How To Reformat A External Hard Drive For Mac

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Nov 16, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

'I just bought a new flash drive last week but I realized it wasn't meant to be used for Mac. Now it can't be formatted using the macOS preferred file system and I don't see a way out. So, please tell me how do I format a USB to fat32 on a Mac?'

To fix a corrupted external hard drive on Mac, the solutions are categorized into without formatting and by formatting. Fix a corrupted external hard drive without formatting Formatting usually is the least wanted solution for fixing the problem, so we gather two fixes without formatting here. Format Hard Drive (Mac) 1. Connect the external hard drive to the computer. Click Go on the top tool bar, and select Utilities. Open Disk Utility. Select the external hard drive on the left-hand side. Click the Partition tab. Change the Partition Layout from Current to 1 Partition. A drive can be used on any type of computer - PC or Mac. But in order for the computer and drive to talk to one another, the drive has to be formatted. This article explains about file systems and provides instruction to format a drive on Windows and Mac. How to reformat a drive. Reformatting a drive on Windows is a pretty straightforward process. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a Quick format. A Quick format only deletes the organizational structure of the files on the drive, without removing the actual files. Aug 24, 2020 Partitioning an external drive in MacOS isn’t quite so annoying. Here we’ll assume that your external drive has no partitions, so we’ll need to create two. If you already have a Mac-friendly.

Most of the people in the world prefer using a Windows PC. And the Windows system uses a different file system which is known as Fat32. Usually, the Fat32 drive can be read and written by macOS, but it is not considered optimal. Even if you try to format the Fat32 drive on Mac, you might end up causing more issues. So, if you have got your hands on a drive which is formatted as Fat32 of any other format instead of Mac OS Extended or APFS, then you should go through this article.

Here, we are going to learn the procedure to format a USB drive and an external hard drive on Mac. Even if you want to reformat the drive on Mac, we have all the answers for you.

Part 1. Overview of Formatting Drive on Mac

Formatting isn't just a process of erasing the existing data on a drive. It is done as a routine maintenance task. But if you want to ensure that the drive has a complete Mac compatibility, then you'll have to format the drive using the Mac OS Extended filesystem. It is possible to read and write on a drive that has a different file system. But unless you format the drive on Mac, it can't be used as a bootable disk or with Time Machine.

Unless you intend to use the drive for file exchange between Windows and Mac, the formatting would be the right thing to do. Here are some other factors that will conclude that formatting the external drive with Mac is necessary as it will also improve the performance of the drive.

  • To remove the data from a USB drive or any other drive completely. Simply erasing the data leaves a binary print on the drive. But formatting will erase the binary data too.
  • To change the Operating system. Using another OS-compatible drive can make your OS vulnerable to viruses, malware, and other malfunctions. Thus, formatting the drive and deleting the previous system files and settings is vital.
  • To improve the performance of the drive, frequent formatting is essential.
  • To remove all kinds of viruses and malware, formatting works more effectively than deleting the files.

Thus, formatting the USB drive or external hard drive will get rid of any software conflict that you are facing and even glitches will disappear.

Part 2. How to Format a Hard Drive on Mac?

Now you can understand that there are several benefits of formatting a drive. Technically, when you want to switch a USB or hard drive system to another OS, it is termed as reformatting. It allows the users to reinstall OS and all other software once the format is complete. It is considered as a better process as it is comparatively easy to format the drive for Mac instead of removing files which are malfunctioning. So, from here on, reformat will be considered as a format.

So, here is the process by which you can format hard drive or USB for Mac. The same procedure is followed for all other storage devices too.

  1. Connect the hard drive or USB with Mac and open Disk Utility from Applications.
  2. Locate the drive from the left side panel of Disk Utility and open it.
  3. Now switch to the Erase tab and click on the Format drag-down menu. Choose the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) option.
  4. Change the name of the drive if you want to and finally tap on the Erase option at the bottom of the interface.

The Best Ways To Format An External Drive For Windows And Mac ...

A popup window will appear and ask you to confirm the action. As you press the Erase button, everything on the drive will be deleted completely. If you are formatting a small flash drive or USB drive, the process will complete quickly. But if you are formatting a big size hard drive, then the process might take longer than you expect. And make sure that you don't close the Disk Utility before the process finishes.

Related: How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive on Mac.

Part 3. The Best Format Choice of External Drive on Mac

Using the external drive on Mac is a good idea as it provides additional storage. But it is hard to pick a suitable format as it depends on your usage. So, it is better that you know your options and understands which format is right for you. So, here are the best formats for an external hard drive for Mac. You can choose from a variety of file systems.

1. Apple File System (APFS):

List

All new Macs come pre-installed with this file system. It is optimal for use if you prefer using a Solid State Drive or flash drive. But it is also compatible with the mechanical hard disk drives too. If you don't want to use the drive with Windows OS, then you can pick this format.

  • Fast copy and paste
  • Better organization of data
  • Improved metadata handling and focus on the encryption

2. Mac OS Extended (HFS+):

This format means a Hierarchical File System plus. This was the main file format for macOS before APFS was released. You can reformat USB on Mac to this format easily. This format is suitable for both mechanical and SSD. This format can't be accessed by Windows and if you want to do that, you'll need an additional program.

3. exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table):

This format is designed to overcome the limitation of format fat32 on Mac. By using this format, you can easily share the content between Mac and Windows.

  • Read and write feature compatible with Mac and Windows OS
  • Ideal for flash storage and External drives.

4. MS-DOS (FAT):

It is the FAT32 format on Mac and it is labeled as MS-DOS (FAT). This format is only ideal for old computers. If you need to transfer the files from an old computer, then you can switch to this format. Otherwise, you'll have to deal with its limitation. It is only good for Windows XP, so, you better avoid it for Mac.

How To Reformat A External Hard Drive For Mac

As you can see, using the APFS or HFS+ format for Mac is ideal to avoid complications with your data files.

Part 4. How to Format USB to FAT32 on Mac?

process, make sure that you have made a backup, or extracted the files of the drive.

Method 1. With Disk Utility:

  1. Connect the USB drive to Mac and launch Disk Utility from Application. On the left side panel, you will see the USB drive name.
  2. Click on the USB name and switch to the Erase Tab. There, you will see the Format option where you have to select the MS-DOS (FAT) format and Master Boot Record scheme.

Finally click on the Erase button and the USB drive format will complete.

Method 2. Using Mac Command Line:

  1. Connect the USB drive to Mac and press CMD + Space key to run Spotlight. Type Terminal in the search bar and hit Enter.
  2. When the Terminal window opens up, type diskutil list and you'll find out which is your USB drive.
  3. Type the command sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2 where
    • Sudo is the user right
    • diskutil call the disk utility program
    • EraseDisk command is to format
    • FAT32 set the file system
    • MBRFormat commands the Disk utility to use Master Boot Record to format.
    • /dev/disk2 is the location of your drive.

Wait for the process to finish and type diskutil list again to check whether formatting is done correctly or not. Now, you can use the USB with the FAT32 file system on Mac.

Video Tutorial on How to Format a USB Flash Drive on Mac

Part 5. How to Recover Formatted Data on Mac?

How To Erase A Disk For Mac - Apple Support

How To Reformat A External Hard Drive For Mac

You will need a strong and reliable data recovery tool for this and Recoverit is the perfect answer. This software is specifically designed so that the users can restore the files that are lost from their system. Recoverit Data Recovery for Mac makes it convenient to get them back. It has a wide array of formats and files support. Plus, you can perform selective recovery along with the deep scan mode which has a 96% success rate.

You can download and install the software from the official website. Once it is installed, you can follow the steps below to recover the lost word files on Mac:

Step 1: Select the Recycle Bin Recovery mode

Launch the software and specify the location on the drive where you want to look for the lost files. In case you don't know the exact location, choose the 'I can find my partition' option and hit the Start button.

Step 2: Scan the Location

The software will scan the Mac drive to look for lost or deleted files. Once the scan is finished, the results will be displayed on the screen. The files will be sorted out according to their formats. Now you can select the files.

Step 3: Preview and Recover

Click on the file to have a preview and make sure that it is not damaged. You can perform multiple selections with this tool. After you've selected all the files, you can tap on the Recover option at the bottom of the screen.

So, you now know what you can do if you ever lost your important files on Mac. However, while you are saving recovered screenshots on Mac, don't save them to the location from where they get lost.

As you can see, it is easy to format USB for Mac and Windows both. As Windows OS is more common, people know a thing or two about it. But Mac OS seems complicated to them. Once you get familiar with the OS, it is not that hard. And if some error arises or anything goes wrong, Recoverit is always here to retrieve your lost data.

