For example i want to copy a file to my external harddrive from gnulinux and then copy it from the external harddrive to mac os. Then you can see the drive is displayed in the software. Best format for an external hdd in 2019 to be used in macos. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and.
Paragon is a longtime developer of crossplatform mac windows disk mounting software. Select disk utility from the utilities window in macos recovery. Open finder and choose applications utilities disk utility to launch the app on your mac. The volume representing your startup disk is macintosh hd, unless. Dealing with macformatted drives on linux fosswire. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. You want to use your external hard drive in both mac, pc and linux use fat32. Make sure you pass in the partition and not the entire disk. Jul, 2016 now that we have a partition available, we can format it as an ext4 filesystem. How to partition and format storage devices in linux. Sharing a hardflash drive across windows, os x, and linux. Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files. Now that we have a partition available, we can format it as an ext4 filesystem. There are specific thirdparty systems, like digital camcorders, and sony playstation 3, which need the drives to be formatted in either fat32 or exfat format to perform read from and.
Ive installed a new 250gb sata hard disk on our office centos linux server. Jan 16, 2020 how to format a hard drive to ntfs in linux by odysseas kourafalos jan 16, 2020 jan 15, 2020 linux if you are a dual user, bouncing from linux to windows and back, or are cooperating with windows users and need access to the same files, it is best to have a common partition in ntfs format, since it is accessible by both oses. Fortunately disk utility, built right into macos, can help. Its also been easier for me to recover lost data because of the. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. However, to use it on windows you can hfs explorer read only. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. I have a hdd 500gb that used to be my internal drive for my mbp 2012. The format window pops up and you can select linux filesystem from ext4, ext3 and ext3 from dropdown list.
Jan 02, 2016 formatting a drive on your mac is quite easy. This video explains, why external hard drive does not work with every operating system and how to solve it. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Windows can read and write to ntfsformatted drives. Free bootable usb hard drive format utilitytool easy. Adblock detected my website is made possible by displaying online continue reading linux hard disk format command. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Feb 21, 2012 looking to share an external hard drive between a mac and pc. Filesystem compatible with gnulinux and mac super user. Disk recovery software and hard drive recovery tool for.
Make sure that the sidebar in disk utility shows the name of your startup disk. This mac propriety file system and is used in ios and 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. If you are trying to format mac external hard drive, you can go over the process step by step. External hard drive is popular storage device and it can be used to store all kinds of digital information such as images, documents, apps, emails, etc.
I have an 250gig lacie external hard drive on its way, which i plan to use with my linux desktop mandrake 10. Also find out the difference between file system i. With a tiny mistake, you may lose data or wrongly format your drive in a way that can lead to data corruption. Disk utility only supports partition creation and formatting for mac. In general, windows builtin tools disk management and diskpart can format drive to exfat easily. To find out the label of an external hard drive, open up a terminal, and use the following command. If you format your external hard drive to hfs, you can use it on mac and linux by removing journaling. May 29, 2018 to format external drive to file system compatible with mac and pc, connect the drive to your computer and follow the detailed steps given below take formatting hard drive to exfat in windows 7 for example.
This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. Being able to create a bootable usb flash drive and start from the disk, this program is a popular bootable partition tool that can help you format hard drive without windows installation cd. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. Proceed based on whether youre erasing your startup disk or some other disk. A partition on a hard drive is a sort of boundary on the device telling each filesystem what space it can occupy. Verify that the correct hard drive is selected in the left column. Format external hard drive to linux compatible file system. Apr 14, 2020 why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc.
Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exfat file system. Drives formatted as fat32 can be read from and written to by macos, but its not optimal and youre more likely to run into problems than if you use macos native format. Need to replace a hard drive in a macbook ask different. If youre looking to dualboot with linux or run windows boot camp, you can format the. Jul 05, 2017 in the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exfat file system.
Mar 29, 2019 how to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Nov 21, 2015 this video explains, why external hard drive does not work with every operating system and how to solve it. I want to erase the drive though so i can make it strictly for linux. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt toms. How to erase disk in linux and mac using simple commands.
The easiest would be installing linux to a secondary drive or virtual machine. While its convenient to purchase the hard drive that will work with your computer right out of the box, most external hard drives can also be reformatted so youre not limited to your initial choice. Formatting a hard drive in linux using gparted is no more difficult than. This article shows you how to format an external hard drive via different methods, and you can follow these methods to format external hard drive for pc, mac or linux. Partitioning is the process of writing the hard drive sectors that will make up the partition table. A there are total 4 steps involved for hard disk upgrade and installation procedure. Find the hard drive you want to format, and highlight it.
But it wont be readable or usable by a mac that isnt running high sierra, and windows or linux. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep. For the code, im just going to assume the drive is devsdb. If you deal with macs at all, you might be curious as to whether linux is capable of dealing with disks and drives formatted for mac os x. If you go with linux installation, dual boot your mac with linux on another drive and use fat32 as a transfer intermediary. Mac os extended journaled mac os extended journaled, encrypted. If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next. If youre ready to try linux on your mac, this guide to dualbooting ubuntu and macos takes you through the process step by step.
