- #Format external hard drive mac for windows 10 how to#
- #Format external hard drive mac for windows 10 install#
- #Format external hard drive mac for windows 10 windows 10#
Type diskpart into the Command Prompt window and press Enter. To do this on Windows 8 or Windows 7, press the Windows key once, type cmd, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
#Format external hard drive mac for windows 10 windows 10#
Open up the Windows 10 ISO you’ve downloaded earlier. Next, open a Command Prompt window as administrator. Set Name to Windows 10, Format to EXFAT, and Scheme to GUID Partition Map. For example, in the screenshot below, the Mac-formatted drive is Disk 2. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. This process erases everything on the disk, including its files and all its partitions.
#Format external hard drive mac for windows 10 how to#
To erase this partition, we’ll have to wipe the entire disk. How to format a MAC formatted drive to NTFS for it to work on Windows 10 and other versions of Windows that read NTFS. This partition is marked as protected, so you can’t just right-click and delete it - the delete option will be disabled. The Mac drive may have an “EFI System Partition” on it. You can then right-click in the empty space and select New Simple Volume to create a partition and format it with the Windows NTFS or FAT32 file systems. If you’re lucky, you can just right-click each partition on the Mac drive and select Delete Volume to remove the partitions. Be sure you’ve identified the Mac drive - if you accidentally delete partitions from another drive, you could damage your Windows installation or lose your files. Newer Seagate and LaCie branded external drives come preformatted with the exFAT file system, which allows it to be used on both Mac and Windows without reformatting the drive. Locate the Mac drive in the list of disks. This article explains about file systems and provides instruction to format a drive on Windows and Mac. This tool allows you to manage the partitions on drives connected to your computer - internal ones or external ones connected via USB. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog, type diskmgmt.msc into the box, and press Enter to open it. RELATED: Understanding Hard Drive Partitioning with Disk Managementįirst, open the Windows Disk Management tool. Newer Seagate and LaCie branded external drives come preformatted with the exFAT file system, which allows it to be used on both Mac and Windows without. Formatting Drives in Windows Insert a USB drive into a USB port. You’ll probably want to uninstall Java when you’re done.Įrase the Mac Partitions, Including the EFI System Partition Next to Format: click the contextual menu and. Locate the drive name from the left hand side of Disk Utility and click on it. Launch Disk Utility, located in Applications > Utilities.
#Format external hard drive mac for windows 10 install#
HFSExplorer unfortunately requires you install Java to use it, but it’s the only free option here. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk: Connect the hard drive or USB key to the Mac. If you only have Windows systems available, you can use HFSExplorer to copy files from the drive onto your Windows system drive or another drive. If you have a Mac lying around, you can plug the drive into a Mac and back up the files. Instead, we’ll just be wiping the drive and starting over from scratch. This process won’t actually convert the file system. First, back up the data on the Mac-formatted drive if you have anything important on it.