Theyre usually affordable too, and of course, portable. Backing the hard drive up to an external hd is tricky, though, which is why weve put together this guide on how to backup a. How to backup a mac to an external hard drive in 2020. How to use seagate external hard drive on mac, 16 ways. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Here are our favorite usbc hard drives for your mac. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. The 8 best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc users. External hard drives with backup software best buy.
Finally, if mac external hard drive data loss is caused by physical damage, turn to. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. The only free application that will let you do this we are aware of is hfsexplorer, which uses java and is really only suitable for the odd file transfer fat32 the most compatible option. Next, you should click step 1 and then hit on add on the popup window to select the external disk you need to backup. To see the size of a specific file or folder, click it once and then press commandi. These usbc hard drives can back up or beef up your macs storage usbc is the future, and grabbing an external hard drive is a great way to store backups, music, movies, files, and more. Best mac hard drives 2020 here are the best mac hard drives and external storage options in 2020. Oct 09, 2019 this wikihow teaches you how to format a seagate hard drive on a mac computer. Then look down the list youre shown till you get to format. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag.
The 8 best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. I was able to easily format, register the hard drive. Its necessary and good for your data because the process of formatting your toshiba hard drive to be used on mac also includes erasing of all the data from the drive. With its distinctive rubber bumpers and brushed aluminum chassis, the drive offers drop resistance up to 5 feet, crush resistance that can withstand up to a 1ton car, and ip54 water. Please keep in mind that reformatting will result in the loss of all the data on the hard drive so make sure you back up your data elsewhere before starting. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. After plug in hard drive into the system, you will get option to open windows explorer and by clicking on the computer section in the side bar, you will see your hard drive get attached to your system. However, they have no idea when it comes to choosing the partition format for the external storage. For instance, users want to write data to and read data from, to do a clean installation of the windows system, to get rid of a virus or malware, to erase the data before giving the drive to someone else or throwing it away, or some other reasons.
How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. Mac owners have good machines, with plenty of battery life and power. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Oct 18, 2019 this wikihow teaches you how to change an external usb hard drive s format on windows and mac computers. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020.
Seagate backup plus slim 1tb external hard drive portable hdd black usb 3. Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. The drive is mounted in a sturdy metal case, and the 4 tb case is a little thicker than the 2 tb version. If you see ntfs or exfat then youll know which kind of drive you have. Many users want to format their external hard drive or usb drive for qnap nas backup. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for windows and mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use for time machine. To use time machine to make a backup of your mac, you need any of these types of storage devices. Its a direct continuation of the original dos format used on floppy diskettes and hard drives. Compare portable, usb and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. Before formatting any hard drive, its a good idea to backup any data or files you want to save before formatting. To backup an external hard drive on computer, you should run aomei backupper professional and select disk backup under the backup tab.
Give your drive a name and select the file system you want from the format dropdown. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to format your hard drive seagate support canada. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. Whenever you are planning to format your toshiba hard drive for mac, its always suggested to take a backup of the drive you are going to format. Lacie 4tb rugged raid pro usbc hard drive with builtin sd card reader previous gallery image. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to make it compatible with your computers operating system, as well as fix any nonphysical errors on the drive itself. There are a few reasons to reformat your drive this way. Jan 04, 2012 smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Its the most affordable portable drive we cover in either the 2 tb or 4 tb capacities. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Discover the world of external hard drives for mac. Formatting the drive will permanently erase all the data and files stored on the hard drive forever. Best external hard drives for macs in 2020 techradar. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Feb 09, 2020 if you read my previous post about how to format an external drive for mac, you know that i bought a 2tb seagate expansion external hard drive and managed to create two partitions on the disk one for mac backup purposes, and the other for personal use. Jan 10, 2020 to format an external hard drive, plug in the device into system or a wall outlet.
