I use external hard drives to store all of my photos and for my backups. External hard drives are great, but they must be formatted properly before you start filling them up with important information. To this day, a PC cannot read from a hard drive that has been formatted for the Mac without additional software. Likewise, the Mac OS X Operating System can read from, but cannot write to, an external drive that has been formatted for a PC using the NTFS file system without additional software.
A hard drive can be used on any type of computer - PC or Mac. But in order for the computer and drive to talk to one another, the drive has to be formatted. This article explains. Seagate branded external drives come preformatted, some for PCs, some for Macs, and some of them have special utilities. First, open the Windows Disk Management tool. The gravity between us pdf download. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog, type diskmgmt.msc into the box, and press Enter to open it. This tool allows you to manage the partitions on drives connected to your computer — internal ones or external ones connected via USB. Locate the Mac drive in the list of disks.
Regardless of brand or model, the very first thing that you must do when you buy a brand new external hard drive is to format it properly for your system. Format and partition your new disk immediately, before you start using it for backup or for additional file storage. It is essential that you do this right away, before you start using the drive, because the formatting process erases everything on the external disk.
Most photographers will want to format their new external hard drives using their operating system’s optimal style. NTFS is the standard for Windows users and OS X Extended (Journaled) is the standard for Mac folks.
How to format an external drive (Mac):
How to format an external drive (Windows):
Getting Fancy: Going Cross-Platform
What if you need to use the same external hard drives with both types of computers? If you set the external drive up using NTFS then the Mac can’t write files onto it. Rats. If you set the drive up using OS X Extended then the PC won’t even recognize it. Double-rats. So what to do?
The very best solution that I have found to this dilemma is to avoid this whole problem. If you can use one external hard drive for your Mac and a separate drive formatted for a PC when your working with a Windows computer. But if you must use the same drive with both types of computer then you need to install some additional software. PC users who face this problem should look into a super cool program called MacDrive 9. With MacDrive, your PC can both read and write to an OS X Extended hard drive!
Mac users who find themselves in a similar position should look into a program called Paragon NTFS for Mac OS 14. Pacific general download for mac. Like MacDrive, this inexpensive utility gives a Mac the ability to both read and write to an NTFS hard drive. Once I have MacDrive installed on my PC, I can use an external hard drive that has been formatted using either the NTFS or OS X Extended system. Likewise, with Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X installed, my Mac suddenly works with either drive format. Problem solved!
For more advice on selecting the appropriate drive format I urge you to read this article from the American Society of Media Photographers fantastic dpbestflow.org project. Magellan gps 4000 xl user manual.
According to a recent survey, people are more likely to use external hard drive to expand storage space for their digital devices, compared to other storage media. However, hard drives advertised as being compatible with Windows and MacOS may have misled you into thinking you can use a hard drive cross-platform.
Formatting external hard drive is a useful skill if you have one. Be default, external hard drives are sold in NTFS, which is designed for Windows. To use it on a Mac computer, you have to format it to HFS or FAT32. We will tell you how to perform external hard drive format quickly.
Part 1: Format External Drive on PC
Format hard drive will erase all data in it, and you should backup it before formatting it.
How to download evernote mac. Bear in mind that formatting an external hard drive will erase all your data, so you’d better back up them before the procedure. Then follow the easy steps below to format your external hard drive. It is available to Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista.
The way ariana grande ft mac miller download. Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to your PC via a USB cable.
Step 2. Click the Start menu and open Control Panel from the context menu. Select System and Security > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management.
Step 3. Here you can manage all your hard drives including the hard drive. Right-click on the external hard drive and select Format to trigger the Format dialog.
Step 4. Enter a name for the hard drive in the Volume label box. Then select a proper file system from the File system dropdown list. To use the external hard drive on Windows, select NTFS. FAT32 is compatible with both Windows and Mac.
Step 5. Choose Default from the Allocation unite size option. Next, uncheck the box next to Perform a quick format. That will perform a standard format, which will check errors and overwrite them on each sector.
Step 6. Click the OK button. When prompted, hit OK to start formatting the external hard drive immediately.
For your external storage device like SD card, the steps work similarly, and you just need to insert your SD card into reader and plug it into your computer.
Part 2: Format External Drive on Mac
Similar to Windows, Apple has introduced the hard-drive-format feature into MacOS, but the procedure is pretty different.
Note: Again, do not forget to backup your Mac before formatting it.
Step 1. Also plug the external hard drive to your computer with a USB cable.
Step 2. Open your Disk Utility. You can find it in Applications > Utilities.
Step 3. Find the external hard drive on the left sidebar and click on it.
How To Format External Hard Drive For Mac Book Pro
Step 4. Go to the Erase tab from the top of the window.
Step 5. Next, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the Format dropdown list. Drop a name into the Name field.
Step 6. Click the Erase button at the bottom right side. Then read the popup message carefully and hit Erase again to initiate formatting external hard drive.
Part 3: How to Recover Data from a Formatted External Drive
How To Format External Hard Drive For Macbook Air
As mentioned previously, formatting external hard drive will overwrite all your data. In fact, chances are that you can recover data from the formatted drive before it is overwritten. Apeaksoft Data Recovery could meet your need of data recovery.
- Retrieve lost data from formatted external hard drive simply.
- Support a lot of data types including photos, videos, documents, etc.
- Integrate both quick scan and deep scan to meet various demand.
- Restore lost data to your computer with the original conditions.
How To Format External Hard Drive For Mac And Windows
Download for WinDownload for MacIn short, it is the best way to recover lost files from your external hard drive after formatting. We use photos as the example to tell you the procedure.
How to Recover Data from A Formatted External Hard Drive
Step 1. Get the best data recovery software
Download and install Data Recovery on your computer.
Launch it when you need to recover data from a formatted external hard drive. Use a USB cable to connect the external hard drive and your PC.
Step 2. Preview all lost photos
Check the box next to the data type you want to recover, such as Image. Then select your external drive under the Removable Drives area. Click the Scan button to look for lost data. When it is done, preview the photos and select the desired ones. The search bar on the top of the window is used to quickly locate certain images. If you cannot find your photos, click the Deep Scan button to scan your disk deeply.
Step 3. Recover photos from formatted external hard drive
After selection, click the Recover button to trigger the data recovery process. It only takes a few minutes to recover entire external drive.
Sandisk Usb Format Tool
Conclusion
This post has told you how to format external hard drive on Windows and MacOS. Microsoft and Apple have designed the format feature into their operating systems. What you need to do is to follow our guide. On the other hand, Apeaksoft Data Recovery is able to restore lost files from your formatted external hard drive. Now, you can feel free to erase your drive.