Formatting a toshiba external hard drive for mac

I removed everything from the hard drive, put it on my pc. Thank you for choosing toshiba for all your storage device needs. Although toshiba external hard drives are preformatted and ready for use right out of the box, there are instances where formatting a portable or desktop hard drive is necessary. Apple mac machines support a different file system. Choose mac os extended file system and guid partition map. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. If there is a second toshiba disk listed repeat the same this is the subfolder back up. After recovering your important files from the raw external hard drive, you can now directly format the hard drive into ntfs. Pick your toshiba drive in the external drives list. It is possible to reformat the drive and keep your files by formatting your drive and then using a data recovery tool to restore your information. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data.

Unmount the drive by clicking on the eject button next to the drives name in a finder window. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Then, after making sure that it is the windows ntfs file system that makes your external hard drive readonly on mac, you can go head to fix this problem. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Dec, 2019 now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase. For example, keep a backup on your local devices, and store backup copies with a cloud storage provider as well. Select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab.

Besides, you can use it to manage your hard drive partitions such as resize partition, delete partition, split partition, merge partitions, etc. All was well till i plugged it into the asus and now i can not open the hard drive to put the files back on it. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Dec 27, 2019 when buying a new external drive, speed should also be considered.

Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. If you see the messages telling you that the first aid failed, the external hard drive is too corrupted to be fixed by first aid. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Follow the onscreen instructions where in the process you will get to a window where you can allocate a drive name for the hdd. If you dont want to worry about losing all your data on the chance your external hard drive becomes corrupted, you should keep multiple backups of the data in different places. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. When buying a new external drive, speed should also be considered. Format toshiba hard drive for mac youtube video youll find this 11 minute 36 second video a cool run through of how you can format your toshiba external hard drive for mac. How to fix a corrupted external hard drive on macmacbook. In the format partition section, select the file system.

Two solutions to format toshiba external hard drive to fat32. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. This will format the drive as exfat format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms. After a few minutes your formatting will all be done. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Rpm stands for revolutions per minute essentially the.

And it also wipes out all the bugs and harmful files that might harm your mac. If the drive is not formatted, you may get a message saying that the drive. Your first step to using your toshiba external drive on your mac is to plug your toshiba drive in. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. How to partition an external hard drive on mac and windows. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Sep 26, 2018 after that, you can use your external hard drive on both mac and windows machine. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. If this does not work, swap out the cable for a different one. One way to do this is to convert the raw hard drive to ntfs using the cmd command method. Right click on the unallocated disk drive and select new simple volume option. And then your mac will start formatting your toshiba external hard drive. Mac os x sierra open disk utility and click the drive you want to format. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc.

Although toshiba external hard drives are preformatted and ready for use right out of the box, there are instances where formatting a portable or desktop hard. If this helped you out show some support below and keep the blog going any amount is appreciated. Apr 23, 2014 its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. Any hard drive can be formatted for mac and here is how you do it. How to reformat your toshiba portable hard drive to mac os x. All was well till i plugged it into the asus and now i. How to backup mac to an external hard drive 5 steps. I tried to format my toshiba external hard drive to accept asus pc and macbook air files.

Now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your macs usb port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. The default tool for formatting hard drives for a mac is disk utility, which can be opened by typing disk utility. In windows just right click on the drive and select format. Mac doesnt recognize external hard drive anymore and why your mac is not mounting or wont detect specific popular brand drives including seagate, wd, toshiba, iomega, lacie, and exfat. Set the external hard drive onto unwriteable state. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also.

Select exfat when formatting an external drive with windows. Connect the external drive or the usb drive to the mac. I recently bought a toshiba harddrive with the following features. Partitioning your hard drive can help organize your data and make your life more convenient. Bought this great toshiba portable hard drive for my macbook to use to store files, essentially as another drive. Your exfatformatted drive or partition can now be used for both windows and mac. Toshiba canvio external hard drive manual for mac users, here you can see how it works on mac, setup time machine to backup your. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. Check if an external hard drive is ntfs formatted in the finder. Mac files wont copy to external hard drive how to fix. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the.

