Nov 16, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
My hard drive crashed on my Imac took it to computer repair they installed new hard drive, tried to recover data but could not, when we presented the imac to the apple store they told me i would have to buy back my old hd from them um hello no way, so thats why we went to another place that works on macs, so apple said i had lion on the mac, i couldnt remeber but now i remember i had leopard. Step 1 Connect the external hard drive you want to format to your Mac, then start the Disk Utility app that you can find under Applications - Utilities. Step 2 On the left side of the Utilities screen, find the name of the external hard drive you want to format and select it.
It doesn't matter what kind of situation you are in, it is important to learn how to format HDD for Mac and Windows. You might want to resell your system, get rid of something, or simply want to make more free space on it.
- Here's 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.
- This is where Mac reformat external hard drive might help! Just like the human body, your computer can have sand in its machinery throughout its running course and end up crashing everything. Factors that contribute to this include viruses, extensive data, wear and tear, and program malfunctions that can inflict system problems.
How To Reformat Toshiba Hard Drive For Mac
While it might sound complicated, both Mac and Windows give us dedicated features to manage our disk space. You can use it to manage your storage, merge partitions, and even do a disk format for Mac and PC. In this post, we will cover dedicated solutions on how to format your hard drive in Mac and PC.
Part 1. Why should you consider formatting your hard drive?
You might already know the consequences of formatting a hard drive. It will erase all the data stored in it, making it empty in one go. Therefore, before you format Mac/PC drive, make sure that you have taken a backup of your important data. Once it is done, you can do a hard disk format for Mac and PC to enjoy the following advantages.
- It will help you get rid of any sensitive data from your hard drive so that the other user can't access it.
- Once the disk is formatted, it will make it empty and let you store new content on it. Therefore, you can consider formatting a partition if you are running low of space.
- In case if the hard drive has been corrupted by a virus, then you can format it entirely to get rid of any malicious activity.
- By formatting a partition, you can manage the storage on your PC/Mac and merge the free space with another sector as well.
- It will automatically defragment the disk, which will let you reclaim the lost space on the storage unit.
- You can also resolve any disk issue by formatting your hard drive.
- After formatting a disk, you can reassign a file system to it, and make it compatible with your PC/Mac.
Part 2. Major Formats of Hard Drive for Mac and PC
Over time, more than a hundred different kinds of file systems and formats have been developed for Mac and PC hard drives. Though, here are some of the most commonly used and compatible formats.
- exFAT: It stands for Extended File Allocation Table and is developed by Microsoft. The file system is mostly used to allocate space on external storage units like USB drives or SD cards.
- NTFS: The New Technology File System is used by Windows NT operating systems. It is the common format for the native hard drive of the system and is equipped with tons of new-age memory allocation techniques.
- FAT32: The File Allocation Table format is used to store data on units that have a capacity of more than 32 GB. It mostly works on external storage units like flash drives and is compatible with both Mac and Windows.
- APFS: The Apple File System is the native technique for macOS, iOS, tvOS, and even watchOS. It provides high-end encryption and is a replacement for the age-old HFS+ system developed by Apple.
There are different other kinds of file systems that your hard drive can support. To check it, just select the partition or the external disk, right-click, and visit its 'Properties'. Go to the 'General' tab to know details about the file system of the disk.
Part 3. How to Format Hard Drive for Mac and PC on Windows?
If your Mac or PC has a Windows OS installed, then you won't face any trouble managing it. Every major version of the operating system provides a dedicated solution to format hard drive as well as external storage units. Also, you can manage the internal partitions, merge them, create new ones, and do so much more. Here's how to format hard drive on your Windows PC.
- First, you need to access the Disk Management tool on your Windows. To do this, just click on the Start menu and look for 'disk management'. Alternatively, you can also access it from the Control Panel.
- This will open a dedicated window for various disks on your system. Simply select a partition that you wish to format and right-click it. Choose the 'Format' option to proceed.
- As the formatting wizard will open, select the kind of file system that you wish to convert it to. For instance, it can be NTFS, exFAT, and so on.
- You can also allocate it to the relevant size or label it here as well. If you have less time, then you can choose to quickly format it by enabling the relevant option.
- In the end, you will get a confirmation prompt like this. Just click on the 'Format' or 'Yes' button and wait for a while as the disk would be formatted.
