If the drive is not formatted, you may get a message saying that the drive is unreadable by Mac OS X and asking you whether you want to format it via Disk Utility. Possibly the best solution to using a hard drive with both Windows and Mac without the use of third-party software is creating two partitions on the drive, one for Windows and one for Mac.
Everyone these days has an external media like a flash drive or an external hard drive which they use to expand their storage space, or transfer files and folder between two computers or to keep some personal or confidential documents separate from the computer. A new external hard drive or a USB flash drive that you just bought can be used with both Mac and PC, but not always straight out of the box because most of them (external hard drives or USB flash drive) are sold in NTFS format, which is fully compatible only with Windows.
A Mac can only read the NTFS formatted hard drive but can not write any data on to it until you install a third party apps like NTFS for Mac or NTFS-3G to. So, If you wish to use the hard drive for Mac, you need to format the external media in Mac OS X native file system called “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” filesystem.
This will ensure full Mac compatibility of a new external hard drive or flash drive. Why would you format an External Disk or a Flash Drive in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? There are a good number of reasons why you might want to format an external disk or a flash drive for full Mac compatibility. Here are the following most common reasons why would you like to format an external disk or a flash drive for Mac under Mac OS Extended ( Journaled). Mac OS X can only be installed on a hard drive formatted in Mac OS Extended ( Journaled), filesystem. So if you wish to clean a hard drive for a fresh install of OS X you will need to format it under Mac OS Extended ( Journaled).
If you want to create an encrypted drive for Mac, it should be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you want to use the drive for Time Machine backup, it must be formatted in Mac OS Extended ( journaled). You must format the external disk or flash drive in Mac OS Extended ( Journaled) with GUID partition table, If you want to make it a bootable USB installer disk for OS X. How to Format an External Disk or a Flash Drive for Mac? Please be aware that formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have backed up any important data you want to keep in case you are not using a brand new external hard drive.There are two ways to format an external disk or a flash drive for Mac. You could either use Disk Utility or Terminal command to format it for Mac.
Format an External Disk or a Flash Drive for Mac using Disk Utility in OS X El Capitan and macOS Siera. Connect the External disk drive or Flash Drive and open Disk Utility.app from /Applications/Utilities/ folder. Select the External drive or Flash Drive on the left that shows the capacity and not the Volume which appears indented below the drive. Even if you select the Volume, it will also format the Disk, because there is no other Volume on this disk as shown in the picture. You must select the drive name as a correct way to format the disk. Click on the Erase option across the top in the main window. How to Format an External Disk or a Flash Drive for Mac.
You will be presented with a dropped down panel where you need to type a name for the Volume and select the format type as Mac OS Extended ( Journaled) and partition map scheme as GUID. OS X Extended (Journaled) is the default Mac file system with GUID partition scheme. Though, you can choose between different partition scheme: GUID Partition Map, Master Boot Record, or Apple Partition Map. GUID is the most recent one, while Master Boot Record (MBR) is older. Both also work with Windows PCs while Apple Partition Map works only with Mac.
How to Format an External Disk or a Flash Drive for macOS Sierra. Select the GUID Partition Map if you are creating a bootable install Disk or going to use with Time Machine backup. And then click on “Erase” to erase and format the external disk or Flash drive. Formatting an External Disk or a Flash Drive for Mac. Please note that, when you select the indented Volume name below the drive name on the left, then you also get the security option during erase/Format. But the partition scheme option will be unavailable, because you are formatting a volume not the disk. Format a volume for Mac in macOS Sierra using Disk Utility.
Security Options will allow you to erase the Volume securely by overwriting the contents of the drive upto seven times before removing the header information from files and folder. When you click on security option, you get a new pop up window with a slider to adjust the level of security ( in terms of data overwrite) while erasing the disk. This secure erase will make it almost impossible to recover the contents or data of the hard drive using any data-recovery software. But secure erase will take ages to complete, depending upon the size of the volume. Use it only when you really need to erase content securely and if you had highly confidential information in the drive otherwise leave the slider to fastest to erase it quickly. Adjust the security level while formatting an external disk or Flash drive for Mac.
Once the erase is completed, click on the done and now you can use the external drive or the formatted Flash drive for Mac as you want. Connect the External disk drive or Flash Drive and open Disk Utility.app from /Applications/Utilities/ folder. Select the External drive or Flash Drive on the left that shows the capacity. Click on the Erase option across the top in the main window.
Format an External Disk or Flash Drive for Mac in Maverics. Now type a new name for the Volume and select the format type as Mac OS Extended ( Journaled). Now click the “Erase” button and confirm again on the next pop-up window to format the External Disk or a Flash Drive for Mac.
The above command will erase and format the external disk or flash drive (disk2 in my case) in Mac OS Extended ( Journaled) filesystem. All the contents of the disk will be erased and Volume will be renamed to MyBackup as mentioned in the command and the newly formatted drive will appear on your desktop.
Note:- If you want to you will need to use HFS Explorer or HFS for windows by Paragon Software, or you can format this external drive or flash drive in exFat, which will be compatible for both Mac and PC.
