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1. Format Disk Mac Os X
2. Mac Disk Format Types
3. Disk Format Tool For Mac Osx
4. Disk Format Tool For Mac Osx

Summary :

Want to format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows PC? Do you know how to do this work easily? This MiniTool article will show you specific methods to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC, which are easy and safe to complete.

Oct 06, 2013 HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool utility will format any USB flash drive, with your choice of FAT, FAT32, or NTFS partition types. You can also make the disk bootable by specifying a file location. USB Disk Storage Format Tool 6.0- 100% Freeware, free for everyone! Download Now (557 KB) - 100% Freeware. Free download, free for use. USB flash drives hold everything from personal and medical information to music and pictures and even secure data, with the added advantage of being small and rugged enough for keychain duty. To format the Western Digital Hard Disk Drive using the Disk Management application, follow the instructions given below. First, back up the data from the hard drive that you wish to format. Give a right-click on the Start icon on your system. Choose the Disk Management option from the context menu. File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac. Disk Utility on Mac supports several file system formats: Apple File System (APFS): The file system used by macOS 10.13 or later. Mac OS Extended: The file system used by macOS 10.12 or earlier. MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT: File systems that are compatible with Windows. Open Disk Utility for me.

As we know, external hard drives are widely used to backup data or interchange files among different computers. Well, is there an external hard drive that could be shared between Mac and Windows PC? Of course, there is. Actually, most external hard disks could be compatible with Mac and PC as long as you format them correctly.

Why Need to Format External Hard Drive for Mac and PC

To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between Mac and PC, you need to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC.

Currently, hard drives for Windows PC are always formatted with NTFS, while hard disks for Mac are formatted with HFS+. However, when we connect a NTFS formatted disk to Mac, Mac OS X doesn't allow us to write files to the drive neither edit files, though it can read a NTFS drive. Similarly, Windows OS will ask us to format the HFS+ formatted drive when we connecting such a disk, let along edit files saved on HFS+ formatted hard disks unless we resort to third party programs.

But luckily, there are file systems well supported by both Mac and Windows PC, and they are FAT32 (it might be called MS-DOS on Mac) and exFAT. As long as we format the external hard drive to one of these 2 file systems, it can be shared between Mac and Windows.

Further Reading

Both FAT32 and exFAT have advantages and disadvantages.

FAT32: FAT32 works with all versions of Windows, Mac OS, Linux, game consoles, etc.

However, single files on a FAT32 drive can't be larger than 4GB. If your external drive saves files larger than 4GB or you plan to save larger files to this drive, converting to FAT32 is not recommended.

In addition, a FAT32 partition must be not more than 32GB if you create it in Windows Disk Management. Of course, there is free partition manager that can help create a FAT32 volume up to 2TB, which also functions correctly.

exFAT: exFAT has very large file size and partition size limits, which means it's a good idea to format your external hard drive to exFAT.

Nevertheless, a lot of users complained that exFAT is slow, and they highly suggest using FAT32 if you can avoid file size constraints.

Three Options for Accessing NTFS Drives on Mac

Paid Third-Party Drivers

Some paid third-party NTFS drivers for Mac can be used to access NTFS drives on Mac. They work well and they have better performance than the free solutions which will be mentioned in the following part. Paragon NTFS for Mac is such a driver.

Besides, you can also use the paid third-party file system converters to convert NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT which are compatible with both Mac and PC. MiniTool Partition Wizard is one representative.

Free Third-Party Drivers

FUSE for macOS is a free and open-source NTFS driver that can enable write support. But, this solution is slower relatively. And the automatically mounting NTFS partitions in read-write mode can be a security risk for your Mac computer.

Apple’s Experimental NTFS-Write Support

The Mac OS has an experimental support for writing to NTFS drives. Usually, it is disabled by default and needs some messing around in the Mac terminal to enable it.

It doesn’t work properly all the time and could lead to potential issues with your NTFS file system. For example, it had corrupted data before. Thus, we don’t suggest using this tool and we believe it is disabled by this reason.

Here, we recommend using the paid third-party tools since they are easy-to-use and can do good work for you.

Then, we will introduce these three options for you in the following content.

The Best Paid Third-Party Driver: Paragon NTFS for Mac

Paragon NTFS for Mac can write, edit, delete, copy, or move files on NTFS volumes from your Mac computer. It offers a 10-day free trial. If you want to use it all the time, you need to pay for it.

