Right click on the partition and select delete volume this will remove the partition. Wondering what the best format for your new external hard drive is. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format a hard drive partition in windows xp tech. If you know youll be using computers running updated versions of these operating systems, exfat is the clear best choice. In the disk management, youll see your external hard drive as partition or. Now i want to format this hard drive using mac filesystem and install mac os x. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to find the program.
To format external drive to file system compatible with mac and pc, connect the drive to your computer and follow the detailed steps given below take formatting hard drive to exfat in windows 7 for example. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt. This freeware hdd low level format utility can erase, lowlevel format and recertify a sata, ide, sas, scsi, ssd hard disk drive. Now, click on the top partition, name it windows, and change its format to msdos. Select the drive you wish to format from the list in the left sidebar of the disk utility window. Best format for external drive readable in os x and windows. If you format your fat32 drive in windows, the drive partition cannot be. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. Reformatting a hard drive prepares the disk surface to accept and store data. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with.
The first step in repurposing a windows xp computer is to reformat the hard drive, and this is how it should be done. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. This also allows you to restore time machine backups on windows. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator.
Follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Hdd low level format tool is a freeware utility for lowlevel hard disk drive formatting. Reformat hard drive with windows xp whitecanyon software. Connect the hdd to a mac and format the drive as fat32 and then connect the same mac hdd to windows and convert it to ntfs. Mac os x has had support for reading ntfs formatted disk for a few versions, but still doesnt have write support. Easily recover lost files from formatted windows xp hard drive. Actually, computer starts correctly, and windows xp is loaded.
If you want to make your drive compatible with mac and windows, you need to format it with a common file system for mac and windows. How to partition, format, install ssds in windows xp when. One is using the easeus wiping tool to easily erase the partitions or disks in case you want to keep the system, the other is wiping hard drive and os together in the winpe environment with a bootable disk. If you know youre going to use a drive on both mac and windows, you. Open the disk management tool by rightclicking this pc manage disk management. Data is stored on a disk in a specific assigned location. You will learn how to format the external hard disk which has default ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. Rightclick on windows icon, select disk management. Typically, there is no reason to choose this option unless youre planning to use the external hard drive on a windows xp or earlier machine. Connect your external hard drive to your windows 10 pc. However, the ntfs file system is supported by windows xp and later versions.
Ntfs is the default file system for windows operating system and hfs for mac operating system. Then click the second partition, name it mac, and change its format to mac os extended journaled. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Itll split the drive, and create a fat32 partition for. The default guid partitioning scheme wont be recognised by 32bit windows xp and earlier windows operating systems and mac os x versions earlier than 10. Now that you know which format to choose, its time to learn how to format external hard drive for mac. How to wipe a hard drive windows xp without cd easeus. Mac osx provides readonly supported for ntfs drive, and only. External data storage devices such as usb flash drives, external hard disk. If i format my lacie disk on a pc windows, one of the partitions i think it was the mac side can only be at most 32gb.
Give your settings a final lookover and click apply. In the guide below im going to tell you how to format a partition correctly. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux. Likewise, users can reformat a hard drive with windows xp to remove viruses or. I had information from a broken mac backed up at best buy, but because my mac broke, now i only have a windows computer. Then click the erase button at the top of the window, in the new popup window, and type the name of drive.
If after using them and windows xp sp3 refuses to recognize them then it might be time to think of upgrading the os. Unlike windows os, mac os doesnt provide quick format tool. If you are going to recover lost files from formatted windows xp hard drive, doyourdata is a reliable option. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Ps, i have an external hard drive case that the 160gb is in. Using elements external hd with windows xp wd portable. Windows cant normally read macformatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. Hdd low level format tool download 2020 latest for. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities.
How to format a hard drive partition in windows xp. External data storage devices such as usb flash drives, external hard disk drives hdds, and solid state drives ssds provide one of the easiest ways to transfer files between separate computers without accessing the. Formatting your hard drive is a relatively easy and very effective way to. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. So, do your disk formatting on a mac, and you will not have this problem. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. Needless to say, make sure you backup all you data before using either of these, as they will completely erase format and partition your hdd. I forgot to mention that my os is windows 7 and i dont have access.
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. Plug in your external hdd to the usb port of your computer then go to my computer find your external drive rightclick it and select format. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and. How to format drive for mac and windows computer technician blog. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to use mac formatted external hard drive on windows. How to install mac os x upon ntfs partition with win xp on it. Will also work with any usb and firewire external drive enclosures as well as sd, mmc, memorystick and compactflash media. Lowlevel formatting is a term which describes the disk formatting process.
I understand that you are facing issues with windows 10. Formatting lacie hdd macwindows xp partition macrumors. If you have a usb drive, and you plan to use it on both a mac and pc, things can get a bit tricky here. Select the mac drive from the list of drives make sure this is the drive you want to work on, if you do it for the windows formatted drive in the list, it may cost you a lot of important data. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. If you want to share files that you have backed up between mac and pc, now. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. I checked the disk utility, and it only will let me format it to a mac format.
How do i partition, format and install ssds in windows xp when the ssd is an additional drive in an existing system. I had it formatted for mac os journaled but it wasnt readable in xp or windows. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. An application which helps perform this action is called the hdd low level format tool. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Then click the dropdown menu beside format and select msdos fat the fat32 file format or exfat. Format external hard disk drive for mac os and windows. Therefore, even the oldest versions of operating systems such as windows xp sp1 and. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. I recently bought a 250gb hard drive for my apple imac, and i want to take the 160gb hard drive that is in there now, and make it formatted to a pc windows xp how do i do that. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp.
Windows xp, vista, windows 7 and all of the mac operating systems. This small program will erase, lowlevel format and recertify a. Hdd low level format tool 2020 full offline installer setup for pc 32bit64bit. So, if you want to use an external hard drive on both windows and mac, you need to format it to a filesystem that is compatible with windows pc and mac. Need to reformat the hard drive in windows xp and start with a clean slate. Seagate backup plus slim user manual optional formatting. Recover lost files from windows xp hard drive after the device is not formatted, do you want to format it now. Old windows xp desktops and laptops can be turned into offline media centers for a family room, play computers for a childs bedroom, recipe holders for the kitchen, etc. Find out how to format an external drive or usb disk making the drive work with both windows pc and mac can read and write. Seagate backup plus is preformatted exfat for compatibility with both mac and windows computers. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need.
If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. It is important to reformat the hard drive before selling, donating, or returning a computer to an employer. Pcs running windows xp sp3, windows vista sp1, and windows 7. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. Format external hard drive with windows builtin tool. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat.
What format for my external drive allows use with mac and. When your format the disk on a mac, you can make both partitions as big or small as you want, relative to your total disk size. Rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. At some stage in your computers life things are going to take a turn for the worse, and you will need to format a partition. Macyourself blog archive how to format a drive for mac and pc. So what is the best format so that all can readwrite to it normally. To format a partition, logical drive or basic volume. This tutorial shows you how to wipe a hard drive in windows xp without cd before selling or replacing it in two ways. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in thefile explorer window and select format. How to partition, format, install ssds in windows xp when ssd is an additional drive in an existing system.
In disk utility on your mac, format a disk that can be used with both windows. Hdd low level format tool free download and software. Lacie lac9000298 rugged mini 2tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. Finally, an exfat partition will be created on your external hard disk so that it could be shared between mac and windows pc. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. It seems they formatted the drive to the mac format, but i have no way to access the data, at least i think.