By default, the 4tb hard drive uses the ntfs format for windows pcs, but theres a help file included on the drive that provides information for mac users so that you can reformat the drive and. Dec 29, 2015 windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac. This wikihow teaches you how to format a seagate hard drive on a mac computer. The seagate backup plus portable is also a bargain. Best external drives for mac and pc interchangeable 2020. Gtechnology portable external hard drive 2tb from the sleek design to the preformatting, this terabytesized drive is perfect for mac users who need a little extra space and offers the transfer rate up to 140mbs for accessing all your files. Finally, if mac external hard drive data loss is caused by physical damage, turn to a manual service. To see storage information about your mac, click the apple menu in the topleft of your screen. Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. Overall storage space will typically play the main role in the final price youll pay for an external hard drive. When choosing the best external hard drive for you, your main consideration should be storage capacity. Oct 16, 2019 the best format for external hard drives. To format an external hard drive, plug in the device into system or a wall outlet. From the popular slim drives to the ridiculous capacity and mobility of the portable drives, you can always rely on the backup plus family.
If you want to make use of your macs thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. If the external hard drive is pre formatted for mac, disk management will list 3 partitions and you will not be able to delete the health efi system partition because its a protected partition. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard drive on.
Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Apr 10, 2019 backup disks you can use with time machine time machine can back up to an external storage device connected to your mac or supported airport base station. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. Oct 10, 2019 right click on your seagates drive icon. If you read my previous post about how to format an external drive for mac, you know that i bought a 2tb seagate expansion external hard drive and managed to create two partitions on the disk one for mac backup purposes, and the other for personal use in this article, im going to show you how to back up your mac data to an external drive.
You can format a drive using the disk utility in mac. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. How to backup mac to an external hard drive 5 steps. The best external hard drives will come in handy for plenty of people working in the creative industries, who often have to store lots of large files, and will soon fill up the hard drive that comes with their mac or pc. All backup plus drives are compatible with time machine and come with cool features, including seagate dashboard. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Mar 07, 2020 these usbc hard drives can back up or beef up your macs storage usbc is the future, and grabbing an external hard drive is a great way to store backups, music, movies, files, and more. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. After youre done, dont forget to remove the external hard. If youre looking for a macfriendly external hard drive thats built for durability, take a look at lacies rugged thunderbolt usbc portable hard drive. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another.
Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. Picking the wrong one can turn into a real pain when you have to backup and reformat an entire drive because it wont work for its intended purpose. And then depending what you plan to use your seagate drive for you can decide. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. If this solution fails, restore external hard drive files from a backup. Its necessary and good for your data because the process of formatting your toshiba hard drive to be used on mac also.
When youre planning to use your seagate drive only for your mac. The best external hard drives are fast, dependable and easy to use. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. For time machine backups, its good to use a drive that has at least twice the storage capacity of your mac. How to format an external hard drive on windows formatting a hard drive on windows is a simple affair, especially if you leave everything as default. Lacie 4tb rugged raid pro usbc hard drive with builtin sd card reader next gallery image. Of course, you may be setting up an external hard drive purely for your own backup purposes, in which case using the best i. If you dont have a backup, deploy easeus mac data recovery software to scan and recover deleted files from the external storage drive. Apr 15, 2020 if you want to make use of your mac s thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. Backup disks you can use with time machine apple support.
Seagate backup plus portable 5tb external hard drive hdd red usb 3. Time machine can back up to an external storage device connected to your mac or supported airport base station. Select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab. It can also back up to a mac or networkattached storage device nas on your network. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Find out which hard drive can help increase your storage or safely back up your mac. Mar 31, 2020 if you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be.
In this range, youll find quality external drives that hold 500gb to 1tb of storage for mac computers. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Picking a format for your external drive can be pretty confusing. So, if you want to use an external hard drive on both windows and mac, you need to format it to a filesystem that is compatible with windows pc and mac. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac. The best format for your external hard drive the hellotech blog. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide.
How to format an external hard drive and remove errors. Its never been so easy to choose the perfect storage companion for your mac computer. Oct 15, 2018 find the right qnap external drive format. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. Mar 21, 2020 the best external hard drives are fast, dependable and easy to use. In this range, youll find quality external drives that hold 500gb to. If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. In this article, im going to show you how to back up your mac data to an external drive.
1193 1244 1261 986 1484 1041 518 550 117 300 983 90 1242 454 777 670 950 727 1348 1301 292 95 652 362 371 1393 42 659 555 45 94 1362 1173 1339 401 1440 185 1168 1192 860 1497 1069 79 1169 124 161 57