With it, you don’t have to fiddle with terminal commands to mount partitions manually. Additionally, it can mount partitions automatically and safely. More importantly, it can code with the potential corruption. If you purchase a Seagate drive, you can even get a free download of Paragon NTFS for Mac.

All in all, it does its works well and gives you good user’s experience.

The Best Free Third-Party Drivers: FUSE for macOS

FUSE for macOS is a free solution to access NTFS on Mac. But it is less secure.

If you want to make automatically mount NTFS partitions in read-write mode on Mac, you need to temporarily disable the System Integrity Protection and replace one of Apple’s built-in tools with a binary that is more vulnerable to attack. Thus, your Mac is in danger when using this driver.

However, you can use it to manually mount NTFS partitions in read-write mode if you never mind using the Terminal. This will be safer, but you need to do more work. You can go to google the steps and see how complex they are.

Apple’s Experimental NTFS-Writing Support: Don’t Do This, Seriously

Although we mentioned this method in our article, we still don’t recommend it because it is the least tested. It is just for educational purposes, and it is available on Mac OS 10.12 Sierra. Perhaps, it will be unstable forever.

How to Quickly Format External Hard Drive for Mac and PC without Losing Data

Another way to access NTFS drive on Mac is to convert the NTFS/HFS+ to FAT/exFAT. Then, the drive can be used on both Mac and PC.

There should be some important data on the drive. To keep it safe, you can choose this best NTFS/HFS+ to FAT/exFAT converter: MiniTool Partition Wizard.

How to Convert NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT Without Data Loss

To format hard drive for Mac and Windows without data loss, we suggest using MiniTool Partition Wizard and its 'Convert NTFS to FATS32' function. If you are a personal user, you can try its Professional Edition.

Step 1: Run MiniTool Partition Wizard

Download this software to your computer. Then, you can open the software and input the license key to the pop-out window to get its Professional Edition.

Step 2: Convert NTFS to FAT32 with This Software

After running the program successfully, we can see its main interface as follows:

Here, please select the NTFS partition of external hard drive and choose 'Convert NTFS to FAT' feature from the left action pane. If there is more than one NTFS partition, convert all of them one by one.

At last, click 'Apply' button to make the change executed.

When MiniTool Partition Wizard shows it applies the change successfully, the original NTFS will finally become a FAT32 partition.

By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for Mac and PC without losing any data. Then, you can share external hard drive between Mac and PC

You Can Convert NTFS to exFAT in 3 Steps

However, if you want to convert NTFS to exFAT to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC, 3 steps are required.

Step 1: Transfer Data out from External Hard Drive

You can choose to copy and paste those files to other external devices or internal hard disk of Windows, but it will cost much time. Instead, you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition to create a copy for your external drive, which is faster.

If there is only one NTFS partition on external hard drive, refer to the tutorial Copy Partition to get instructions. However, if there is more than one NTFS partition, view Copy Disk to get specific operations.

Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard

The Free Edition of this software also enables you to do this job.

Firstly, you need to delete the partition by using this software. Just open the software to enter its main interface. Then, choose the target partition and click 'Delete Partition' from the left action pane. After that, you should click 'Apply' to keep this change.

Secondly, the target partition will become unallocated. Here, you need to choose that partition and click on 'Create Partition' from the left action pane.

Thirdly, you will see a pop-out window. Here, you can choose 'exFAT' from the 'File System' setting option. At the same time, you can also set some other parameters for this partition, including 'Partition Label', 'Drive Letter', 'Size And Location'. After that, please click on 'OK'.

Fourthly, you will go back to the main interface. Then, please click on 'Apply' to save these changes.

Finally, an exFAT partition will be created on your external hard disk so that it could be shared between Mac and Windows PC

Step 3: Transfer Data back to External Drive

If you want to share files that you have backed up between Mac and PC, now please transfer these files back to external hard drive.

How to Convert HFS+ to FAT32 or exFAT without Losing Data

Besides, you can format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows by converting HFS+ to FAT32 or exFAT without losing any data.

Step 1: Backup Data in HFS+ Partition on Mac

Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on Mac. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step.

Step 2: Create a FAT32 or exFAT Partition on Windows PC

Some people may ask why create such partitions on Windows rather than Mac. That is because there are cases reporting FAT32 (MS-DOS) or exFAT partitions created on Mac did not work well on Windows.

