Then, you need to choose the best file system for your external hard drive and follow these steps. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. Trouble formatting external hard drive macrumors forums. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a microsoft agent or microsoft employee and that the phone number is an official microsoft global customer service number. Fix portable hard drive not recognized problem manually to solve the external hard drive not recognized program on computer, you can use the inbuilt disk management tool to find it out and get it to be recognized. A misaligned or malfunctioning cable may be the cause of the problem, especially if you also have errors when trying to read from the external disk. There are several reasons why an external hard drive may not be accessible or detected when you connect it to your computer. Feb 08, 2020 now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. Whenever i tried to open it, windows showed me that my external hard drive was not formatted and asked me to format it. Mac os x has always had a reputation of being a way simpler.
However, it just wont recognize it, even though the hard drive is showing up on your computer. Oct 25, 2014 hello, i have a wd my passport external hard drive. 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. If this fails, backup the data and format or erase the disk. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. You probably dont need to erase, unless youre selling. Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. External hard drive not working with ipad or iphone using. Most or we can say almost every external hard disk comes in ntfs windows nt file system format but ntfs format is not supported by mac os. Otherwise, you should attempt to back up your data, reformat the disk. Connection or damage issue about external hard drive.
Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. This is done by going into my computer, right clicking on the drive, clicking format, and then selecting the ntfs filesystem. Dec 26, 2019 if you need to use a hard drive on different operating systems such as windows, mac and linux, you might need to format it each time. No matter how robust, updated, or topnotch your operating system is, encountering system errors is inevitable, even for macs. I received a replacement 750gb external hard drive from western digital. Sep 19, 2014 she has a mac mini and a wd passport external hard drive. The external hard drive becomes unreadable and corrupted due to carelessly disconnecting or powering down the drive without following the eject drive protocol. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through all connections, be they usb, firewire, or thunderbolt. In this guide, well show you how to format an external hard drive so you can not only get rid of the. Forget the backup part, i guess what i need is an external hard drive that i can use in both mac and pc.
How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. A user has to know how to convert mac formatted hard drive to windows formatted. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. There are quite a few error codes that appear on os x regularly but apple.
External hard drive not formatted you need to format the disk in drive before you can use it recently, i ran into a problem while accessing my seagate 160 gb external hard drive. I used the format ms dos fat on the mac and erased the hard drive. Connect the raw external hard drive to your pc step 2. How to fix mac error code 43 ultimate pro guide unlockboot. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Im trying to format an external ssd 256gb hd that used to be the main disk in a windows machine corrupted by a virus. Formatting an external hard drive for macwindows use. All was well till i plugged it into the asus and now i can not open the hard drive to put the files back on it. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. 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.
How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Oct 14, 2017 hi, this software helps you copy files from ntfs format to mac without formatting software link. If youve had your mac for quite some time, then youve probably encountered your own share of mac errors. The disk utility gives no options for formatting under the erase. You might wish to troubleshoot an issue by formatting the hard disk.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. External hard drives are widelyused in our daily life. I stopped working for a quick bite and when i returned to the computer, i had the message that windows had stopped this device because it has reported a problem code 43. Open device manager by clicking the start button, clicking control panel, clicking system and security, and then, under system, clicking device manager. Windows formatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. Learning how to format an external drive on mac is necessary for numerous reasons. Copy files from hard disk to mac without formatting youtube. If the error message keeps on appearing, backup your data and format your disk.
There are various reasons why you might need to format external hard drives. There can be different reasons for formatting a hard drive or an external device on mac. Nov 21, 2017 and we usually perform formatting in our usb or external hard drive when we want to get rid of viruses, or we want to clean the disk as it was when we purchased it. Aid tool again and if the problem still persists, backup your data and format the disk. Usb external troubleshooter seagate support australia new. Yes, im trying to format it on a mac sorry, i thought i had posted in the mac section. Errors such as the one described in the scenario above are other sadder reasons why hard drive formatting is done. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. All was well till i plugged it into the asus and now i can not open the hard drive. When the disk utility recognizes it the drive is read only. We use flash drives, memory cards and other kinds of external hard drives for photos, videos, documents and so on.
