The reason is perhaps that seagate external hard drive has been well known for a long time as one of the most reliable drives for storing data. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. Fortunately disk utility, built right into macos, can help. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. If the external hard drive is pre formatted for mac, disk management will list 3 partitions and you will not be able to delete the health efi system partition because its a protected partition. If you have done all this, you have successfully erased all of the data on your macbook pro hard drive. After youre done, dont forget to remove the external hard. Macbook proexternal hard drivewindows pc apple community. Any external hard drive will work with pcs or macs, as long as the connectors are there firewire, usb, etc. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice.
For instance, users want to write data to and read data from, to do a clean installation of the windows system, to get rid of a virus or malware, to erase the data before giving the drive to someone else or throwing it away, or some other reasons. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Now, how can i reformat and install os x from the installer placed in the external hard drive. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Its easy to reformat your hard drive using disk utility in macos or os x. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. We did this because disk utility cant format with ntsf, but the windows installer would recognize msdos. Learn more about erasing hard disks on mac from apple. Be smart and get one for yourself, but before that i need to give you the best external hard drive for macbook pro. Gtechnology 10tb gdrive usbc desktop external hard drive. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. If you dont want to lose data from your hard drive, export the data or back it up before continuing.
Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Kindly note that the products chosen below are mainly based on our personal preferences and the guidelines as shown above. The volume your mac started up from is named macintosh hd, unless. If possible, back up your mac using an external hard drive or cloud storage system prior to formatting your disk to avoid personal data loss. How to reformat my hard drive using my macbook air quora. My old hard drive crashed on my macbook pro mid 12 and i bought a new hard drive to use.
Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. If you want more detail on setting up an external hard drive for time machine you can check out my article on the site. I would like to format my external hard drive so that i can edit in on my macbook pro. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. The very first back up is a full back up of your entire macbook pro internal hard drive note this could take some time after that time machine does incremental backups. Ntfs is a commonly used file format for windows systems and external devices.
Its fast 540 mbs read and write speeds are more than enough to transfer any file. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Do i need to format my external hard drive macrumors. Lacie 1tb rugged ssd pro external drive with thunderbolt. Tkd 1tb ssd hard drive replacement for macbook air pro 11 15 a1502 a98 a1465 a1466 late 20, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 mac pro a1481 mojave 5yr warranty. If your mac doesnt work, you can do this using a second mac and an external hard drive caddy. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system part 3. It doesnt matter how the drive is formatted out of the box, since you can reformat any way you like. Or perhaps you are setting up an external drive for backups. This stepbystep guide will show you how to format an external hard drive on a mac, and how to partition a drive on a mac. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility.
How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. Step 2 on the left side of the utilities screen, find the name of the external hard drive you want to format and select it. Seagate expansion 1tb portable external hard drive usb 3. Formatting your macbook pro will erase all personal contents from your computer. Your advice on formatting the external hard drive is rather insightful. This wikihow teaches you how to format a seagate hard drive on a mac computer. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. For instance, you might wish to format as sd card, pen drive, external hard disk, etc. How can i reformat the internal drive and install mountain. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Then, as i was moving my computer the hard drive fell down still plugged in. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it.
How to recover files from external hard drive for macbook pro. Most external hard drives hd are sold in a format called ntfs, which is designed to work with windows. Now im not too sure how to set this new hard drive up as in putting an os on it and formatting it correctly im not concerned with getting any of my old data back on it, i just want to set. Why is it working on my imac and not on my macbook pro. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as. Because the external hard drive has been assigned to the virtualbox machine, it is the only drive that will be listed. 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. I have a macbook pro from 2012 and an external hard drive samsung portable something. Besides, i will also tell you how to recover files from external hard drive for macbook pro, helping you avoiding data loss. Oh well guess this is a question for a different thread. When i connected the hard drive to the windows xp cd, the music was there but in aiff format itunes doesnt seem to recognize it. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it.
How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. I was a windows guy, who moved over the mac but only recently started saving things to the mac file system on my macbook pro. Formatting the drive will erase all of the data on it. Apfs apple file system this is the new file system that apple bought to macs with high sierra and it will. Amazons choice for external hard drive for macbook pro seagate stgx2000400 portable 2tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. External usb hard drives are lightweight, portable and inexpensive. I have some issues with the new hard drive i am currently installing. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. How to set up time machine on an external hard drive for macbook, imac. Formatting the drive will permanently erase all the data and files stored on the hard drive forever. However, if you are using a macbook pro or any mac computer, the hard drive must be formatted with a file system your mac can support.
Macbook pro inch, 2020 macbook pro 16inch, 2019 macbook pro inch, 2016 2019. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. Macbook pro retina, inch, late 2012 2015 macbook pro retina, 15inch, mid 2012 2015 macbook retina, 12inch, early 2015 2017. To reset a macbook, turn it on and immediately hold down one of these. I have just saved necessary files and also the installer for os x 10.
For example, you plan to backup dvds to mac hard drive or store other files and need to format an external hard drive for macos to extend storage space you are selling your mac computer and formatting mac startup disk drive to make it clean and new without any personal data. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its. Discover the world of external hard drives for mac. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with your. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. But dont worry there is a way you can make your own. For this you will need an usb drive or a blank dvd. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility.
This is a great thing to do when you first purchase a drive or when you are looking to. On a windows computer, i can plug in any external hard drive i have here and slide over folders of info on to it, easy peazy. It didnt hit the floor but it hit one of the legs of the table. Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. This small compact ssd drive from samsung comes with both a usbc to usbc cable and a usbc to usba, meaning its perfect to use with your macbook or mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. If the hard drive is preformatted as ntfs, like most hard drives in the market, the mac os x can only read data from it, not write any data on it. I have backed up all my data i dont have enough hard drive space to make a time machine backup.
Format a hard drive using disk utility which is in your applicationsutilities folder choose the appropriate format. I copied a cd onto the hard drive using my macbook pro. You can format a drive using the disk utility in mac. How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. They are great for backing up data, creating extra storage space on your computer and transferring large amounts of data between two or more computers. A lot of people including you, storing important data on seagate external hard drive instead of on your pcmac hard drive. External hard drive for macbook pro macrumors forums.
While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. Apfs apple file system is only for newer macs running macos 10. Three weeks ago, i bought a brand new 2tb seagate expansion to backup my macbook pro before i updated it to the latest macos. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. Using apples free disk utility app, you can easily format the drive, give it a label, or even partition it and create multiple volumes from a single. Gtechnology external hard drive for mac, usb have it all. These devices also act as a back up of your data files. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive. Lacie 2tb mobile drive external hard drive usbc usb 3.
An hhd, or hybrid hard drive, uses a combination of these methods. The format is not used for the internal hard drives in mac. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x.
Step 1 connect the external hard drive you want to format to your mac, then start the disk utility app that you can find under applications utilities. It seems that the hard drive is formatted for windows but it does work read and write. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to speed, durability, price, and information safety, so make sure you know which you prefer. Before formatting any hard drive, its a good idea to backup any data or files you want to save before formatting. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Disk utility can be used to format external drives as well. Thus, if you wish to format ntfs on mac, then you must be using an external storage unit. There may be occasions when you need to format mac hard drive. If youre erasing an external drive, make sure that its connected. Which mac file system is best for an external drive. My hard drive in my macbook completely broke a few weeks ago didnt have much on it thankfully, so i bought a new hard drive and replaced the old one.
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