Please skip to Solution 1: Format External Hard Drive to FAT32 to get steps to create a FAT32 partitions or go back to Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard to get operations to create an exFAT partition.

How to Make an Empty External Drive Compatible with Mac and PC

If there is no file saved on your external hard drive, how to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC?

It's very easy to share it between Mac and PC and you also need a Windows computer, a Mac machine, and the free partition manager MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.

Format Disk Mac Os X

There are 3 solutions for this case, so please choose the one you like most to format external hard drive Windows 10/8/7.

Solution 1: Format External Hard Drive Windows 10/8/7 to FAT32

Since users are unable to create a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB in Windows Disk Management, they need to use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free.

Please download and install this program on your Windows computer to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC.

Firstly, open the software to enter its main interface as follows. Here, please select the NTFS partition or HFS+ partition of external hard drive, and click 'Delete Partition' feature from the left action pane. If there are multiple partitions on the external disk, please select the disk and click 'Delete All Partitions' feature instead. After that, an unallocated space will be released.

Secondly, you can create one or more FAT32 partitions in unallocated space. Select the unallocated space and choose 'Create Partition' feature from the left side.

Then, you should choose 'FAT32' from the 'File System' option in the pop-out window. Meanwhile, you can set properties for this new partition and click 'OK' to go back to the main window of Partition Wizard.

At last, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.

Solution 2: Format External Hard Drive Windows 7/8/10 to exFAT

Firstly, please delete the NTFS or HFS+ partition in either MiniTool Partition Wizard or Windows Disk Management to release unallocated space. Then, you can create an exFAT partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition by following steps introduced in the section Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Once a FAT32 or exFAT partition is created on your external hard drive, you can share it on both Mac and Windows PC.

Solution 3: Create One HFS+ Partition for Mac and One NTFS Partition for Windows

Alternatively, you can create 2 partitions on the external hard drive: one is for Mac, and the other is for Windows. As to size for each partition, it depends on your own demands. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows.

Step 1: Create a NTFS Partition and a FAT32 Partition

Please run MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, then delete all the original NTFS or HFS+ partition(s), and create a new NTFS partition as well as a FAT32 partition, and the latter will be formatted to HFS+ in Mac machine.

Then, select the external hard drive and choose 'Delete All Partitions' to create an unallocated space.

Here, select the unallocated space and choose 'Create Partition' feature from the left action pane.

Now, please specify partition label (Windows is recommended), partition type (primary or logical), drive letter, file system (NTFS), cluster size, and partition size (you can change the length of the handle to adjust partition size). Then, click 'OK' to continue.

Now, you can see a NTFS partition is created. Please use the same way to create a FAT32 partition labeled with Mac. At last, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.

Step 2: Format the FAT32 Partition to HFS+ Partition on Mac

Please go to Utilities → Disk Utility to get the window below:

Mac Disk Format Types

Then, select the external hard drive and click 'Partition' tab on the top.

Now, find the FAT32 partition and format it to OS X Extended (Journaled), which is the desired HFS+. Finally, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.

After NTFS partition and HFS+ partition are created on your external hard drive, it can be shared between Mac and Windows PC.

Bottom Line

Are you planning to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC? If yes, now try one of our methods to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC.

Should you have any problem, just feel free to leave us a message in comment part below or send an email to [email protected].

Format Hard Drive for Mac and PC FAQ

A selection of the best programs for different types of formatting a hard disk drive (HDD, SSD, RAID) and removable media storage devices (USB flash drives, SD card).

List of hard drive format tools:

Standard Windows formatting tools

Windows XP-10 operating system has a built-in program to format a hard drive. Which is done in the following way:

1. Open “File Explorer” (or any other file manager),
2. Go to “This PC”,
3. Click on the needed drive in 'Devices and drives' section,
4. Select “Format...” from the context menu,
5. Press “Start...” to start formatting.

This is the easiest way of formatting a media storage device on a PC without any additional tools.

Disk Format Tool For Mac Osx

Despite the simplicity of this method, all the steps should be performed only if you understand why you're doing it. Before you agree on formatting, carefully check whether you've chosen the right disk.

