How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. You can also try the terminal app, though its a commandline tool that requires you to. Then you can choose one of the hard drive and format it by click on format button. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Working with terminal start off by running the following command in the command line.
You need to name your external drive untitled for the terminal command to work. How to install os x after formatting your hard drive. Like paragon, users can use the finder to work with the drive. Here, you will learn three ways to format a hard drive in windows 10 by using. Diskutil list this is going to list all the mounted drives on your mac. Instead of a menu bar, tuxera installs an optional control window. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in 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. Cannot mount external hard drive on mac, how to fix.
How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Most users use disk utility to erase a disk or hard drive. Wipe external hard drive on mac via terminal command line. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can. How to install macos on an external drive macworld uk. How to format toshiba harddrive for mac apple community. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. Choose a file system to which you want to format your external drive. But both of them cant format the hard drive which the mac os is installed on.
However, if you want to test apfs out before then, youll have to wipe a drive and reformat it with the apfs file system. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. This guide covers how to format a hard drive using macos. 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 erase a disk from command line in mac os x osxdaily. Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on. Navigate to applications utilities and choose terminal. This mac propriety file system and is used in ios and mac. 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. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. In this tutorial we look at formatting disks via the gui app called disk utility and its equivalent command line tool diskutil. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk utility. Additional information how to format a hard drive for mac. 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.
Once you have found the proper drive to erase, just copy its identifier so you can use it for the next command. 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. In this video i show you how to reinstall mac os x on your apple computer. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Just launch the disk utility, rightclick or controlclick the drive containing your apfs partition, and select erase. You can format an external drive in os x using disk utility and terminal. Hard drive format mac software free download hard drive. The two hard drive formatting software for mac can help you securely format hard drive or device under mac os. These processes will work for hard drives, external drives, and flash. Unformat mac hard drive recover formatted hard drive on. Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer. I received a replacement 750gb external hard drive from western digital. Then in the next method, we will format usb drive from mac terminal. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b.
Verify and repair volume via terminal mac os x launch terminal from your dock, utilities folder, or via an app launcher like alfred. Simply connect the external drive via thunderbolt, usb. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. The disk manager tool is able to list all hard drives and external devices on your mac. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. Solving read only external drive problems on your mac. First, let us look at how to create a bootable drive using terminal. My disk utility cant read my ubuntu usb installer so i needed to format it using the terminal.
This will completely wipe the drive, deleting all the files on it and converting it to whatever file system you choose. Worried about installing the latest version of macos on your mac. 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. Likewise, the mac os x operating system can read from, but cannot write. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. 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. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. 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. The easiest way to format the drive for mac is by using macoss builtin disk utility for fat32 or exfat. So first, we will use the disk utility program, which is a gui and very. It can happen for external usb and firewire as well as internal disks. How to format an external hard drive focus photo school. This method should work on all apple computers and with all recent versions of mac os. How to format a drive with the apfs file system on macos.
Rightclick on the icon for your external drive on mac desktop, then select get info. 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 convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. The first step in the process is to connect your external hard drive to your mac.
The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. How to format an external drive in os x make tech easier. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Formatting a hard disk drive hdd in an external hard drive enclosure is done the same way like an internal drive. Apple really, really wants you to download apps from the app store so. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. Choose another file system from the format box and click erase. The previous defunct hd was also fat32, which i did not. If you connect your wd hard drive without reformatting, youll be unable to copy files to the disk as mac read only.
How to access external hd thru terminal apple community. You can, however, format a windows hard drive from a mac if you. 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. How to erase or format a mac hard drive via command line. But some mac users might need to erase them from the command line on mac os. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. Connect your hard drive or external hard drive to your mac. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows.
If you dont know how to format a hard drive or an external hard drive, youve come to the right place. Now, im trying to format it so that i can use it on pc instead of mac. Hard drive format mac software mac dvd to hard drive converter v. To do that, the only thing you need is a bit of precise. The first step in the process is to connect your external hard drive. If you format your external hard drive to hfs, you can use it on mac and linux by removing journaling. 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. 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. 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. Paragon disk wipe allows you to create a bootable usbflash drive or external hard drive that will help you to completely. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Open terminal, either by spotlight or by opening the app from applications utilities. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac.
I just did the first step, then i finished with disk utility to change it into the format i wanted. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. To format an external disk using terminal, simply follow the steps below. 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. 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. Have you ever tried to format a disk in mac os x and disk utility wont unmount the hard drive for formatting. Information on how to partition the drive via terminal is also wanted.
450 344 1318 469 199 1355 1183 816 700 712 26 779 1254 1023 349 1200 15 709 882 114 609 752 377 1372 61 106 1178 312 968 1385 957 300 1073 705 571 616 797