External lacie hard drive not getting detected, error code. Click start button and search commond, then rightclick one it and afterward press run as administrator. Mar 15, 2017 plug the drive into pc and just delete the partition so you have the whole drive an unallocated space. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Apr 23, 2014 its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. Use default allocation size, and make sure quick format is checked or. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. I have a mac and downloaded and formatted my 3tb hard drive to. Well show you everything you need to know about the.
How to fix raw external hard drive without formatting. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. Its good to have an external hard drive which can be used for backup and other purpose. How to fix external hard drive io device error 3 solutions. You will find that you can format the drive in fat format on a windows machine or you can go to an apple store and get them to format the drive on a mac running an earlier operating system sierra or before. There can be an issue with your external device and formatting it can fix it. If you purchase an external hard drive as an addition to expand the storage space of your computer, most likely you would need to format it. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. How to fix mac error code 43 when copying files enigma software. One of them is that you might purchase a new usb flash drive which is preformatted for windows os and you will be unable to use it on your mac. Error message when formatting a new drive external drives.
However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. Guides to fix mac files wont copy to external hard drive. No need to worry or try to claim warranty because your new external hard drive is fine. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Usb external troubleshooter seagate support australia. How to fix unformatted hard drives in windows 1087 easily. So if you are wondering how you may fix external hard drive not formatted error, you have come to the right place as this article discusses how you might be able to make the most out of such a situation.
We also boast an active community focused on purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iphone, ipod, ipad, and mac platforms. Cant transfer file from mac to external hard drive. Oct 14, 2016 so you need to check if the external hard drive in a readonly state or not. Complete guide to fix erase process has failed on mac. Jan 30, 2009 when i modify a file and put it into an external hard drive, date modified section does not change. External hard drives are handy tools in storing files, data and documents. When you do this it usually erases all the content, so make a backup first. The hard drive is already formatted in mac os extended.
One of the biggest ones is the mac error code 43 that appears when you try to delete or move a file. Solved seagate external hard drive stopped on code 43. To recover lost, deleted, inaccessible, unreadable, formatted and virusinfected data from external usb flash drives or other conventional storage devices, the hard drive. How to format a drive with the apfs file system on macos sierra. Then have a look at this page to fix the error and regain your usb files. I have been trying to walk her through reformatting it but nothing is working. How to fix error code 43 mac can t delete file external hard drive. You just need to know how to format external hard drive for ps4. The drive was originally used on a windows machine.
It can easily restore all files of any format like documents, presentations, media files, outlook files, pdf, archive files. How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting. I tried to format my toshiba external hard drive to accept asus pc and macbook air files. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Fix error external hard drive not formatted and recover data. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube. The drive does not appear on the desktop or the finder. 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 safely move your iphoto library to another hard. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk. If you work solely on a mac, but need to send files to someone working on a pc, your external hard drive needs to be set up for both operating systems.
Just purchased a 2tb hitachi xl2000 external hard drive. How to format a drive with the apfs file system on macos. It shouldnt be such a pain to format a drive for a mac. Ntfs format hard disks can be connected to mac os but the drive will run with readonly permission which means you can only copy from hard disk but cant add or. Therefore, before you mount an external usb drive to a mac, make sure to check the. Then, how to resolve the situation that my external hard drive says it needs to be formatted. Also when we buy a new usb or hard drive, it often comes with windows compatible not the mac so formatting it even needed in this case.
