Can I use a Mac formatted external hard drive on PC?

A hard drive formatted for use in a Mac has either an HFS or HFS+ file system. For this reason, a Mac-formatted hard drive is not directly compatible, nor readable by a Windows computer.

Can you reformat a hard drive from Mac to Windows?

Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, choose View > Show All Devices. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with Windows computers. Click the Erase button in the toolbar.

Is MS DOS FAT Compatible with Mac and PC?

MS-DOS (FAT) – This is Disk Utility’s name for the FAT32 filesystem. Advantages: FAT32 offers near-universal interoperability with virtually every computing system on the planet. A drive formatted this way can easily transfer files between Macs and PCs.

What is the best format for external hard drive Mac and PC?

exFAT
The Best Format for External Hard Drives If you want to format your external hard drive to work with Mac and Windows computers, you should use exFAT. With exFAT, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years.

How do I reformat external hard drive for Mac?

How to format an external drive in OS X

1. Connect the drive to the Mac.
2. Open Disk Utility.
3. Select the drive you want to format.
4. Click Erase.
5. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings: OS X Extended format and GUID partition map.
6. Click Erase and OS X will format the drive.

Can you reformat an external hard drive from Mac to Windows without losing data?

You can now use the NTFS-HFS converter to switch disks to one format and vice versa without losing any data. The converter works not only for external drives but also for internal drives.

Why can’t I edit my external hard drive on Mac?

There are three possible reasons.

• The File System Is NTFS.
• The Permission Settings Is Not Ignored.
• The Hard Drive has Formatting Errors.
• Fix 1: Reformat the External Hard Drive.
• Fix 2: Ignore Permissions.
• Fix 3: Check and Repair Hard Drive errors.

How do I format external hard drive for Mac?

Which format is best for Mac external drive?

How do I reformat an external hard drive for Mac?

How to format external hard drive on Mac OS X?

1 Connect the external drive or the USB drive to the MAC. 2 Start the Disk Utility, located under Applications > Utilities. 3 Find the name of the drive in the left side of the Utilities window and select it. And click Erase button. 4 Follow on-screen prompts to choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system and allow the disk to format.

How to use external hard drive on Windows PC and Mac?

Windows PC and Mac use different filesystems. Windows uses NTFS and Mac uses HFS. They are incompatible with each other. 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. Both FAT32 and exFAT can be used on Windows PC and Mac.

How to format an external hard drive to exFAT?

You can format the drive from either the Mac or the Windows machine. However, if you want to use the Mac to format your external hard drive to exFAT, you’ll face the problem that the external hard drive may not be compatible with the Windows PC. Thus, you’d better use the Windows machine to format your external hard drive.

How to recover deleted files from external hard drive on Mac?

Step 1. First, download and install AnyRecover. Plug the external hard drive into your Mac directly or via USB. Step 2. Next select the drive under “External Removable Devices” tab, click “Start” to begin scanning lost files on the drive. Step 3. AnyRecover will take a moment to scan your drive.