For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. Formatting with this tool is much quicker than the command. Click on the drive that you wish to formatpartition the top drive listing for the hard drive that you want to work with once the drive is selected click on partition tab on the right column. There is nothing difficult to format it to fat32 or exfat. You need to connect your hard drive usb to your mac system and then open disk utility application. Should i use fat32 when formatting an external hdd wd. Cant format external drive as fat32 apple community. For instance, some of the modern video doorbells you buy require your storage devices to be in the fat32 format. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. If you want to be super security conscious, you can select the security options button. Ive found so many forums where people have had success reformatting an external drive larger than 2tb but none of the programs have worked for me. Now here is how to format your fat32 external drive on mac.
Its slow because it uses a slow storage format like fat32 or exfat. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Cant format external drive as fat32 i just bought a brand new 4tb seagate external hdd with the notion that i would hook it up to the back of my time capsule. A fat32 partition can reach up to 32gb when formatted on a windows pc. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. One option is to clone the drive with carbon copy cloner. You can re format it to ntfs to get faster write times, but. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. Your usb drive isnt slow because you have too much stuff on it. Will my macbook pro read from a fat32 external drive. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. It was a snap to transfer the contents of a smaller 500gb usb 2.
If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. I have tried many free format programs on the web for both mac and pc, however they only allow up to 2tb to format to fat32. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. However, fat32 is a legacy file system designed for low capacity hard drives and it is not recommended for modern hard drives or operating systems. So in any case where the fat32 file system is required, you can apply the following two methods to format the external hard drive to fat32 in windows 1087 at once. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra. One of them should be labeled flash storage, with a capacity of 24gb, 32gb, or 128gb. As the internal storage is not much, i am thinking if buying an external hard disk. Therefore, scroll down until you see a folder utilities double click on it. How to format a hard drive to fat32 in windows 7 or vista. Apr 21, 2020 when your seagate drive is formatted as exfat or fat32 successfully, you can type exit to close this window. Just because you dont see the option to format your hard drive to fat32 in windows user interface doesnt mean the ability is gone completely. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line.
Apple computers configure hard drives differently than windows computers. For the uninitiated, gtech makes great drives, and q is a fast but wiretethered option. I just recently bought my 6tb my book studio edittion ii wd hard drive. I have tried formating the drive with wd drive manager on my mac.
Hence, please save the data separately before you format it. Seagate backup plus desktop user manual optional formatting. I am wanting to format all 6tb to fat32 so i am able to use it on my playstation 3, along with my mac and pc. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple.
How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on windows. If you want to write to ntfs formatted hard drives in mac os x, youre going to need. This is due to the fact that fat32 is an older file system. Mar, 2020 follow the windows 10 fat32 format tutorial to format hdd to fat32 or format external hard drive to fat32 in windows 10.
Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. I will want this drive accessible for both mac and pc. Yes, connecting an external hard drive or usb flash key to a mac will generally read and work fine as is because the mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a windows and mac machine, formatting it to be entirely mac compatible. Low format and partition hard disk to be use in macbook. A window pops up to warn you that all data on the drive will be lost. So if you are formatting a drive that has already been used, be sure to copy any files you will ever want to see again onto a computer or backup drive. However when i format it to fat32 using wd drive manager on my mac it only formats about 2tb. No luck formatting 4tb seagate to fat32 for media use. How to format 1tb 2tb hard drive to fat32 smoothly. In this video i go over how to format an external hard drive to fat 32 on a mac. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Apr 20, 2020 from the content above, it is no doubt that aomei partition assistant could make it possible and easy to format 2tb hard drive to fat32. Insert the new drive in the macbook and connect the old drive by using a usb sata enclosure or some other way.
Hello, i have recently purchased new transcend ts1tsj25m3 1 tb external hard drive which is in fat32 file system. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Click on start or the windows button, select control panel, then system and security. Now you need to select the usb from the left had side pane. As i will be using and working with a mac 95% of the time, i purchased the mac version of the drive. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. I am currently on a dell desktop running windows vista. Format hdd to fat32 in windows 10 with command prompt. To format a fat32 external hard drive 1 tb into ntfs. Supports up to 2tb for computer internal hard disk, windows external hard drive with a xbox360 and sony external hard drive with a ps3.