Important Note: Formatting an external device
Windows also let us format an external device like SD card, pen drive, etc. quite easily. Simply right-click its icon from My Computer and from the context menu, click on the 'Format' option. Choose a file type and formatting option and click on the 'Start' button to format the disk.
Part 4. How to Format Hard Drive for Mac and PC on Mac?
Just like Windows, macOS also gives us a seamless option to format the hard drives for Mac (and PC). The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as Disk Utility. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well. To learn how to format in Mac your hard drive, follow these steps:
- To start with, just go to Finder > Applications > Utilities to view all the available tools and features. From here, you can launch the Disk Utility application.
- Here, you can view all kinds of storage units available on your system (both internal and external). Simply go to the left panel and select the disk you wish to format.
- On the right, you can view details about the selected disk. Go to its toolbar and click on the 'Erase' option.
- This will display the following pop-up on the screen. You can give the partition/drive a label, select its partition scheme, and specify its file format as well.
- Click on the 'Erase' button in the end and confirm your choice as Mac would format the selected disk.
In no time, the entire disk would be emptied and you can manage it the way you like. You can follow the same drill to format an external device on Mac as well.
Part 5. How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive on Mac?
By following the above-listed methods, you would be able to format hard drive for Mac and PC seamlessly. Though, if you have formatted a hard drive accidentally, then you might end up losing your important files. In this case, you can take the assistance of Recoverit Data Recovery software to get back your lost or deleted content from Mac. The data recovery tool is available for free and supports all the major macOS and Windows versions. Following a simple on-screen process, you can easily extract your data from your Mac's hard drive or an external device.
Recoverit - The Best Word File Recovery Software
- Recover Word documents from all storage devices like Mac.
- Recover 1000+ types and formats of files in different situations.
- Scan and preview the files before you recover them from MacBook hard drive.
If you have deleted a partition on Mac or have lost it due to any other reason, then you should use Recoverit Data Recovery. It can help you restore partition data on Mac by following these easy steps.
Step 1: Select a Location
Firstly, launch the Recoverit Data Recovery application on your Mac and from its home, pick a location. A list of all the available locations will be displayed. You can just pick a source and start the scan.
Step 2: Scan the Location
This will commence the data recovery operation on the selected location. You simply need to wait for a few minutes for the scan to finish successfully.
Step 3: Preview and Recover
Once the process is completed, you can just preview the extracted data on Recoverit's interface. Make the needed selections and click on the 'Recover' button, so that you can save your files to a safe location.
Important Note:
If you are running the latest version of macOS, then you should consider disabling its System Integrity Protection feature first. This will allow third-party apps like Recoverit to access the partitions and file system on your Mac. Restart your Mac and press the Command + R keys to boot it in the Recovery mode. Launch the Terminal app by visiting the utility menu and enter the command: csrutil disable. In the end, restart your Mac in the normal mode and launch Recoverit again.
Part 6. Tips for Formatting Hard Drive
If you want to get positive results while formatting your hard drive on Mac or PC, then consider following these steps:
- Since formatting will erase all the existing data on your hard drive, make sure you have taken its backup beforehand.
- When your system is formatting the drive, don't halt the process in between as it can make the storage unavailable.
- As both Windows and Mac provide native solutions to format the hard drives, you should avoid using any unreliable third-party tool.
- While formatting, you would be asked to pick a file system for the disk. Therefore, make sure that the file system is supported by your Mac or Windows.
- Instead of a quick format, you should follow the standard process. This will save the empty space on your system and avoid disk fragmentation.
Conclusion
Now you can easily format hard drive for Mac and PC like a pro, without facing any trouble. Apart from formatting the internal drive, we have also listed a smart solution to format external devices as well. Not just that – the guide has also included a working solution to recover data from a formatted drive. If you have accidentally formatted a drive, then use Recoverit Data Recovery. An excellent recovery tool for Mac and Windows, it will make sure that you never suffer from an unwanted loss of data again.
By Adela D. Louie, Last updated: July 28, 2020
If what you are aiming for is to make sure that you have complete compatibility of the external hard drive to your Mac, then you what you need to do is to have it formatted to Mac OS Extended filesystem. This process is very common for those generic hard drives which are commonly preformatted compatible with a Windows computer and not for a Mac OS X.
