Formatting external hard drive for 2 comp apple community. How to format external hard drive and usb drive under macos. If youve encountered a problem with macos, the solution might be to reinstall the system on your mac. Of course, its the easiest way to reformat external hard drive on mac. So you can only open, read and copy the mac os files to windows directory. Discover the world of external hard drives for mac. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. This tool allows you to manage the partitions on drives connected to your computer. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. If you buy an external hard drive and want it to be capable of being your macs startup disk that is, a bootable disk. Someday when we are going to resell, donate or throw away our external hard drive, usb drive, memory card, we should not only format the external hard drive usb but also destroy and wipe all personal data on our device. It asked for the password on the my passport drive and i entered the wrong password 5 times. In this tutorial, i will show you how to reformat the hard drive in your mac and reinstall os x for that factory fresh finish.
How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Connect your mac formatted drive to your windows pc and launch the hfsexplorer with admin privileges. Download and install the trial version of the software on your mac. When you use aweeraser for mac to erase a hard drive for os x 10.
Lets take a look at the different types of formats, and which are best for video production. This can be done by any mac owner, but it can be a little bit complicated. Easy steps to reformat external hard drive on mac step 1. How to set up external hard drive for mac and pc, time machine backup and file.
I have just saved necessary files and also the installer for os x 10. In this article, i will show easy solutions to format a hard drive or external hard drive for macos 10. Open the disk utility app on your mac using one of the following methods, depending on the type of disk or volume you want to erase. If the installer doesnt see your disk, or it says that it cant install on your. How to fix seagate external hard drive readonly on mac. If you have a catastrophic harddrive crash that requires you to initialize format or replace your boot drive. Three solutions to format a hard drive under macos 10. Can a mavericksbased backup be restored to a lionbased imac. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac. It scans your hard drive for old caches, broken apps, and app. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left. To start up from macos recovery, turn on your mac and immediately press and hold. I installed the wd drive utilities for mac and actioned it.
How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. Aweeraser for mac, the most powerful mac data erasure software, can help you securely and easily reformat external hard drive on mac. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. You cannot reformat a volume when you are currently booted to an operating system on. Now, i have a new macbook pro and all my data is still on that external hd. Or you may opt to make a normal backup in your external drive or another computer. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. This can be useful for a couple of different reasons. If you need to burn these to a usb or external hard drive using windows, then use a program called transmac. If you have known how to format a hard drive under macos 10. Oct 25, 2014 hello, i have a wd my passport external hard drive. Be sure the drive is connected to the computer before starting the installation.
There are various reasons why you might need to format external hard drives. Here, we will introduce a secure solution to erase hard drive for os x 10. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Frankly, i thought that it was necessary to use the wd software. How do i install and format new hard drive in mid2012 macbook pro.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Create a bootable install usb drive of mac os x 10. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. Based on what i ahve been reading, it seems as though os x can do it. How to install os x mavericks on an external drive apple gazette. A user has to know how to convert mac formatted hard drive to windows formatted. How to use macos recovery to restore the operating system. Install, boot, and run mac os x from an external hard drive. 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. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. Heres how to fix a slew of mac os x mavericks problems that users of the new os have been coming across.
Weve shown you how to securely wipe a hard drive with your mac, and doing so in recovery mode isnt really different from doing so within macos. This is not hard to do, and will take you only about a minutes effort. You can erase the drive and reinstall os x using the recovery system. Before you can use it though, you need to properly format or reformat a hard drive so that it will become compatible or readable with the operating system that you are using. You will see the main window with three options as illustrated in figure 1. What disk utility looks like in lion through yosemite. Most external hard drives you buy will come out of the box preformatted for a windows computer ntfs.
In this tutorial ill show you how to install os x on an external drive without replacing the particular version of the operating system, on the mac, itself. There may be occasions, however, when you want to reformat your mac s hard drive. Install os x mavericks on a portable usb drive to gain power over system. Whilst this tutorial is entitled how to install os x yosemite onto an external volume, the same principles apply for installing lion, mountain lion or mavericks on to an external volume.
By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Use a writable cddvd, a usb drive, or any of the multitude of cloud options to keep. How can i reformat the internal drive and install mountain. The first thing youre going to need to do is format the external hard drive properly. Oct 15, 2015 you would have to copy the data on your hard drive to your mac, then reformat it with the disk utility application. Open disk utility applicationsutilitiesdisk utilities 2. Time machine and seagate external hard drive how to format how to use set up. How hard is it to reformat the hard drive on a mac computer.
If you need to erase before installing macos, select disk utility from the. Youll need to put your mac into macos recovery, which gives you. Any ideas for me to get this drive erased and reformatted. Select the seagate drive on the left that shows the capacity. You will be asked to choose a disk on which to install. Dec 29, 2015 follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. Firstly, it allows you to run another copy of os x without needing any additional mac computer. Keep in mind that a mac can generally read other file formats, but for the best performance. How hard is it to reformat the hard drive on a mac. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Reformat external drive on mac os x tech with ease.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Dec 26, 2017 if you want a truly clean installation, however, you need to first wipe your hard drive. Now is the time to install the operating system so your dead computer can come back to life. Ntfs is a file system that is optimal for windowsbased computer. Tutorial to rescue formatted external hard drive mac. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Click on the erase tab, choose your external hard drive and select mac os extended journaled and then click erase then simply drag and drop your data onto your newly formatted disk. When disk utility cant repair this disk error appears if you forget to make a backup of your external hard drive or other data drives and format it, free download minitool mac data recovery on your mac.
A hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Connect external hard disk to the computer and launch the software. The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. If you work solely on a mac, but need to send files to someone working on a pc, your external hard drive needs to be set up for both operating systems. Run mac os x on an appletv with an external hard drive how to. How to check a macs free hard drive space macworld. How to wipe your mac and reinstall macos from scratch. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. Such fat 32 drives can be used on both windows and mac os x without any faults.
How to format an external hard drive for use with a mac. Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files. Read about it and found that id have to reformat it in mac os extended journaled. In the last chapter you wiped your data clean from the laptop.
Can i install os x from external hard drive to internal hard drive. To start up from macos recovery, turn on your mac and immediately press. You can upgrade to mountain lion or mavericks from app store after that. Has your external hard drive slowed to a crawl after the move to mavericks when trying. How to reformat to mac without losing files external drives. Quickly determine the condition of the drive in your. Windowsformatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. In disk utility on mac, you can erase and reformat storage devices to use with your mac. Once you click ok, move over to the format field and select mac os. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. External hard drives are handy tools in storing files, data and documents. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. When prompted, type y to confirm that you want to erase the volume. Feb 08, 2020 now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want.
Is there a way to reformat this external harddrive on pc. Software and firmware downloads seagate support us. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. There are so many things you can do with past os x like lion, mavericks or yosemite each. Install the os x version you want with this quick and easy. If you purchase an external hard drive as an addition to expand the storage space of your computer, most likely you would need to format it. Mar 31, 2020 if you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. Follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers. Sometimes, users need to use the same external hard drive interchangeably on mac and pc. How to make a bootable mavericks install drive macworld. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. The default solution for installing os x mavericks is to download it free from the.
Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. I have a wd my studio ii which i configured in a raid 1 array using the western digital raid manager on a mac. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive mac. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online.
Automatically back up all your important files from your computer to your storage device. Hurry to get files off failing hard drive on mac with great tool. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Free download disk formatting software for mac to easily format mac hard drive, format external hard drive, usb, memory card under mac os.
How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. The drive is currently formatted to work on my macbook, but that now that i want to format my wifes macbook to use it, its looking like i need to erase the contents of the volume to do so. If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
Download and install external hard drive formatting software for mac. How to properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. So, data recovery becomes impossible after data erasure. Sep 18, 2015 most of the external storage drives like portable hard drive come preformatted with fat32 file system. How to read a macformatted drive on a windows pc safe. If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device. Also, if a seagate external hard drive is readonly or files are locked on mac due to ntfs format, you can use iboysoft ntfs for mac to mount it in readwrite mode on mac. The incompatibility of the file system is the main cause of the errorexternal hard drive read only on mac. Is there a way to switch to letting os x mavericks manage the raid 1. How to fix common mac os x mavericks problems digital trends. Two methods to change seagate external hard drives from readonly back to readwrite, so that you can edit, delete, and rename files on this seagate external hard drive. Gtechnology 1tb gdrive mobile ssd rseries storage next gallery image.
Although the mac operating system allows you to read the files on external hard drive, you. I have backed up all my data i dont have enough hard drive space to make a time machine backup. Looking for a way to install and run os x on an external hard drive. The software then said i had the wrong password 5 times. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. If you want to play it safe and create a bootable install drive for mac os x, you can. Now its time to breathe life back into the macbook pro by using your boot drive you created in the earlier steps. Download hfsexplorer and install it accurately on your windows pc. How can i reformat the internal drive and install mountain lion from. This will work in all modern versions of apple mac osx including 10. If you have a mac you should format the drive for your mac first thing, before you start using it.
If youre having serious problems with your mac, macos recovery can help get you back up and running. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Wd my passport external hard drive set up guide for mac. And you wont find any other methods that could be done as easy as this one. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. Time machine and seagate external hard drive how to format. With my previous laptops pcs, ive always stored my data on an external hard drive. Once your drive is prepared with your bootable version of os x, erase the unwanted version. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to boot a mac from an external drive or alternate. Now, how can i reformat and install os x from the installer placed in the external hard drive.
Understanding hard drive partitioning with disk management. Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as difficult as it might seem. It offers the easist solution which allows you to reformat external hard drive on. There is only one rule that you need to keep in mind when reformatting a drive. Browse and download the latest software, apps, utilities, plugins, and firmware content. Format the mac hard drive for the clean install of mavericks. The new 2018 guide to install or reinstall os x from usb flash drive. Tutorial to fix seagate external hard drive readonly on mac, to change external drives from readonly on mac, and to read, write to, edit, copy, transfer files on seagate external hard drive on macos catalinamojavehigh sierra and mac os x. In a few simple steps you are ready to go and can save your backup files to the external drive, keeping your information safe and giving you peace of mind. Feb 03, 2020 use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. If you need to erase before installing macos, select disk utility from the utilities. Reply i have this question too i have this question too me too me too. In order to know its usage read carefully the steps mentioned below. Initially external disks may be formatted for windows and after you connect it to your mac it appears in the device list in the finder, but is a read only disk meaning that you cant write to it in its current format.
To make it compatible with both macos and windows, you need to reformat the external hard drive. Initially external disks may be formatted for windows and after you connect it to your mac it appears in the device list in the finder, but is a read only. Proceed based on whether youre erasing your startup disk or some other disk. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then you have to have the external drive formatted in.
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