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Do you keep a backup of your data on an external hard drive? Hopefully, you do. It’s an intelligent way to keep data safe. But if the external drive gets corrupted, then what?

How To Format A Hard Drive For Both Windows And Mac | Laptop Mag

Worry not; you can reformat the hard drive and make it accessible, but what about the data? Again, there’s nothing to worry about; you can recover that data too. But how?

In this post, we will discuss how to reformat the drive and recover data from the formatted hard drive.

But before that, let’s know what formatting is.

What Does Formatting Hard Drive Mean?

Formatting a hard drive means deleting all the data on the drive and creating new file systems. Generally, when the hard drive media is inaccessible or has errors, formatting is required.

How To Reformat An External Drive?

Reformatting a hard drive on Windows and Mac is simple. To learn how to format a drive on Windows, follow the steps below.

Note: Since we want to recover data, we will do a quick format as it only deletes the organizational structure keeping the actual files there. It’s like throwing empty boxes and keeping the content.

Reformatting external hard drive Windows 10

1. Connect the hard drive and wait for Windows to recognize it

2. Launch File Explorer > This PC

3. Look for the external drive > right-click > select Format

4. Make sure you select the Quick Format box. If you make a mistake here, you will lose all the data.

5. To begin the process, click Start and wait for the process to finish.

Once done, do not perform any operation on the disk as this might overwrite the data, and we may not recover the old data.

Reformatting external hard drive Mac

Note: Since formatting hard drive erases all data, we recommend backing up important files.

1. Connect the external drive

2. Open Applications Folder > Utilities >Disk Utility

3. Look for the external driver you wish to reformat

4. Select and click Erase

5. Follow on-screen instructions and choose exFat. We recommend this as both Windows and Mac support this file format.

6. Click Erase. Once done, don’t perform any operation as this will reduce the chances of data recovery.

How To Recover Data From Reformatted Hard Drive Windows 10 & Mac

After reformatting the external hard drive, we will need to use third-party data recovery software to recover data. Here we enlist the best data recovery apps to restore data on both Windows and Mac. All the programs listed below will help restore as much data as possible.

Reformat

So, without any delay, let’s read further and know about the best data recovery software.

1. Stellar Data Recovery Software

Using this data recovery app, you can recover data from a reformatted hard disk available for both Windows and Mac. The software helps recover all major file types and formats. Moreover, you can preview files before saving them and can retrieve any kind of data from formatted media.

Nonetheless, in just 3 simple steps, you can get back the data you forgot to backup. To use Stellar, follow the steps below:

1. Download, install, and launch the product.

2. Select the type of data you want to recover.

3. Select the folder location or drive volume and click Scan

4. Once the process is done, select a file to recover and click Recover to save recovered data.

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Tip: When recovering data, never save it on the same disk from which you are retrieving it, as this reduces the chances of data recovery.

2. EaseUS Data Recovery

This recovery tool is compatible with both Mac and Windows, and it serves 100+ real-life data loss scenarios like formatting, deleting, etc. With a user-friendly approach, this recovery tool comes in handy, and it helps recover files from reformatted external drives, hard disk, and more. Moreover, it offers different scan modes to help recover more data. The quick scan takes a shorter time while the Deep Scan, as the name suggests, is more thorough and time-consuming. Not only this, when using EaseUS, you can recover data even when the scan is in process. If you find the data you have been looking for during the scan, you can recover it and save time. What’s more EaseUS even works as a photo and video repair tool. This means using this recovery software; you can repair corrupt, damage,d and broken MP4, MOV videos, photos, etc.

To recover data, install the product, select the file type, disk volume, scan it, and retrieve data.

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3. Recuva – Data Recovery Tool

Offered by Piriform Recuva Professional is available for Windows only. You can recover images, documents, music, emails, and other lost file types using it. Also, it helps recover files from damaged or newly formatted drives. To retrieve a significant amount of data from a reformatted hard disk, we suggest using Deep Scan. This advanced and deep scan helps find traces of all the deleted files and recover them.

Using any of these tools, you can easily recover data from reformatted hard disk on Windows 10 and Mac. In addition to this, to avoid losing data when the external drive gets corrupt, we suggest keeping multiple backups or using cloud storage. This will help access data even when the disk is corrupt. We hope you find the article useful. Do let us know which tool you used and why in the comments section.