If you bought a Mac before 2017 and haven’t updated it since then, it probably supports an HFS Plus drive. HFS Plus (Hierarchical File System Plus) was used for Mac computers before APFS was introduced. Not Suitable: For disks used with older Macs or for Windows and Linux. Suitable: For macOS system drives, hybrid drives, SSDs, and flash drives that are only used on macOS. If you have an external SSD or a new USB stick and you definitely are not going to use them with Windows computers, you can choose this option.Ĭons of APFS: As of now, APFS cannot be used to back up data using Time Machine. APFS also pays a lot of attention to technologies such as encryption, as well as improving work with metadata.īy default, APFS is optimized for solid-state drives (SSDs) and flash drives, however, it can also be used for traditional mechanical hard drives (HDDs). The main advantage of APFS is the fast speed of copying, pasting, and doing other operations on a disk. All new Macs are already bundled with APFS. APFS replaced the outdated macOS file system called HFS Plus. APFS (Apple File System)ĪPFS is the format introduced by Apple in early 2017 for iOS devices. Let’s take a closer look at each file format for external drives for your Mac. What is the best format for an external Mac hard drive? Keep reading, and we will explain the differences between disk formats in more detail, as well as how to format a hard drive for your Mac. If you want to be able to work with your hard drive on both Mac- and Windows-based computers, then you will have to choose other formats. If you are only going to use the hard drive on your Mac, then you should choose the HFS+ format. There are also FAT32 and ExFAT formats, which are compatible with both operating systems. Mac computers use a different file system called HFS+. For example, if you buy a new HDD, you will most likely first have to format the external disk to be able to use it on your Mac. This often causes difficulties when opening external drives on a Mac. Be sure to choose exFAT as the file system format on the Format Partition screen.Why do you need to reformat an external hard drive for your Mac?īy default, most models of hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs) are formatted for a Windows operating system.The wizard will guide you through the next steps. Right-click on the partition of your external drive and choose New Simple Volume. Look for your external drive listed as a volumeĤ. Open the Disk Management Tool by opening search and typing Disk Management.ģ.Connect your external drive to your Windows PC.How to Format an External Drive Using Windows 11įollow these instructions if you would like to format an external drive in exFAT on the Windows 11 operating system. Once you have named your drive and chosen your Format, click Erase and you simply need to wait for the process to complete and you are ready to use your new external drive! Here is where it is important for you to choose the exFAT option from the menu.ħ. You will be asked for a Name, Format, and Scheme for your drive. Go ahead and click Erase here if you are sure you would like to format the drive.Ħ. Clicking the Erase button will bring up a small window warning that you are about to erase all the data stored on the drive. Choose which drive you would like to format and click Erase in the top menu.ĥ. Here we have a Glyph 500GB drive shown under External options:Ĥ. The left menu will show you options for which drive you would like to format. Once you have Disk Utility open, click View -> Show All DevicesĤ. Open Launchpad -> click on Other -> Disk Utilityģ.For newer drives this will usually be utilizing a USB type-C or Thunderbolt cable, but older drives might require a USB type-A connector. Connect your hard drive to your Mac computer. How to Format an External Drive Using MacOS Ventura We recommend using a separate drive specifically for Time Machine backups The Photos app will not let you save photo libraries on the same drive you use for Time Machine backups and you will get corrupted libraries. The reason for this is because formatting part of your drive to use for Time Machine will sometimes cause issues with other Mac apps like Photos. How To Format Your External Hard Drive for Mac or WindowsĪ few words word of caution before you set up your drive is to know that if you are planning to schedule Time Machine backups on your Mac, it is better to use a completely separate drive for that task.
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