For mac users, buying an external hdd already formatted for your system makes getting started much easier. Your xbox one comes with an internal 5400rpm harddisk drive hdd. How to use toshiba external hard drive on mac solved. How to format an external hard drive for mac youtube.

The drive should automatically mount on your macs desktop if the finder preferences are set to show external drives. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. This is because when you initially connect an external hdd made for mac to a mac computer, you wont be required to format it before you begin transferring files. Go back to finder, click on the icon for the toshiba and click get info youll see that the format listed is now mac os x youre good to go. Open the window explorer,and select the my computerthis pc section in the sidebar, then locate your drive. I used the format ms dos fat on the mac and erased the hard drive. From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way macs do the formatting on some larger drives, though, so give it a try and if your windows machines dont like it, just format the drive with windows. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Please remember that all data will be deleted from the drive, so make sure you have made a backup. Jan 24, 2017 two solutions to format toshiba external hard drive to fat32.

Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. It happens that a toshiba external hard drive is not working in windows, be it not showing up, not recognized, or not showing files. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. If you see the drive is ntfs then youll either need to reformat the drive or use a ntfs driver. Store with confidence the canvio basics is built to toshibas worldclass quality standards, offering timetested reliability and comes with a 1year standard limited.

How to fix toshiba external hard drive not workingrecognized. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. Aug 30, 2019 select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab. You can also check this in the finder with a few clicks. Give the partition a name and select exfat for the format. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. Tips to fix mac doesnt recognize external hard drive on. Now, im trying to format it so that i can use it on pc instead of mac. Itll be there as a drive icon with the name you gave it. Click start button and search commond, then rightclick one it and afterward press run as administrator. Disconnect the cable entirely, then reconnect it first to the drive, then to the macintoshs usb, firewire or thunderbolt port.

Aomei partition assistant is such a great simple tool for formatting external hard drive for mac and windows. Formatting your toshiba hard drive for mac is important, as it makes the hard drive best suitable for the mac by formatting it with the osspecific file system and drivers. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the finder in the lefthand column under devices, since macs treat them the same way as. It has already been formatted ntfs for windows xp, vista, 7, and 8. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities. Click on the first aid button, or rightclick the external hard drive and choose first aid from the options. Its a good idea to backup your data for your mac using time machine. Connect the raw external hard drive to your pc step 2. Also, if your current hard drive is more than 5 years old, it probably is nearing the end of its service life and needs to be replaced. After that, you can use your external hard drive on both mac and windows machine.

Sep 17, 2019 right click on your toshiba external hard drive icon and pick get info from the menu. After you buy a new external hard drive which comes in with only one partition from the manufacturer, when you intall it in mac or pc, you always would rather to partition external hard drive into separated partition to store different types of files. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. After allocating a drive letter, right click on the drive and select open. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Given the varying situation, we will show you how to fix toshiba external hard drive not working according to your exact scenario and present you the toshiba hard drive recovery tool to rescue your data on the storage medium. Get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. Dont worry, apply my task, im sure that you will get rid of on this issue. Click erase and from the format dropdown select exfat. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer.

Toshiba external hard drive set up guide for mac 2019 youtube. Well show you everything you need to know about the. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Introducing a new sleek, matteblack design that is more compact than ever, the canvio basics is a true portable hard drive easy to carry and store in any pocket or bag. How to format toshiba harddrive for mac apple community.

Maybe, you could try aomei partition assistant, then the. Apr 14, 2020 select the external hard drive at the left side. Check if you are able to open the drive in file explorer. How to fix raw external hard drive without formatting. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc.

If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. Toshiba external hard drive how to set up on mac youtube. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Dec 29, 2015 the instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well.

I have a macbook pro with retina display that i bought this year in late marchearly. Give your drive a name and select the file system you want from the format dropdown. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. I recently bought a toshiba hard drive with the following features. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Using disk management to format toshiba external hard drive to fat32 is way, but the hard drive shouldnt be bigger than 32gb and you shouldnt forget to backup data before processing or your lose everything on it. Feb 21, 2012 the drive should automatically mount on your mac s desktop if the finder preferences are set to show external drives. Right click on your toshiba external hard drive icon and pick get info from the menu. If you format is as fat then youll have lots of issues with the size of files you can write to it and other filesystem limitations. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc.