Hello everyone, in this new article we will explain how to format your hard drive so that it works on your Windows computer and on your MAC.
How to Format your External Hard Drive
This is a question that often comes up when you decide to buy an external hard drive or when you want to use one and it is not formatted for your operating system: no chance to walk on your computer
To make an analogy: it’s a bit like a key and a lock: if your key is not made for your lock, it will never open your door! Well, it’s the same for the format of your hard drive. When you are on MAC your disk must be in a different format than when you are on Windows.
But rest assured! there is a special format that will allow you to run your hard drive, both on Windows and MAC.
Please note that if you wish to be helped in this procedure, do not hesitate to call us, we are always available to answer your questions or even come to help you at home.
How do I know if my hard drive is formatted for my computer?
It’s very simple: if you experience any of the symptoms below, then your hard drive is not formatted for your computer:
- your computer does not detect your external hard drive when you plug it in
an error message appears on your computer when you plug in the hard drive, indicating that it is not formatted for your computer - if it is detected by your computer, you can not open it to see the data it contains
- if it is detected by your computer, you can not move your data from the hard drive to your computer or vice versa, from the computer to the hard drive
- Do you have any of these symptoms? If YES , follow the steps below to finally use your hard drive with your computer.
- your computer does not detect your external hard drive when you plug it in
Format my hard drive only for MAC
-> Go into your applications and choose the application ” Hard Disk Utility ”
-> Select your external hard drive in the ” External ” section (here my external hard drive has the same name as my internal hard drive)
-> Click on ” Clear ”
-> Rename your external hard drive
-> After clicking on “Format” select the format ” MAC OS Extended Journaled ”
-> After performing these steps, click ” Clear ” and wait for your computer to format the hard drive
Format my hard disk for MAC and Windows
In the same way as to format your hard disk only on MACOSX, follow the first steps to the format and then follow these steps:
Instead of choosing the format ” MAC OS Extended Logged ” select the format ” ExFat ”
After performing these steps, click ” Clear ” and wait for your computer to format the hard drive
You can finally use your hard drive with your MAC and Windows computer