

- #How to reformat external hard drive mac to windows mac os#
- #How to reformat external hard drive mac to windows software#
For an external or non-boot volume, copy all your valuable files and folders, and paste them to another external storage device. Back Up Your Mac Hard Drive before Formattingīefore erasing your Mac hard drive be it internal or external, you must back up the drive to ensure zero data loss. The next section discusses the correct way to format your Mac storage drive without data loss. DO NOT click the Initialize button unless it’s a new drive or you have recovered data from it. So, you end up losing your data.Īlso, when you connect a corrupt or unreadable external storage drive to your Mac, macOS will prompt you to initialize the disk. When your Mac storage drive has stored data on it, and you accidentally erase the drive in a new file system format, macOS removes all references to the data.

#How to reformat external hard drive mac to windows mac os#
Mac OS Extended format for macOS Sierra 10.12 or earlier.APFS format for macOS Big Sur 11, Catalina 10.15, or Mojave 10.14.Different file system formats exist for different operating systems. Recover Data Lost due to Accidental FormattingĪn internal or external Mac storage drive requires compatible files system format to be accessible in macOS. Format a Mac External Hard Drive Using TerminalĤ. Format the Startup Disk in macOS Recovery Modeģ. Back Up Your Mac Hard Drive before FormattingĢ.
#How to reformat external hard drive mac to windows software#
Download the free-to-try Mac data recovery software to recover your erased hard drive data.

The blog post shares a few safe methods to format your Mac hard drive in the desired file system format, without the risk of any data loss.
