between mac and pc without deleting anythin. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide.
Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Then super eraser for mac will help you format and erase the selected hard drive device. Do i really need to reformat my external hard disk to mac. Not enough space to partition when formatting in mac osx 10. Easy solution to reformat or format portable hard drive on mac. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Therefore, before you format mac pc drive, make sure that you have taken a backup of your important data. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. May 09, 2017 how to use external hard drive on mac without formatting. Oct 15, 2015 click on the erase tab, choose your external hard drive and select mac os extended journaled and then click erase then simply drag and drop your data onto your newly formatted disk. How to fix deep formatting problems with os x drives. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. In case you want to format an external hard drive or you want to know how to format flash drive on mac.
Click the erase button or tab, then complete these items. Jul, 20 for mac owners, one of the most annoyinginconvenient aspects of owning a mac is the external drive compatibility. Then run it and connect your portable hard drive with your mac. Make sure you click the drive you want to securely delete.
In the partition layout dropdown menu, select 1 partition. Apr 16, 2020 to format a hard drive, you can take advantage of a piece of thirdparty software. Enter a name that you want the volume to have after you erase it, such as macintosh hd. Note that formatting your drive will erase the contents, so make sure you back. Hard drive to go between mac and pc without deleting.
In mac, i am not really sure but many people says that it will not aff. The instructions told me to download and install the ntfs program so it would be compatible with both mac and windows. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. How to format a hard drive with ease in windows 1087. How to erase everything on macbook pro hard drive befre. Before lion, you had to boot from a cd or dvd system disk or a thirdparty utility, like disk warrior, or from an external drive with os x installed. How to reformat the external hard drive on mac without losing data. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device.
How to erase, change format of usb external hard drive. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. How to securely erase data from your mac and external drives. Completely erasing a disk drive formatting it is a rather easy task to pull off on os x, but for a. In disk utility on mac, you can erase and reformat storage devices to use with your mac. In the partition information box, enter an appropriate name for. The first time the procedure is performed on a drive it is called formatting. For some mac models, the partition option would be greyed out in disk utility.
Now in this interface, you will see a format option. Basically when formatting a pc you are deleting your operating system. 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 for time machine. It has many powerful features, such as migrate os to ssd, clone disk and so on. Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it. Feb 21, 2020 rightclick your hard disk and select get info. Select wipe hard drive choose your portable hard drive click on wipe now button. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. The drive was sold as a mac drive but was formatted for windows. The operating system will not locate any files without their index so when you look at the hard drive you would not see any data and assume the drive is erased. If youre not erasing the disk your mac started up from, you dont.
It may take some times based on the size of the hard drive, please be patient. This will wipe and reformat the drive to your specifications. How to reformat to mac without losing files external. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. Or if you wish to be able to transfer back and forth pc to mac or mac to pc, select the fat32 format. Learn how to format your external hard drive, and what file systems are. This method uses the utilities which can be run only on the mac os. Also, if your current hard drive is more than 5 years old, it probably is nearing the end of its service life and needs to be replaced. Seems like all the mac os formatting options are pretty useless then if its os x exclusive. Someone will be able to recover your data without much effort. Just make sure that you follow the tutorial presented above as it will help you very much in learning how the hard drive functions and looks. Is there no option to install steamos without deleting all. I understand the nvram is a seperate deal from the hard drive and consequently any os, but to be sure, the nvram on the device wouldnt be altered by the.
Choosing disk format type while formatting external drive. Just make sure the windows drive is safely plugged out, remove the power and sataide cables from it. When you take a hard drive that has been previously formatted and run it through the format process again, it is referred to, logically, as reformatting. There may be occasions when you need to format mac hard drive.
Erase everything on macbook pro with data wiper recommend. For that, you might buy a new external hard drive and you connected with your mac computer or windows pc. For example, you plan to backup dvds to mac hard drive or store other files and need to format an external hard drive for macos to extend storage space you are selling your mac computer and formatting mac startup disk drive to make it clean and new without any personal data. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. Select your macs hard drive in the lefthand column, to reveal more options, then select the partition button. Can find my mac still persist after erasing the hard drive. Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default. If you find your external hard drive is ntfs format, thats what the cause is. If you use a mac, the likelihood that youll have to reformat the drive is higher. This allowed me to do exactly what the partition command does, erasing anything on the drive there was previously nothing on the drive and was brand new, formatting in msdosfat, and using the scheme.
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. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. How to format external hard drive on a mac latest version. After you selecting the erasing algorithm, just click erase button to let the program completely destroy your hard drive data. There are a number of instances when users lose their important data due to formatting.
If you are using an external hard drive, or even an sd card or a usb stick, make sure that it is properly connected to your computer via the appropriate port. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac. This tool will quickly format the selected mac hard drive partition and permanently erase all. How to erase, change format of usb external hard drive in. You just need to select the hard drive you want to format, and then click on wipe now button. Rightclick on the drive you want to wipe, then select format.
Run it on your mac, choose this mode wipe hard drive. Mar 12, 2018 mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdos is the formatting option for pc. Tell you what, to keep it simple and avoid a heart attack just unplug the windows drive while installing steamos. There is a however a driver available which will allow your mac to write to ntfsformatted drives. A step by step guide to how to wipe a mac clean backblaze. It is professional partition magic which is designed to optimize partition and disk use. Youll want to do it before you sell your machine, for sure, but its also one of the steps you take when you. If you need to remove the hard drive with os files, you can use method 2. Formatting of any kind can leave the hard drive totally empty by erasing all your data. Choose mode wipe hard drive and choose the portable hard drive.
Feb, 2020 a quick format will only erase the file table from the filesystem. With my previous laptops pcs, ive always stored my data on an external hard drive. Do you take out the hard drive or ssd and smash it. How to set up new partition for mac os x beta without erasing file data. Read about it and found that id have to reformat it in mac os extended journaled. How to use external hard drive on mac without formatting. The incompatibility of the file system is the main cause of the errorexternal hard drive read only on mac.
Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. If youre formatting an external drive that you want to plug into a windows pc, we recommend choosing exfat. Reformatting external hard drive on mac is a bit different because it doesnt. Here are the steps to partition an external hard drive for mac and windows pc, which is a little tricky. If your hard disk is fat32, it works in both windows and mac but prone to viruses when used with windows. What disk utility looks like in lion through yosemite. As we talked before, deleting or formatting hard drive doesnt means its gone forever. How to set up new partition for mac os x beta without erasing. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. How to wipe a hard drive on your pc or mac digital trends. It is very important to save the integrity of your data on the hard drive. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Formatting or deleting or wiping hard drive for better.