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#FORMAT EXTERNAL DRIVE FOR MAC AND WINDOWS HOW TO#
#FORMAT EXTERNAL DRIVE FOR MAC AND WINDOWS FOR WINDOWS 10#
#FORMAT EXTERNAL DRIVE FOR MAC AND WINDOWS PC#

If a pop-up appears telling you to format the disk, click Format Disk. Check the Quick Format box, and click Next.But if you want the external hard drive to also work on a Mac, you should choose exFAT, which is an upgraded version of FAT32. Windows will choose NTFS for you because that’s Microsoft’s native filing system.

Go to File System and choose a format.

Just choose among the drive letters still available. Letters that have already been assigned to other drives will not be on this list, so don’t worry if there are missing letters.

Next, choose what drive letter you want to use.

If you want to use the rest of the space, enter the maximum disk space indicated above it.

Then indicate how big you want the partition to be.

Right-click the unallocated space on your drive and select New Simple Volume.

This will split the hard drive, with one part becoming unallocated space. The remaining space will be displayed in megabytes.

Enter an amount of space that you want to shrink your volume by.

If this option is not available to you, reformat the drive to NTFS and try again.

Right-click on your external hard drive and select Shrink Volume.

The Windows Search Box is the magnifying button icon in the bottom-left corner of your screen.

Open the Windows search box, type “diskmgmt.msc,” and hit enter.

#FORMAT EXTERNAL DRIVE FOR MAC AND WINDOWS HOW TO#

How to Partition an External Drive in Windows 10 This means you’re splitting the drive into two formats, one for Mac and one for PC. Now you have a hard drive formatted for Windows, but what if you wanted to use it with Mac computers also? One easy way to have a hard drive that works with Mac and Windows is by partitioning it. Click OK when the Format Complete pop-up screen appears.Depending on the size of the drive, and if there are files to be deleted in it, this can take a few to several minutes to finish. Check the Quick Format box, and click Start.Note: The exFAT file system only works on Mac 10.6.5 or later, and Windows XP SP3 or later. But if you want the external hard drive to also work on a Mac, you should choose exFAT. By default, Windows computers will choose NTFS (New Technology File System) for you because that’s the native Microsoft filing system. Right-click on the external hard drive and click Format.Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it. Note: If you already used your external hard drive on a PC, be sure to back up any files on it. You can also find it in the left sidebar of File Explorer.

#FORMAT EXTERNAL DRIVE FOR MAC AND WINDOWS PC#

If your external hard drive is working, your computer will automatically detect it, and the drive will appear under Devices and Drives next to your internal drives in the This PC window.

Connect your external hard drive to a Windows computer.

So if your external hard drive already has important files on it, make sure to back them up before proceeding. Note: Formatting your drive will erase all the existing files on it.

#FORMAT EXTERNAL DRIVE FOR MAC AND WINDOWS FOR WINDOWS 10#

How to Format a Hard Drive for Windows 10

Here’s how to format an external hard drive for Windows 10 or partition it. You might want a drive that works with Macs and PCs, or maybe you want to partition it, which will split it up into two different formats. While most external hard drives are already designed to work for Windows computers, there are times when you need to reformat one.