partition a external drive for both mac and windows

#Partition a external drive for both mac and windows how to
#Partition a external drive for both mac and windows mac osx

The drive should now be accessible in Finder.įor products related to this article, click here. Select the new drive and click the Partition tab.Ĭlick Options and verify that it is set to GUID Partition Table. Navigate to Applications and click Utilities.

To create a partition on a new drive, complete the following: Note: The following steps create an HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) partition that uses the entire drive space. If you are not prompted to initialize the drive and you cannot find the drive in Finder, you will need to create a partition on the drive.

#Partition a external drive for both mac and windows how to

If you are prompted to initialize the drive, click Initialize. This video shows how to Partition and Format an external/portable WD HDD to work with both Mac (Mac OS extended/HFS+) and Windows (exFat).

#Partition a external drive for both mac and windows mac osx

Mac OSX detects a drive that needs to be initialized and automatically prompts you to initialize the drive. The partition uses a file system (for example, HFS+, ex-FAT, NTFS, and so on). A partition defines an area of the drive to use for storing data. Mac OSīefore you can access a new or formatted drive in your operating system, you need to initialize it first and then create a partition on the drive. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with Windows computers. If Disk Utility isn’t open, click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, type Disk Utility in the Search field, then click the Disk Utility icon.

The new drive should appear in Windows Explorer. In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, choose View > Show All Devices. Now plug the drive to windows machine type partition into the start menu and select Create and format Hard Disk partitions You should see the drive listed.

Clear the Enable file and folder compression check box.

Select the Perform a quick format check box.

Set the Allocation unit size to Default.

Leave the partition size set to default, and click Next.Īssign a drive letter or leave it set to the default, and click Next.Įnter the following settings to format the partition: Right-click Unallocated or RAW volume, and select New Simple Volume. To use a different file system, select a different option in step 6. Note: The following steps create an NTFS partition that uses the entire drive space. If you are running an earlier version of Windows, initialize the disk(s) with MBR. For more information, visit the following FAQ. If you are running Windows ® 7 or later and are using a drive larger than 2TB, initialize the disk(s) with GPT. /rebates/&252fpartition-external-hard-drive-for-windows-and-mac. When prompted to, initialize your disk(s). Press the Windows key + R, type compmgmt.msc, and click Run to open Computer Management.

If youve carried out visually inspections. If you cannot find an uninitialized drive in Disk Management, skip the following steps and try to partition your device. Tip: If you want your Flash drive to be readable both on Windows and on Mac, you should format it as exFAT. Note: You typically only need to initialize a drive if the drive is new. The partition uses a file system (for example, ex-FAT, NTFS, and so on). Before you can access a new or formatted drive in your operating system, you need to initialize it first and then create a partition on the drive.