Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Ntfs and exfat are two kinds of file system that regulates how data is stored in a storage device such as usb flash drive, external hdd and sd card. Ntfs new technology file system was released in 1993 and it breaks the 4 gb file size limitation and 32 gb partition restriction of fat32. You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it. Hard drive to go between mac and pc without deleting. The best way is to back up the drive and use disk utility to format it. Fix external hard drive read only error on mac without losing data. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. To format hard drive for mac and windows without data loss, we suggest using minitool partition wizard and its convert ntfs to fats32 function. How to format external hard drive on mac compatible. How to remove read only on mac external hard drive without formatting.
This volume does not contain a recognized file system. Formatting permanently erases all the data contained in the affected raw drive. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Lacie rugged raid pro optional formatting and partitioning. Usually, the above 3 methods can help you format hard drive to ntfs successfully. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Reformat external hard drive without losing data yes, its possible to reformat your external hard drive without losing your data. Rightclick on the icon for your external drive on mac desktop, then select get info. There is a however a driver available which will allow your mac. The best news is that most devices included mac computers can read and write from fat32 devices. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. If you do a full format of your drive, you will lose all your data.
If you work on a mac computer and need to read or write files from hdd, ssd or a. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. The faster ssd drives on a mac may well use an apfs file system. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Lacie rugged secure user manual optional formatting and. I have a mac and an external hard drive that includes some important family files. Usb drives and external hard drives use the windows fat32 to format for compatibility. In case disk utility fails to format the drive, advanced. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk. Partitioning drive without deleting files in osx fast. Open disk utility in macos recovery mode to format a startup disk on mac, you need to open disk utility in macos recovery mode, as follows. When your external hard drive says read only, accessing data from it can be difficult. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Formatting a hard drive is the best way to start from scratch on a.
How to use external hard drive on mac without formatting. The only free application that will let you do this we are aware of is hfsexplorer, which uses java and is really only suitable for the odd file transfer fat32 the most compatible option. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Methods to recover read only external hard drive on mac without. Before formatting, back up the mac startup drive to an external storage medium to ensure that no data is lost in case of unexpected events. Expand the size of c drive without losing and formatting data. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. I have no idea what to do and i am praying that i didnt lose any of my files. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
If theres no backup, consider fixing the corruption with windows proprietary tools and utilities. This file system usually is used in internal hard drive. The blog post shared simple methods to format mac startup drive and external drive with a compatible file system without losing data. Running a mac and having ntfs formatted external disks, you definitely. However, sometimes they cannot format external hard drive to ntfs as expected like the below real user story. The package also includes support for ogg vorbis, speex, theora, and webm. In some cases, its possible to convert your drive without losing fileslike converting a hard drive. The drive comes formatted for your mac, making it an easy plugandplay storage. Thus, before you convert raw format hard drive to ntfs, make sure you have the required data backup available. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. Its a direct continuation of the original dos format used on floppy diskettes and hard. I have an lg external hard drive which i unplugged one day without. How to convert raw format hard drive to ntfs format.
Your external hard drive may not have been recognized or was not given access to the hard disk. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. If you have an external hard drive or usb flash drive that youd like to use. Any loss, corruption or destruction of data while using a gtechnology drive is the sole. Lacie is not responsible for any data lost due to formatting, partitioning or using a lacie. Gdrive mobile usb hard drives are the ideal storage solutions for people on the go. How to convert mac hard drive to windows without losing data.
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. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format a drive without deleting files using free. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through all connections, be they usb, firewire, or thunderbolt. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you. The speed at which you can read and write the data on these drives is the best. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your.
New apple devices will be formatted with apfs while old mac drives can use the hfs file system. It can be an unstable format that can cause data corruption without warning. Locate your external drive from the list of devices and drives. The fat or file allocation table is quite possibly the most widelysupported disk format in existence today. If you are a personal user, you can try its professional edition. If you try them yourself, it might cause damage or irreparable loss. Typically, an external hard drive that works on a windows pc uses an ntfs file system. Because you need to reformat the external hard drive to make it compatible with your mac computer, you might end up losing all the files saved inside this drive. This can get tedious, depending on how much data you need to move. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. 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. An incompatible file system, faulty permission settings, and unexpected formatting error are all likely to cause your external hard drive to show up. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing everything. New apple devices will be formatted with apfs while old mac drives can use the hfs file.