external hard disk formatting software free download for os x

External Hard Disk Formatting Software For Os X Install Of Your
External Hard Disk Formatting Software For Os X How To Format Your
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Formatting allows you to overwrite all the information on the hard drive, resetting the file structure and how the drive interacts with the operating system.

It can also be used to prep a hard drive for use with another operating system.

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Well show you how to format your hard drive on Mac and Windows computer operating systems, and explain key settings on both operating systems.

Lets first talk about hard drive formatting, file systems and how formatting doesnt necessarily erase all data from your drive.

Though thats true to a degree, its not the sole purpose of the process.

Instead, formatting is used to get the hard drive to a state in which it can be used by the computer, which requires all written data to be erased from the drive.

Most external drives come ready to use on your computer, but in rare cases, youll need to format your drive.

In fact, thats one of our recommended troubleshooting steps in our how to solve an external hard drive not showing up guide.

External Hard Disk Formatting Software For Os X Install Of Your

In the same way a fresh install of your OS can solve most issues, reformatting your hard drive is a critical step in troubleshooting problems.

Beforehand, just be sure your files are backed up with an online backup service, such as Backblaze (read our Backblaze review ).

The one yours uses largely depends on the drive and the computer OS youre using.

Because of that, were going to go over the most commonly used file system options so youll know whats what.

Like most file systems, NTFS is restricted once you move outside of Windows.

You can read and write on Windows platforms, but macOS and Linux users will only be able to read data from an NTFS-formatted drive.

Though not as prevalent as NTFS, youll often find flash drives and external solid-state drives formatted to ExFAT out of the box because multi-platform support and the lack of file size restrictions make it an ideal choice for plug-and-play setups.

It cant store files larger than 4GB, though, so it has fallen out of favor in recent years.

If youve checked out a sideloading guide, such as our Kodi sideloading guide, you probably saw recommendations to format to ExFAT or FAT32.

Thats because those file systems work across platforms while NTFS and HFS Plus dont.

Alternatively, you could dump the files from your drive to a cloud storage service, such as Sync.com, format the drive and put your files back on it (read our Sync.com review, and check out our cloud storage providers comparison ).

That said, if you want to change settings, youll need to know the details of each.

Were going to run through each setting in the wizard so you know which settings you need to change.

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Theres a dropdown menu, but the full capacity of the drive is usually the only option unless you have partitions set up.

If that sounds like gibberish, leave the setting on the default option.

External Hard Disk Formatting Software Free Download For Os X