How to format a hard drive to ntfs in linux make tech easier. This format is compatible with windows and mac and linux with additional software. How to format a hard drive to ntfs in linux by odysseas kourafalos jan 16, 2020 jan 15, 2020 linux if you are a dual user, bouncing from linux to windows and back, or are cooperating with windows users and need access to the same files, it is best to have a common partition in ntfs format, since it is accessible by both oses. For instance, if you have a 4gb thumb drive, you can have a partition on that device taking up the entire drive 4gb, two partitions that each take 2gb or 1 and 3, if you prefer, three of some variation of sizes, and so on. But before you can do anything, you need to make it clear that the hard. The article is aimed at beginners and new users of linux. The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as fat32. Dec 29, 2015 windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac.
If you work on a mac computer and need to read or write files from hdd, ssd or flash drive formatted under linux, you need extfs for mac by paragon software. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. How to format an external drive in os x by shujaa imran posted on jan 2, 2016 dec 29, 2015 in mac most external drives ship in formats that are universally recognised amongst nearly all operating systems fat, im looking at you, but there may be times where you might want to completely wipe a drive andor set it up to be compatible with. Rtt offers disk recovery software and hard drive data recovery tools. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. It contains information on the partition, including sector size, position with respect to the primary partition, types of partitions present, operating systems installed, etc. How do i format my external hard drive to a very linux compatible file system. Here, easeus partition software is the toprecommended free bootable usb hard drive format utility that can help format any hard drive storage for normal use. It is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for mac and windows. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc.
You want to use your external hard drive in both mac, pc and linux use fat32 before you sell your sdcard or pendrive, you should format it to erase its. How do i format a hard disk under linux operating system from a shell prompt. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Regardless of whether your block device is a hard drive or flash drive, and regardless of its logical block size, format udf will produce a. Since switching to linux, ive been better equipped to prepare drives in whatever way i want them to work for me.
Dealing with hard drives is easy on linux, and its even easier if you understand the language of hard drives. Problem with copypaste files onto usb flash drive on mac, how. This is because external hard drives in linux unlike windows and mac do not automatically start up so that users can access files. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Select the partition you want to format to linux file system, and click format button from toolbar. Apr 16, 2020 if your answer is yes, you just come the right place. There is now an easy, reliable way to format your hard flash drive in udf. If you are a linux user or operating systems other than macos. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc.
In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. Format a linux disk as ext4 from the command line kevin. I have been asked to replace a hard d rive in a macbook. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive. How to create mac os extended journaled partition and convert to.
Using boot camp assistant to install windows on your mac. Its worth noting that starting with mac os high sierra 10. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support us. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux techwiser. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. This is a default file system for linux os including raspberry pi. In this guide, were going to walk you through how to format your hard drive in windows, macos and linux. How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux.
How to use external hdd with windowsmaclinuxandroid. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. On os x, linux, or any environment with bash, you can use the open source format udf as a onestop udf formatting tool. We can add a partition label by passing the l flag.
Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. This document, titled partitioning a hard drive for mac, windows, and linux, is available under the creative commons license. Its actually easier to install linux to a blank hard drive than it is to install it to one that already has stuff on it, because you do not have to delete or resize any partitions. Here, easeus partition software is available for free download to help. The exfat format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated fat32 format. If i put in a new hard drive, will i have to reinstall an operating system. From all above, you can have a general idea of fat32 and exfat file system. You can format an external drive in os x using disk utility and terminal. Writeread access to linux files under macos high sierra extfs by. Select a name that will help you identify this particular drive.
There are many graphics tools to manage your hard drive. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Sep 12, 2007 if you deal with macs at all, you might be curious as to whether linux is capable of dealing with disks and drives formatted for mac os x. Being able to create a bootable usb flash drive and start from the disk, easeus partition master has become a popular bootable partition tool that can help you format hard drive even when. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure.
You can also select msdos fat, but the drive will be limited to 32 gb and files to 4 gb. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Just install it, and mac drives will show up like any other drive. Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer, or even use a new operating system, you need to format the hard drive on your mac or pc. If the drive is not properly formatted, it wont work.
To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between mac and pc, you need to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. You want to use your external hard drive in both mac, pc and linux use fat32 before you sell your sdcard or pendrive, you should format it to erase its data. The answer is yes, in most cases, and it is actually quite easy to get your mac formatted stuff mounted on your linux system with readonly, and in most cases readandwrite, support. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. We are committed to providing fast, efficient, and affordable software solutions that set new standards in the software development industry. Feb 03, 2020 use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. How to access a mac drive from a windows or linux system.
How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Formatting has become a term used interchangeably with wipe, delete and erase, but they. Im able to physically swap out the drive, but i have no idea how mac software works. The question is which format do i choose in disk utility. Partitioning a hard drive for mac, windows, and linux ccm. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different format. Format your western digital my passport external hard drive to fat32 or exfat format so to transfer the data between a mac and windows system conveniently. Apart from using dd to erase disk in linux and mac, you can use it to write an iso to a drive by specifying the iso as the input file to create a bootable usb disk with ease. There are two ways to access such external drives on your mac via linux os or fuse system.
You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. In this article, i will talk about some of the basics of storage devices on linux. If youre following this, make sure youre using the correct drive name.
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