I am formatting a new 1 tb western digital hard drive. I wanted to format a 500gb external usb drive to fat32 in windows 7, attempted dos formatting and it started out fine, started formatting etc. Select the quick format option, and then click the start button. Jul 24, 2017 in the fat32 format window, select the drive to format and type a volume label if you want to. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Click on the drive that you wish to format partition the top drive listing for the hard drive that you want to work with once the drive is selected click on partition tab on the right column. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. How to format a hard drive to fat32 in windows 7 or. Dec 11, 2019 fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing files on disks and drives. From the content above, it is no doubt that aomei partition assistant could make it possible and easy to format 2tb hard drive to fat32. You can also format the drive in a variety of other formats depending on your needs. Wondering what the best format for your new external hard drive is. Fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing. Which external hard disk format fat32 or apple community.
There is widespread support for fat32 across different operating systems and devices. Select administrative tools, then computer management and disk management. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. I get that ps3 and xbox one cant handle it, but you should really consider exfat.
How to format 2tb or 1tb hard drive to fat32 successfully. Format an external hard drive to fat32 using command prompt. If you see a drive labeled fusion drive, your fusion drive is working and this article doesnt apply to you. It is obvious that you can use seagate external hard drive or flash drive with mac and windows computer as long as you format seagate drive for mac and pc. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac.
When your seagate drive is formatted as exfat or fat32 successfully, you can type exit to close this window. You can apply either the windows cmd or the thirdparty partition manager to format fat32 in windows 10 even when there is no fat32 option in windows 10 file explorer or disk management. In the dialog that appears, select the file system usually ntfs and enter the allocation unit size. How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on. Rightclick on the disk youd like to format and select format. If you have a fusion drive that has been split, you should see two drives. Based on your specific needs and select a proper way to achieve.
Need to replace a hard drive in a macbook ask different. Then start up from the old drive, reformat the new drive in disk utility, and clone the old drive to the new drive. How to format a flash drive with a mac to fat32 techwalla. Format my 6tb my book studio edition ii to fat32 external. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button. You can also change cluster size, and partition label on this window. Or create your disk using ntfs and create a 32gb fat32 partition to exchange the file. Ive read that at 1tb and above even dos will complain, however i found that it wouldnt even work with a 512gb drive. Fat32 is a system used by microsoft windows for organizing files on disks and drives. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. To add an external usb drive to the console, they have to format ps hard drive to fat32. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system.
In the fat32 format window, select the drive to format and type a volume label if you want to. How to format 2tb or 1tb hard drive to fat32 successfully in. How to format external hard drive to fat32 in windows. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Go finder window on you mac then click on applications the image right. I have an old 1tb drive that used to be the boot c drive and also had partitions for two additional drives. Right click the 2tb hard drive and select format partition. You can have a drive format to fat32 on an apple mac computer using apples disk utility, which comes with macos. No luck formatting 4tb seagate to fat32 for media use, help. Its definitely the best choice for external drives like what youre looking at. So no matter you want to format 64gb, 128gb, 256gb, 1tb or 2tb large drive with fat32 file system, this freeware is a great choice. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems.
Select erase and ensure that the format is mac os extended journaled. First of all, there isnt any data in the driveit is free. By default, windows cant format a drive that size to fat32. You should then a see it mount on the desktop, and b automatically get a prompt to use the drive for time machine if not, you can go into the time machine menu top right of the screen, go to tm preferences, and select it. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. I am aware that fat32 isnt a reliable format but its the only format that works with my game consoles ps3, ps4 and xbone.
How to format a startup drive for a mac if you want to format a drive that will be used as your macs startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary. The problem windows cannot format drive to fat32 that is larger than 32gb1tb. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Aug 29, 2016 your usb drive isnt slow because you have too much stuff on it. Click options, select master boot record, and click ok. Please guide which format of external hard disk fat32 or ntfs is compatible with my mac.