How To Format A Mac External Hard Drive For Windows

Drive Partition and Format 1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

Dec 29, 2015 - How to Format an External Drive in OS X. Connect the drive to the Mac. Open Disk Utility. Select the drive you want to format. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings: OS X Extended format and GUID partition map. Click Erase and OS X will format the drive. But if you try to use an external hard drive that's been formatted for Mac OS. To format the drive so that it can be read by the Windows operating system -- a.

After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.' S ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Re-partition the drive to create the three partitions. The one you wish to use on a PC you should format MSDOS (FAT). When you connect the drive to your PC it should have no problem reading the partition set up for a PC. Now while on the PC you may wish to consider reformatting that partition using ExFAT (if supported on your PC.) This format is more compatible with both OS X and NTSF supporting long file names and other FAT filesystem irregularities. Drive Partition and Format 1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.' S ID and size) from the left side list. Best home & business software for mac os. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button.

Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list.

Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.

Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size. Re-partition the drive to create the three partitions. The one you wish to use on a PC you should format MSDOS (FAT). When you connect the drive to your PC it should have no problem reading the partition set up for a PC. Now while on the PC you may wish to consider reformatting that partition using ExFAT (if supported on your PC.) This format is more compatible with both OS X and NTSF supporting long file names and other FAT filesystem irregularities.

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