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Windows can’t normally read Mac-formatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. But third-party tools fill the gap and provide access to drives formatted with Apple’s HFS+ file system on Windows. This also allows you to. If you know you’re going to use a drive on both Mac and Windows, you should use the exFAT file system, which is compatible with both. But if you didn’t foresee that, you may have formatted your drive with Apple’s HFS Plus, which Windows can’t read by default.
In fact, some manufacturers sell “Mac” drives pre-formatted with this Mac-only file system. Don’t Format the Drive! (Yet) When you connect a Mac-formatted drive to Windows, you’ll be informed that “you need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it.” Don’t click the “Format disk” button or Windows will erase the contents of the drive–click “Cancel”! This message appears because Windows doesn’t understand Apple’s HFS+ file system. That’s fine, because other applications do. Just don’t format the drive until you get the important files off the drive.
Of course, if the drive doesn’t have any important files on it, you can go ahead and format it. But be absolutely sure there’s nothing you need before you do. Option One: HFSExplorer Is Free and Basic RELATED: If you only need to get a couple files off the drive, we recommend. It’s the only completely free way to access a Mac-formatted drive. It does require, however, so you’ll have to. Then, install HFSExplorer like you would any other Windows program. HFSExplorer isn’t fancy, though, and doesn’t have a lot of features.
You can’t use it to write to Mac-formatted drives, and it doesn’t install a file system driver that integrates into File Explorer. But you can open HFSExplorer, read a Mac-formatted drive, and copy the files to your Windows PC without paying a dime. It can also mount Mac.dmg disk images to get at the files inside them.
This application’s read-only nature isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It ensures that no bug in the third-party driver can damage your Mac-formatted drive and the files on it. You can set read-only mode in other applications, too–but, if you’re not going to use their write support, there’s less reason to pay for them. To use HFSExplorer, connect your Mac-formatted drive to your Windows PC and launch HFSExplorer.
Click the “File” menu and select “Load File System From Device.” It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. You’ll see the contents of the HFS+ drive in the graphical window. Just select the files or folders you want, click “Extract,” and choose a folder. They’ll be copied to the location you choose on your PC.
Option Two: Paragon HFS+ is $20, But Offers Write Access and Better Integration Paragon’s is a bit fancier, but it’ll cost you. This tool installs a file system driver that allows you to access a Mac-formatted drive like any other drive in File Explorer, or any other Windows application with an open or save dialog. It boasts improved speed, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it were faster than HFSExplorer. And, unlike HFSExplorer, it offers full read/write access to Mac-formatted drives, so you can write to them from within Windows. Just install it, and Mac drives will show up like any other drive. If you need to work with Mac-formatted drives on a regular basis and you want the operating system integration, speed, and write access, Paragon HFS+ is a great choice and will be worth it for you. But, if you just need to get some files off a Mac-formatted drive occasionally, this is overkill and you can save $20 by sticking with HFSExplorer.
Paragon does offer a 10-day free trial of HFS+ for Windows, so you can give it a try and see if it works for you. And, if you just need to get files off of a Mac-formatted drive once, you can just use the trial and be done with the application by the time it expires. Option Three: Mediafour MacDrive Costs $50 to $70, But Includes More Features Mediafour’s is similar to Paragon’s HFS+ for Windows, but with more features and polish. It’s noticeably more expensive than Paragon HFS+ too, at $50 for the Standard version and $70 for the Pro version. For most people, this software won’t really be worth it. But it offers a few unique features, like support for Mac-formatted RAID disks.
It also offers a graphical interface with support for verifying, repairing, and formatting Mac-formatted drives. Paragon’s HFS+ gets out of your way and doesn’t provide a graphical interface–it just enables access to HFS+ drives in File Explorer and other applications.
If you need all these tools, go for it–this is the most full-featured solution for working with Mac-formatted drives on Windows. But you probably don’t need all these tools. Mediafour does offer a 5-day free trial of MacDrive–both the Standard and Pro versions–so you can give it a try and see if those features are worth it for you. Option Four: Format the Drive as exFAT–But Warning, This Will Erase Your Data!
RELATED: Once you’ve gotten all the data off the Mac-formatted drive, you’ll probably want to. Both Windows and Mac OS X have full read-write support for exFAT drives without any additional third-party software. FAT32 has some serious limitations–individual files can only be up to 4GB in size each, for example–but exFAT doesn’t. Rather than use a Mac-formatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exFAT-formatted drives for moving data between Macs and PCs. To format the drive in Windows, right-click it in the File Explorer window and select “Format.” Choose the “exFAT” file system in the list and click “Start.” Remember, this will erase all the files on the drive! Be absolutely sure you have your files off the drive and that you’ve selected the correct drive you want to format! When you’re done, the drive should work on both Windows PCs and Macs with no problem.
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By the way, this works great for Windows users too–Macs can’t natively, although they can read files from NTFS drives. So no matter what your primary platform, exFAT is probably the way to go.