Which is the Best Format for an External HDD for Mac and PC?įile systems manage how files are stored and even erased hard drive recovery on computer devices. Disk Drill is a robust tool for formatting external hard drives and is also a data recovery software. Once the process is complete, the external hard drive can be used on Mac and Windows PC. Step 6: Tap on “ Apply” and then “ Proceed” to complete the process You can also change cluster size to help your hard drive perform better. Step 5: In the pop-up window that appears, select exFAT under the File System. Step 4: Right-click on the partition of the external hard drive and select “ Format Partition” If the drive is unallocated, right-click the unallocated space and choose “ Create Partition”
Step 2: Download Disk Drill for free and install it on your PC. Step 1: Begin by connecting the external hard drive to your PC
Let’s show you how to format your external hard drives with Disk Drill.
This software includes Disk Drill developed by Cleverfiles and AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. There are several third-party software to perform this action in the market, and you should choose one with the highest success rates for better results. Besides, third-party apps can restore lost data on Mac and PC. You can also use it to recover partition on Mac. The technique can be very successful if you choose the right software. This method utilizes third-party software to format external HDDs. Method 2: Format an External Hard Drive with Third-Party Software Step 3: Now click “OK” to complete the format drive command. If you intend to use the disk interchangeably on Windows and macOS, choose FAT or exFAT as the preferred disk format.
Step 2: Set up the disk information, including volume label, format, and allocation unit size. Right-click on it and pick “Format” from the menu. If the disk is not initialized, right-click on it and choose the style to use, i.e., MBR or GPT. Step 1: Locate the target external HDD in Disk Management and check if it is already initialized. Method 1: Format the External Drive with Disk Management on Windows In this article, we share more information on how to undertake the process to make your hard drive compatible with both the PC and Mac. You will need to format the HDD on Windows PC to perform this action. How To Make External Hard Drive Compatible with Mac And PC This helps with more efficient management of accidentally erased external hard drive. You must format an external hard drive for Mac and PC to a file system compatible with both Mac and PC. This is only so because Windows has the most significant number of users worldwide compared to Mac. Generally, many hard drive manufacturers use the NTFS file system as a factory standard to format their external hard drives. You should understand that there is a better way to make your external drives compatible with your PC and Mac. However, you should still be able to format the two drives.Īlso, suppose you need to use a drive incompatible with your computer operating systems, and the need to format it arises. Mac and PC indeed use different filesystems, and their hard drives are incompatible with each other.