
- What format to make hard drive mac and pc how to#
- What format to make hard drive mac and pc for mac#
- What format to make hard drive mac and pc mac os x#
- What format to make hard drive mac and pc full#
- What format to make hard drive mac and pc Pc#
Include one or more panels in an airtight package. It is usually installed inside the computer and then directly inserted into the disk controller on the computer motherboard. Luckily, with OS X, you can create a disk that can be used by both operating systems in a snap. Here’s how.A hard disk drive (sometimes abbreviated as HDD, HDD, or HDD) is a non-volatile data storage device.
What format to make hard drive mac and pc Pc#
Connect the disk and open Disk UtilityĬonnect the hard drive or USB drive to your Mac and then open the Disk Utility app, which is located in Applications> Utilities> Disk Utility. You can also open the app from Launchpad.Ĭhoose the disk that you want to format for both Mac and PC from the column on the left. Open the Erase tab. From the Format drop-down menu, choose MS-DOS (FAT), better known as FAT32.Īfter you choose the format, you’ll see a box to enter the name of the disk. Choose any name with a maximum of 11 characters (don’t worry, it can be changed later).Ĭlick on Erase and confirm the operation in the next pop-up window. *Warning: this will delete all data on the disk. If there are documents on there that you want to keep, make a copy of the files on your Mac or on another external drive first.*Īnd you’re done! Now, the disk can be read and written using both Mac and Windows computers. There are, however, some things you should know about the FAT32 format: What problems could I have on an HD formatted in FAT32?įAT32 is the only format that both OS X and Windows can read and write without the use of third-party apps.


Of course, there are other options for transferring files between hard drives cloud-based solutions like Dropbox are convenient and don’t have compatibility issues, although are sometimes limited in space. If you’re thinking of moving to Mac but are unsure about the process or concerned with these kinds of issues, check out our Moving to Mac Guide.Make your hard disk or USB flash drive compatible to both Mac and Windows PCs using this easy step by step guide. The irony is that, by default, Windows and Mac use different file systems.
What format to make hard drive mac and pc how to#
And they are incompatible with each other! Now, the question is how to make hard drive compatible with Mac and PCs? While Windows uses NTFS file system, Mac hard drives are formatted with HFS file system. Well, you can format the drive and make it as excellent cross-platform compatible to work with both Windows and Mac. It is just a matter of few minutes to do this.Īnd if you are going to use Mac and Windows PC frequently, you will find this as very useful as any data, files, media files stored on the drive can be easily accessible from any operating system.

What format to make hard drive mac and pc for mac#
How to Format a Drive for Mac and Windows PC Compatibility? In this article, we are going to introduce you with the entire process in few simple guidelines.
What format to make hard drive mac and pc mac os x#
What format to make hard drive mac and pc full#
When you want to use your drive with older versions of Windows, you may also need to set the partition scheme to Master Boot Record (MBR) for full Windows compatibility: Click the drive, then select Partition tab.From the Partition Layout dropdown menu, select 1 Partition.Click Options and choose Master Boot Record as the partition type, then click OK and Apply.“Drives format very quickly, though the total time taken will depend on the size of the drive. Remember, formatting a drive erases all data contained on it so back up important files before proceeding.

Remo Recover for Mac is recommended here.” In the event of not having backups, then you can recover formatted external hard drive data using a reliable Mac Hard drive recovery software. Hard drive can be formatted using both FAT32 and exFAT.