And reformatting your external hard drive for Mac OS X is not a very difficult thing to do. This process is actually very simple and will only require you to do a few steps. And after that, you will then be able to save any backup files that you want on your external hard drive. And at the same time, you will be able to keep all of the information that you have stored in your external hard drive safe.
The fact is that you can actually use any hard drive with your Mac, however, if you want to make sure that you get the most out of it, then you can have it reformatted for your Mac OS X. That is why in this article, we are going to show you a quick way on how to reformat the external hard drive, Mac. And as a bonus, we are going to show you a special way on how you can recover data deleted from your external hard drive as well.
How to Reformat External Hard Drive Mac
For you to be able to reformat your external hard drive Mac, here are the steps you need to follow.
- Step 1. Plugin Hard Drive- The first thing that you need to do is to have your external hard drive be plugged into your computer.
- Step 2. Go to Disk Utilities- And then, launch the Disk Utility folder which is located from going to your Applications folder and Utility folder.
- Step 3. Look for the Hard Drive's Name- And from the Disk utility folder, just go ahead and locate for the name of your external hard drive from the left side of your screen. And once that you have found it, go ahead and click it and then hit on the Erase button.
- Step 4. Do Instructions Needed- And then, there will be an on-screen instruction shown to you. This will lead you in selecting the option Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Also, this will then let you format your external hard drive.
And that is how to reformat external hard drive Mac easily. Once that you are done with the process, then you will be able to use your drive and have your backup file saved using it.
BONUS TIP: How to Recover Deleted Data from Reformat External Hard Drive Mac
Now you have already known how to reformat external hard drive Mac easily and in a fast way. So which means that you can now use your drive for you to store important documents and other files that you have.
Now, since we know how important it is to keep your data safe in your external hard drive, we have made special software for you that you can use just in case that something happens to your external hard drive causing you to delete all of the saved data in it. In short, with this software, you will be able to recover them back to your external hard drive. The software that we are talking about is no other than the FoneDog Data Recovery.
Data RecoveryRecover deleted image, document, audio and more files.Get deleted data back from computer (including Recycle Bin) and hard drives.Recover loss data caused by disk accident, operation system crushes and other reasons.
The FoneDog Data Recovery can recover any deleted data the quickest and the easiest way possible. This software is considered to be a professional data recovery software and that it can restore any type of files that you have from any sort of situation such as deleted file recovery, hard drive recovery, partition recovery, crashed windows or Mac, memory card recovery, and a flash drive recovery.
Also, the FoneDog Data Recovery can recover any data from any external device such as a hard drive, memory card, USB, a digital camera, and removable drives. It can also recover data from your computer. So, to give you a quick guide on how this program works, here is a quick step by step process you can follow.
Step 1. Install Program and Launch it on Computer
You can get the FoneDog Data Recovery tool by downloading it from our website. And then install it on your Mac computer.
Step 2. Choose the Type of Data and Device Storage
After the complete installation of the program, go ahead and run it on your computer. And from the main page of it, you will be able to choose on which device you would like to recover your deleted data or backup file. So here, you have to choose the external hard drive that you are working on. Then, simply choose the data that you would like to recover as well.
NOTE: You have to make sure that the connection of your external hard drive and your Mac is stable while you are on the process of recovering your data.
Step 3. Scanning Process
After choosing your external hard drive and the data that you want to recover, then you can go now and click on the Scan button. The FoneDog Data Recovery will then start scanning your device giving you the result basing on the option that you have chosen earlier.
Reformat External Hard Drive Windows
NOTE: There are two ways to scan in this part. The Quick Scan can only take a few minutes to finish. And the Deep Scan which can take a longer period of time since it will scan thoroughly on your external hard drive. Free mp3 mixer mac.
Step 4. Preview and Select Data to Retrieve Then Recover
And once that the scanning process is all done, all of the data will then be listed on your screen. From here, you can now go ahead and choose all of the data that you want to recover. And once that you are done choosing them, simply click on the Recover button below your screen.
Then, the recovery process will start so all you have to do from here is wait until such time that the process is complete.
Conclusion
As you can see, it is very easy to reformat your external hard drive for your Mac. All you need to do is to go through all of the steps that we have provided you and you will surely be done in no time. Also, just in case you happen to have deleted data from your hard drive, then you can easily have them back by using the FoneDog Data Recovery tool.
