Format Hard Drive (Mac) 1. Connect the external hard drive to the computer. Click Go on the top tool bar, and select Utilities. Open Disk Utility. Select the external hard drive on the left-hand side. Click the Partition tab. Change the Partition Layout from Current to 1 Partition. You can format the external hard drive or USB drive to make it compatible with both Mac and Windows machines. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesn't worry it's not complex. If you are tech savvy and use Windows and Mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between Mac and PC.
You can format the external hard drive or USB drive to make it compatible with both Mac and Windows machines. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesn't worry it's not complex.
If you are tech savvy and use Windows and Mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between Mac and PC. Windows and macOS filesystems are different and you might need to format the drive every time to use on both platforms. You don't need to format the hard drive every time you can choose a filesystem while formatting the drive so the hard drive or USB drive work on both Mac and PC
So to get rid of these situations we bring here a guide that will help you to format your drive which works on both platforms and you don't need to format and backup data every time. After cross-compatible formatting, simply unplug the drive from one machine and then plug it into another. Sounds good to you right? So let's started, how this works.
Understand file systems for Mac and Windows
There are three common file system types to format an external USB or hard drive, SSD drive, SD card and etc. FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT let's have a look what's the difference between these formats.
FAT 32 Format
This format is pretty old but supported and it's not efficient as compared to NTFS. It doesn't support big features but offers great compatibility which means it's compatible with all versions of Windows. It can only support 4GB file size and up to 8TB hard drivers. It's not capable to store files larger than 4GB.
NTFS Format
NTFS is a modern format system and Windows also uses this format for itself and for other non-removable drives by default. This format is also compatible with all versions of Windows but limited to none Windows OS as FAT32.
exFAT Format
exFAT drives are faster at reading and writing as compared to FAT32. This format can store large files and it's also lightweight. It's compatible with all versions of Windows and the best thing it's along with Windows it's also compatible with macOS, Linux, and Android, etc.
- If your drive is formatted as Windows default format NTFS then it's only readable to macOS. You can't do more than that or you have to install a separate app on Mac to read write the drive.
- Drive with macOS format HFS+ cant readable to Windows.
- FAT32 format works on both Windows and Mac but the problem is you can only work with files with a maximum size of 4GB.
Learn more: Copy data on NTFS drive in macOS
FAT32 is much better than NTFS and HFS+ becuase it works on both operating systems. You can also install drivers on each OS to make work your drive. So exFAT is much better than all of these formats and a simple option but this will not work on Leopard.
Format a USB Drive on Mac
Time needed: 5 minutes.
Reformat Seagate External Hard Drive
First, let's see how to format an external hard drive or USB drive in macOS which works with both Mac and PC platforms, first plug-in your drive into a macOS machine.
- Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility on your macOS, press
cmd + spacebarkeys, and type Disk Utility in the spotlight search. Open Disk Utility from the search results. - Erase Drive
On the Disk Utility interface, select an external drive click on the Erase button from the top of the window (make sure and backup your drive before erasing it).
- Drive format
Now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select the exFAT for Format option and click on the Erase. This will format the drive as exFAT format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms.
Format USB Drive in Windows
The below steps for formatting external drive is for Windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of Windows. To format your external drive hard drive in Windows to use on Mac and PC platforms, first plug-in your drive with a Windows machine.
Open the Disk Management tool by right-clicking on the start menu icon and then select Disk Management. Now right click on the external drive and click on the format option (double-check the drive name and capacity to make sure you are going to format the right drive.)
Now enter the Volume label as you need and change the File system for exFat and click OK. Now you are done.
Share your experience, how do you use an external hard drive on both Mac and PC. Did you format the drive as exFAT ? or use any utility that helps the system to read another type of file system. Please leave a comment below.
Related Content
by Shirly Chen, updated on 2016-08-26 to Erase Data
'Hi, I have a 2TB Seagate external hard drive. I am planning to sell it because I want to buy a new 4TB external hard drive. However, before reselling it, I want to permanently wipe all the data on it. I don't want to other people recover my files with data recovery software. So I am looking for a permanent erasure solution to wipe all the existing data and history data on the external hard drive, what should I do?' – Mark Jones
Permanent data erasure is the best way to destroy & wipe sensitive data on hard drive or storage media device. As we have known that data recovery software can easily recover deleted or formatted files. So deletion or format is not enough to permanently wipe data. Seagate external hard drive is famous removable device. You may store ten thousands of files or folders on the massive Seagate external hard drive. Under any of the following circumstances, you must want to solution to permanently wipe data from your Seagate external hard drive.
- You are sharing a Seagate external hard drive with someone else or you are going to lend your Seagate external hard drive to other people.
- You will donate, giveaway or resell your Seagate external hard drive.
- The Seagate external hard drive is full of useless files or virus, malware, etc.
- You want to regain the full storage of the Seagate external hard drive.
Wipe Seagate external hard drive with Super Eraser
When you are going to clean up the disk space of your Seagate external hard drive, you may just delete the files or format the Seagate external hard drive. However, there are two disadvantages when you use deletion or format. First of all, it takes much time for you to delete thousands of even more files. The second, the deleted or formatted files can be easily recovered by data recovery software. Other people can easily get your personal information by recovering your deleted/formatted files from your Seagate external hard drive.
So we develop a powerful tool – Super Eraser to permanently destroy and wipe data on hard drive or storage media device. Mac camera effects for windows. Super Eraser can securely and permanently wipe data on Seagate external hard drive, it makes data recovery impossible. After data is wiped by Super Eraser, the data can't be recovered by data recovery software or data recovery service. And Super Eraser offers three modes to permanently wipe your data.
How To Format My Seagate Hard Drive For Mac
Mode 1: Wipe Files or Folders on Seagate external hard drive.
Selectively wipe files of folders on the Seagate external hard drive. You don't need to wipe the entire hard drive.
Mode 2: Wipe entire Seagate external hard drive.
This mode will wipe the entire Seagate external hard drive to wipe all the existing files and deleted files on he Seagate external hard drive. It means it will wipe all the data and traces.
Mode 3: Wipe deleted files on Seagate external hard drive.
This mode will only wipe the deleted files or traces on your Seagate external hard drive without wiping the existing files.
Super Eraser will permanently wipe the data on your Seagate external hard drive. So before you use it to wipe your Seagate external hard drive, you should back up your useful files to other hard drive.
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Securely and permanently erase data from HDD, SSD, USB drive, memory card or other device, beyond the scope of data recovery.
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