Common mac error codes error code mac software tested. While it is possible that your external hard drive may have come with bundled software that may be incompatible with newer operating systems, this is typically just back up software, and the drive is not dependent on that software to function. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. However, formatting the mac hard drive without backing up its files, leads to huge amount of data loss. Download data recovery for windows download data recovery for mac. How to fix mac error code 43 permanently techdevotee. Mac os extended journalled should work fine with high sierra even if you cant format the disk on your own mac. In this video, ill show you how to fix error code 43 on macos. Best solutions to fix external hard drive not formatted error. Especially, due to human mistakes like unintentionally formatting mac drive while formatting any external storage device or accidentally clicking on format option instead of some other listed options causes data loss from that device. You can choose to format a usb drive, sd card, or external hard drive with apfs. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc.
I have a seagate external hard drive which has been working fine. You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. Choose 1 partition from the volume scheme and then click on options.
How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to fix error code 43 mac can t delete file external. You can repair the unreadable external drive with a quick scan on the pc with the help of the disk checking utility and its drive repair function. You might also like 5 easy ways to repair hard disk. Lear more about mac error 43 code and solve this issue permanently in 3. Before i go any further in backup my files, i want to format it based on a mac since its primary os.
However, this is one of the many reasons why you should know how to format the drive for both mac and windows. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. If you keep getting the error, youll need to back up the data on the drive and reformat it. Lets take a look at the different types of formats, and which are best for video production. Ive searched around but kinda confused as to how to format the drive. If you see code 28 this may work for others codes too, i.
To fix the error code 43 for usb or other devices, there are totally of five effective ways to apply. This method will erase the data on your external hard drive as you need to format it to get it to be recognized. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Macrumors attracts a broad audience of both consumers and professionals interested in the latest technologies and products. Dec 29, 2015 follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers.
Mac files wont copy to external hard drive how to fix. Disk utility in macos high sierra or later can erase most disks and volumes for mac using either the newer apfs apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. The previous defunct hd was also fat32, which i did not realize upon receiving and using. Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. Buying and using an external hd is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another. You can diagnose and possibly fix issues using the builtin disk utility. Today i had it plugged in and cobian was backing up data onto the disk.
How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility posted by ant on march 11th, 2012 43 comments if you have an external hard drive or usb flash drive that youd like to use on both macs and windows pcs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. Format external hard drive on mac for mac and windows. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows.
The drive is currently formatted to work on my macbook, but that now that i want to format my wifes macbook to use it, its looking like i need to erase the contents of the volume to do so. I did restart the computer as you suggested, but again received the message the. How to fix a corrupted and unreadable external hard drive. Heres how to format a dr ive if you are planning to use it with a mac. You need to use a mac or pc to reformat the drive to a compatible format. The socalled code 43 error message, for example, is primarily associated with. Power outage while you are copying files to the external drive abrupt removal of the external drive from the usb port bad sectors virus attacks. One way to do this is to convert the raw hard drive to ntfs using the cmd command method. Formatting external hard drive for 2 comp apple community. Tech support scams are an industrywide issue where scammers trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services. To format or reformat an external hard drive on mac, youll need the builtin disk management tool called disk utility. I removed everything from the hard drive, put it on my pc. If your external hard drive is written in a different format, you cant view the content using an iphone or ipad.
Hard drive formatting what happens in the background. However, if first aid is unable to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting error, the last solutions is to reformat the hard drive. Open the disk utility and select the external drive. Whenever i tried to open it, windows showed me that my external hard drive was not formatted and asked me to format. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. But reformatting will delete all data stored on the hard drive, and most of the time, many important files are stored on the wd my passport for mac hard drive. Error message when formatting a new drive external. Complete guide to external hard drive format error easeus. Simply put, your ps4 isnt recognizing the file system of your drive, which is most probably. When trying to save large files in final cut pro, the hard drive would save numerous.
693 1295 452 103 1522 970 561 1145 200 124 778 468 826 791 333 1260 131 232 1539 629 234 410 572 1577 794 121 77 704 657 111 495 358 1556 1074 1382 675 1463 761 77 371 1466 1409 102 55 619 1199 221 476