An alternative way to format in Windows OS 7 / 8 / 10

1. Various systems have different paths to Disk Management therefore the easiest way is to type 'management' in Windows search bar.
2. In the search results find 'Computer management' and click on the icon.
3. Via the left menu go to 'Disk Management'.
4. Right-click on the desired section and select 'Format...'. Since the process runs during the OS operation, 'Format' command will be inactive on the system partition.
5. Next select the new partition label, future file system type and cluster required size (if you don't know what size you need, mark 'by default').
6. Leave the box next to 'Perform a quick format' checked, if you need to perform quick formatting. If you want to deeply clean a partition, uncheck this box.
7. After you press 'OK', the system will ask for confirmation and you have to press 'OK' again.

Formatting a hard disk drive via Windows command prompt

1. In order to start the process of formatting, open the command prompt (console) on your computer. In order to do this, press Win + R on the keyboard and in the opened window 'Run' type “CMD”.

Note. Formatting requires administrator rights (“Run as administrator in context menu” option). If you try to format a disk without it, the access will be denied.

2. In order to perform formatting via the console, you should use the following commands:

Press Enter.

3. Carefully read what is written in the console and perform further actions according to your case.

Full hard drive formatting via HDD Low Level Format Tool

Low-level formatting optimizes the structure of an HDD. This is useful when preparing for the reinstallation of your operating system. At the same time via it you can also solve the problems with the bad sectors of a hard disk.

HDD Low Level Format Tool is suitable for low level formatting. In addition to its main functions, this hard disk format software can be used for reading SMART-indicators and checking read errors, as well as the operation time of a disk and etc.

How to format a hard drive completely:

1. After HDD Low Level Format is installed, run it.
2. In 'Device selection' select the hard drive you need (if more than one HDD is connected to your PC). You can distinguish one hard drive from another by their size. Click on 'Continue >>>'.

1. Go to 'LOW-LEVEL FORMAT' tab.
2. For quick formatting (deletion of partitions or MBR record) select 'Perform quick wipe' option.
3. If want to perform full formatting of a hard drive, you have to disable the above mentioned option.
4. Before you start full formatting of a hard drive, double-check whether you've selected the right drive. Only then press 'Format this device'.

AOMEI Partition Assistant

AOMEI Partition Assistant offers a number of useful features, including low-level formatting of built-in and external hard drives. The latest version is 8.1.0, which you can download at the link:

The program interface is quite similar to standard Windows utilities, so it's pretty easy to understand:

1. AOMEI Partition Assistant main window automatically displays the disk with the installed OS. If you need to format another device, select it in the program right panel (Disk 1, Disk 2 and etc).

2. In the left menu lower block (Partition operations) select 'Format partition'.

3. Specify Partition label, File System and Cluster size (we've already explained these options above). Confirm it by pressing OK.

Disk Format Tool For Mac Osx

4. You will have to restart the system in order to launch formatting. Once the operation is confirmed, there will be no way back, so make sure to select the right drive and settings.

5. After you reboot the computer, AOMEI Partition Assistant will perform all of these steps and as a result you'll have a blank hard drive or a blank partition you've selected for formatting.

DiskWipe

DiskWipe is a free formatting software for erasing data from a HDD with no possibility of its future recovery. This program uses several proven algorithms (Dod 5220-22.M, US Army and Peter Guttman) and its advanced settings allow to choose the depth of formatting.

It's very simple to format a device via DiskWipe utility:

1. Download DiskWipe.

2. Run the disk format tool. In the left panel you can find all the devices available for formatting.

3. Select the device you need and click on 'Wipe Disk' in the top menu.

4. Pre-configured advanced settings will open. For full and irrevocable formatting, you can mark all the available fields and specify 'Highest' in the right block.

5. After you're finished with the settings, click on 'OK' in order to start the process of formatting.

Paragon Hard Disk Manager

Paragon Hard Disk Manager has several options for working with HDD partitions (splitting, recovering and other). This program is a so-called shareware, i.e. during the test period which lasts for 30 days you can format the needed device in different modes.

The formatting process is intuitive:

1. Start Hard Disk Manager.

2. Via the sidebar go to 'Disks and Partitions' section.

3. From the list of suggested devices select the right one and press 'Format Partition'.

4. Specify the type of your future file system and the name of a volume and then click 'OK'.

5. The task will be queued. In order to apply changes, you have to press the check mark in the top menu.

6. After confirming the operation (via 'OK' button), there will be no way back.

Paragon Hard Disk Manager not only formats a device, but also creates a new partition with a specified file system, so after you reboot the system you'll be able to use the disk without any additional actions.