HomeHow ToMacOSHow to Format External Hard Drive for Mac and PC
You can format an external hard drive or USB so that it’s compatible for both your Mac and your Windows PC.
Format external hard drive to required file system. The brand-new disk you purchase might not be formatted to the file system type you need. To change file system type, formatting should be done. To quickly remove content from external hard drive. Quick formatting is able to format a partition within seconds, and all data on the volume will be deleted. Fat32 is another option, but it limits file transfer to 4GB, so choose exFat when formatting your drive. For Mac, format your drive under disk utility. For PC, format your drive under disk management.
Without formatting the drive, you won’t be able to use your hard drive across different operating systems.
When you do format a hard drive, you’ll be able to access your data, media and files across any operating system.
This is extremely handy if you use a Mac and Windows operating system because you’ll be able to cross between both platforms and use your USB on anyone.
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Remember that everything gets wiped off your hard drive when you format it, so you’ll need to back it up before you follow the steps down below.
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Let’s get started…
Format Using MS-DOS FAT
The good thing about changing the format to FAT is that it works with all Macs and PCs, plus it uses less memory and it works faster.
The negatives of using Fat is that it can’t contain files bigger than 4GB.
To format your hard drive to FAT on Mac:
- Click on Spotlight and open Disk Utility
- Click on the USB drive you want to format
- Click the Erase tab at the top
- Choose the MS-DOS (FAT) in the format drop down
- Click Erase and follow the prompts
- Your external hard drive to now formatted
Remember that once you’ve formatted your hard drive, it will get wiped so you’ll need to backup the content on your external drive.
If you’re using a USB, you can simply drag its contents to a folder in your PCs hard drive and upload it back to your external hard drive once it has been formatted.
Format Using ExFAT
The good about formatting to exFAT is that it can handle unlimited file sizes and partition sizes.
The cons of exFAT are that you can only use it with Mac OS X 10.6.5 or newer and your Windows PC needs to be either Windows Vista SP1 or Windows 7 and above.
Another problem with exFAT is that it’s extremely slow so moving files to this drive will take several minutes.
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To Format using exFAT on Windows PC:
- Plug in your external hard drive in Windows PC
- Open File Explorer
- Right-click on your external drive and select Format
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- Choose exFAT in the menu
- Click Start
- Your external drive is now formatted
After formatting your drive, it’s now compatible for both your Mac and your Windows PC.
Fat is the best option to use because you can use it on any OS, however, it can only contain 4GB which may not be enough for you.
If you have a new OS system, I’d definitely recommend exFAT because it can contain unlimited data.
Bottom Line
Going into Disk Unity then clicking the erase tab is the quickest way to format an external drive on your MAC.
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If you have any questions or you’re having any problems, comment down below and I’ll help you further.
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3. How to Format a Hard Drive on macOS (macOS Sierra or Earlier)
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The built-in disk manager tool on Mac Disk Utility can be used to format Mac hard drive without any other third party tools. If you've all set, follow steps below to format internal startup disk and Mac external hard drive, HDD, etc. on MacBook Pro/Air, iMac using Disk Utility. We emphasize once again before we get started that formatting hard drive for Mac and Windows PC will delete all these data on the drive.
Step 1: If you want to format Mac external hard drive, connect the external hard drive you'd like to format to the computer. If you are going to format extra internal drive on Mac, you have to partition hard drive on Mac.
Step 2: Open Disk Utility by heading to Finder > Applications > Utilities and clicking on Disk Utility. You can add the Disk Utility to the Dock for quicker access.
Step 3: Select the external hard drive on the left-hand panel you want to format on Mac. You'll see the selected hard drive's info displayed.
Step 4: Click 'Erase' button at the top of the Window, and a window will pop up informing you that the erasing will wipe out all the current data on the drive.
Step 5: On the Erase window, enter a name, select OS X Extended (Journaled) format, and choose GUID Partition Map on the Scheme filed.
Step 6: Click 'Erase' tab to start erasing/formatting Mac hard drive. Now, you can use external drive on Mac to copy DVDs, movies, photos, videos etc.
Step 2: Open Disk Utility by heading to Finder > Applications > Utilities and clicking on Disk Utility. You can add the Disk Utility to the Dock for quicker access.
Step 3: Select the external hard drive on the left-hand panel you want to format on Mac. You'll see the selected hard drive's info displayed.
Step 4: Click 'Erase' button at the top of the Window, and a window will pop up informing you that the erasing will wipe out all the current data on the drive.
Step 5: On the Erase window, enter a name, select OS X Extended (Journaled) format, and choose GUID Partition Map on the Scheme filed.
Step 6: Click 'Erase' tab to start erasing/formatting Mac hard drive. Now, you can use external drive on Mac to copy DVDs, movies, photos, videos etc.