Reformatting hard drive mac and pc how to#
Reformatting hard drive mac and pc for mac#
Reformatting hard drive mac and pc mac os x#
Reformatting hard drive mac and pc full#

However, Microsoft recommends against using FAT32 whenever possible in favor of exFAT. FAT32 formatted drives also work for PC and Mac sharing, in particular with older versions of both operating systems. Set the number to the maximum to use the entire drive in a single partition.

Reformatting hard drive mac and pc mac os x#

Both Windows and Mac OS X allow you to adjust the size of the format partitions on external hard drives. Formatting a hard drive will erase all data that’s stored on it. However, backup any data on the external hard drive you want to keep on another device before formatting. So if you want to do heavy file sharing between Mac and Windows with a lot of reading and writing, it is better to format a drive as FAT32 as discussed above. Mac users can mount and read NTFS formatted Windows drives, making NTFS compatible with the Mac on the reading and mounting front, but writing to an NTFS drive requires using either third party software or enabling NTFS write support on the Mac using an experimental functionality bundled on the Mac.

The NTFS file system is another option to use for Windows formatted drives and volumes, but it has limited compatibility with Mac OS by default. If you require single files to be larger than 4GB, use exFAT instead, though you will lose some compatibility with older versions of Mac OS X and Windows. One of the limitations of using FAT32 is the file size limit, which limits files on the drive to being 4GB in size or less. This widespread compatibility makes FAT an ideal file system to use for external hard drives that are intended for use in environments with multiple operating systems. Once you have done with formatting, the drive will be compatible to be read and written to on both a Mac and PC, and the resulting FAT file system is compatible with all versions of Mac OS X, and Windows, including Windows 10, it’s one of the most widely recognized and usable file system formats. Hard drive can be formatted using both FAT32 and exFAT.

Reformatting hard drive mac and pc for mac#

Remo Recover for Mac is recommended here.” In the event of not having backups, then you can recover formatted external hard drive data using a reliable Mac Hard drive recovery software.

Remember, formatting a drive erases all data contained on it so back up important files before proceeding. “Drives format very quickly, though the total time taken will depend on the size of the drive. Click Options and choose Master Boot Record as the partition type, then click OK and Apply.From the Partition Layout dropdown menu, select 1 Partition.Click the drive, then select Partition tab.

Reformatting hard drive mac and pc full#

When you want to use your drive with older versions of Windows, you may also need to set the partition scheme to Master Boot Record (MBR) for full Windows compatibility:

Give the drive a name(optional) and click the Erase button to format the drive.

Then click the pulldown menu alongside Format and select MS-DOS (FAT).

Click the drive name on the left side list in Disk Utility, and then click the Erase tab.

Attach the drive you wish to format for dual compatibility to the Mac.

And it is recommended to carry out the entire process on Mac OS X You can format any hard drive, flash drive, SSD, USB drive, that is accepted by both a Mac and Windows machine.

Reformatting hard drive mac and pc how to#

How to Format a Drive for Mac and Windows PC Compatibility? In this article, we are going to introduce you with the entire process in few simple guidelines. It is just a matter of few minutes to do this. And if you are going to use Mac and Windows PC frequently, you will find this as very useful as any data, files, media files stored on the drive can be easily accessible from any operating system. Well, you can format the drive and make it as excellent cross-platform compatible to work with both Windows and Mac. And they are incompatible with each other! Now, the question is how to make hard drive compatible with Mac and PCs? While Windows uses NTFS file system, Mac hard drives are formatted with HFS file system. The irony is that, by default, Windows and Mac use different file systems. Make your hard disk or USB flash drive compatible to both Mac and Windows PCs using this easy step by step guide.