1. How To Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Without Erasing
2. Format New Hard Drive Mac
3. How To Format External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc
4. How To Format External Drive On Mac

The problem is Windows uses NFTS and Mac uses HFS. Now, Windows can’t read HFS, and Mac can’t read NTFS. That’s why you should go for the FAT and exFAT filesystems. So now carefully read the tips guide below and format an external hard drive on Mac, Windows PC. Aug 22, 2019  Here’s how to format hard drive on your Windows PC. First, you need to access the Disk Management tool on your Windows. To do this, just click on the Start menu and look for “disk management”. Alternatively, you can also access it from the Control Panel.

• Step 1, Click the menu. It’s usually at the bottom-left corner of the screen. This method will delete all of the data on your hard drive and replace it with its original factory settings. Make sure to back up your data before you begin.Step 2, Click Settings. It’s near the bottom of the menu.Step 3, Click Update & security.
• Feb 21, 2012  Select your hard drive, and choose 'Convert to MBR Disk'.Here's how to create a FAT32 partition from a Windows 7 PC. Open the Disk Management utility. To do so, select Start, Control Panel, System and Security, Create and format hard disk partitions. Alternatively, press the Start button and start typing partitions.

You can format an external hard drive or USB so that it’s compatible for both your Mac and your Windows PC.

Without formatting the drive, you won’t be able to use your hard drive across different operating systems.

IZip is a free powerful archiving utility designed specifically for Mac. Easily manage ZIP and RAR files directly from the OS X Finder. Open and securely share ZIP, encrypted ZIP and RAR plus other compressed file formats. Winzip is the world's leading zip utility for file compression, encryption, sharing, and backup. Save time and space on your Mac with Winzip. With WinZip for Mac 2.0 or later, you can right-click (or press CTRL and click) your saved Zip files and use the Context Menu to unzip them. Click on Services at the bottom of the Context menu, then choose Unzip, Email as Zip File and Add to Zip. Izip for mac. Jun 11, 2018  7-Zip is designed for creating or unpacking archived and compressed files. The application can unpack 7zip, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB files, or create file archives in those formats. Oct 29, 2019  Mac OS X and macOS both come with a built-in compression system that can zip and unzip files. This integrated system is relatively basic, which is why many third-party apps are also available. A quick look at the Mac App Store reveals more than 50 apps for zipping and unzipping files.

When you do format a hard drive, you’ll be able to access your data, media and files across any operating system.

This is extremely handy if you use a Mac and Windows operating system because you’ll be able to cross between both platforms and use your USB on anyone.

Remember that everything gets wiped off your hard drive when you format it, so you’ll need to back it up before you follow the steps down below.

Let’s get started…

Format Using MS-DOS FAT

The good thing about changing the format to FAT is that it works with all Macs and PCs, plus it uses less memory and it works faster.

The negatives of using Fat is that it can’t contain files bigger than 4GB.

To format your hard drive to FAT on Mac:

1. Click on Spotlight and open Disk Utility

How To Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc Without Erasing

2. Click on the USB drive you want to format

3. Click the Erase tab at the top

4. Choose the MS-DOS (FAT) in the format drop down
5. Click Erase and follow the prompts
6. Your external hard drive to now formatted

Remember that once you’ve formatted your hard drive, it will get wiped so you’ll need to backup the content on your external drive.

If you’re using a USB, you can simply drag its contents to a folder in your PCs hard drive and upload it back to your external hard drive once it has been formatted.

Format New Hard Drive Mac

Format Using ExFAT

The good about formatting to exFAT is that it can handle unlimited file sizes and partition sizes.

The cons of exFAT are that you can only use it with Mac OS X 10.6.5 or newer and your Windows PC needs to be either Windows Vista SP1 or Windows 7 and above.

Another problem with exFAT is that it’s extremely slow so moving files to this drive will take several minutes.

To Format using exFAT on Windows PC:

1. Plug in your external hard drive in Windows PC
2. Open File Explorer

3. Right-click on your external drive and select Format

4. Choose exFAT in the menu
5. Click Start
6. Your external drive is now formatted

After formatting your drive, it’s now compatible for both your Mac and your Windows PC.

Fat is the best option to use because you can use it on any OS, however, it can only contain 4GB which may not be enough for you.

If you have a new OS system, I’d definitely recommend exFAT because it can contain unlimited data.

Bottom Line

Going into Disk Unity then clicking the erase tab is the quickest way to format an external drive on your MAC.

How To Format External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc

If you have any questions or you’re having any problems, comment down below and I’ll help you further.

How To Format External Drive On Mac

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