![]() How to format an external hard drive for use with a Mac Most external hard drives come pre-formatted for using with a PC/Windows computer. If you have a Mac you should format the drive for Mac immediately, before you start using it. This is really easy to do and will take about a minute. Still I’ve found so many of my customers didn’t do it – or didnt even know they should have performed this important step (and just maybe might save from drive problems and even potentially a lot of money spent on expensive data recovery in the future*.) We’ll cover why formatting for Mac is important later, so for now just follow these simple steps to prepare a new hard drive to use with your Mac (and prevent some potential headaches in future). HOW TO FORMAT A NEW EXTERNAL DRIVE FOR USE WITH A MAC • • Connect the hard drive to your Mac, with the supplied cable to a your Mac (USB port most likely) If your drive has a separate power supply plug that in too of course. • • Launch Disk Utility (Located in APPLICATIONS> UTILITIES). Small business management software for mac. 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 well. • • Locate the drive name from the left hand side of Disk Utility and click on it. If its a 2TB Seagate drive, it might say “SEAGATE 2TB” or something like that) Here you can name the drive what you would like (ie, Backup) • For type of format: OS X EXTENDED JOURNALED • Click on the “Erase” tab across the top. You will be warned that “Formatting a drive will erase everything on the drive”. In our case we know its a new drive and you have nothing you care about on it yet, so you can be sure you won’t lose data. Click OK, wait a 30 seconds or so while its working, and when its done, you are ready with a nice Mac Formatted Hard Drive. Just be sure not to select your System Drive (likely says, Macintosh HD!) The reason to prepare a PC formatted hard drive to use with a Mac is pretty simple but not obvious to many people. It will work best that way. If you just purchased an external hard drive that you will use exclusively with your Mac, its best to prepare it for Mac OS’s file system. Between PC, Linux, and Mac there are a number of different file systems. Windows uses NTFS and FAT. Mac uses HFS+. PC’s can not read Mac drives. However Mac’s (being better!) – CAN read most PC drives and even write to them. But not Vice-Versa. PC’s can’t read Mac drives normally. Still though we should format for Mac if you are ONLY using it with the Mac. Your files will be safer and more stable this way (with Apple’s file system). While a PC Disk will theoretically work on your Mac, by not making it a Mac HFS+ formatted drive there is a increased possibility of having file problems at some point down the road. If you will be swapping the external drive on a Mac AND also a PC — well thats different, you would need to use PC formatting, so keep the drive As-Is. PC’s can’t read a Mac drive.
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