Data about the drive will appear in the main menu including the name, size and connection type. Click on the View slide-button at the top to show all devices that are connected to your Mac.
Open Disk Utility in macOS by searching for it in Spotlight or going to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. If it doesn’t have its own power pack then it will be powered by your Mac’s Thunderbolt or USB port. Make sure your external hard drive is connected to your Mac and plugged in if it has its own power supply. To format an external hard drive on a Mac, please follow these instructions: Important Note: Reformatting an external hard drive will erase any data on it so if you have any important files that you want to save, you must save them onto your Mac or elsewhere if you want to keep them. What Is The Best Format For An External Drive On Mac?. External Hard Drive Formatting Problems On Mac. Which Format Is Best For External Drives With M1 & M2 Macs?. How To Backup & Restore A Mac With Time Machine. You may also want to reformat an external hard drive to that you can install Windows on it and run Windows from an external drive on your Mac. However, if the drive is formatted in NTFS format, it will only work with Windows and you will need to reformat the external drive to work with your Mac.Īlternatively, you might just want to wipe an external hard drive to recover storage space, use it for Time Machine backups, delete the contents of it or sell it. If the drive is formatted in exFAT format then it will work with both macOS and Windows. Many external hard drives however are formatted for use with Windows PCs out of the box. Some external hard drives like the WD My Passport For Mac are formatted for macOS and work out of the box. If you’ve just bought an external drive and are having a hard time getting your Mac to recognize it, it may be because it needs reformatting. If you’ve bought an external hard drive but it’s not working with your Mac or you want to delete everything off an external drive, here we show you how to format an external hard drive on a Mac.
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