How to format an external hardrive.

Hi I'm trying to back up my Playstation4 on my 1tb external hardrive but how do I format it to ( EXFat or FAT32 ) for it to work. Do i have to format it or should i just leave it and continue trying to save my game data.

Just Google FAT32 formatter and you will find lots of free programs to download. I use MiniTool partition wizzard and it's a wizz

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How to format an external hard disk Mac Os Extended (Journaled)?

hello
I connect an external hard disk (2.5' IDE Western Digital Scorpio Blue, WD2500BEVE) via USB or FireWire to my Mac mini. The Disk Utility tool shows an external disk drive of 128 GB - but the disk has 250 GB. How can I format the external USB/Firewire-harddisk 250 GB "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"?
I tried also to format the disk on a Windows PC (Windows XP). But I could not find a software to format "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
Any hints on this? Thanks in advance for any feedback!

andreasmarx wrote:
As I use theses hard disks in a external hard disk case, I'm asking me whether my hard disk cases do not support more that 128 GB disk capacity. Is that realistic?
It is not only realistic but probably the reason your Mac cannot see more than 128 GB of the capacity of the drives mounted in them. It has nothing to do with the interface between the Mac & case (like Firewire) but instead with the controller in the case that connects the raw ATA drive to that interface. Older ATA standards used a 28 bit LBA (logical block address) scheme to access the disk. For 512 bytes per sector this works out to a maximum of 128 GB of addressable disk capacity. The ATA-6 standard, also called Ultra-ATA/100 or just ATA-100, increased the bits in the address space from 28 to 48, with a disk capacity limit of 2 petabytes.
ATA-6 was introduced in 2001, so any external drive case made before then for ATA drives will be forever limited to 128 G. Even now, some come with a controller that does not support the ATA-6 standard, & essentially none have all the hardware to support its full 48 bits of address capacity. However, since 2 PB (2000 terabyte) drives won't be available anytime soon, all you really need is a case that is ATA-6 or better compliant & supports enough address bits for the largest drive you intend ever to put in it.
Case makers don't usually make this information easily available but many now include a "bullet" spec about the maximum capacity their case supports, typically rounded off to simple numbers like 320 GB, 500 GB, or whatever. If you can't find this info, you can assume that the newer the case the more likely it is to support larger capacity drives, or just buy one with a good return policy & test it yourself with the largest raw drive you own.

Mac novice needs to know how to format an external drive

How do I format a memory stick or external hard drive? I remember in PCs you could right click and click on format.
Thanks!

In OS X, there's an app called Disk Utility that allows you to do whatever you want with hard drives and external drives.
In order to format an external drive, read > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html The Pondini's site guides you through the steps, so you just have to follow them. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as right-clicking the external drive

How to format an external drive for mac AND pc use

i want to format my external drive so i can use it on my mac and on pc's as well. i've gathered that the MS-DOS format is the way to go. my question is this: would this create any problems for my mac then?
can i partion one part for ms-dos and part for macos extended?
cheers
-j-

MS-DOS format (or FAT32) will be fine for both Mac and PC. However there is a 4GB file size limit with FAT32.
You could use a dual partition, however the HFS+ partition would not be readable by the PC unless you installed the third party MacDrive.
Look at this page for more information on a dual partition drive for Mac and Windows.
http://macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812
iFelix

How to format an external HD to be seen by MAc

which format to do use to format an external HD so it can be read with PC and MAc
os mac Journaled?? Extended?
michel

Drive Partition and Format
1. pen Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to MSDOS. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

How to format an external hard drive for vista and snow leopard?

I want to format an external hard drive to attach to Airport Extreme base station to us with Snow Leopard and a PC with Vista. What format should I use for read/write access for both?

I use NTFS for my external drives being used on both Macs and Windows. To get the Mac to write to NTFS, you need a separate program. I use Paragon for Mac software. It works behind the scenes. There are also some free things that do the same thing but I found them cranky and unreliable. YMMV.
Windows can not read any of the Mac disk formats without additional software.. FAT32 is fine but is extremely limited.
For the last year, I have had absolutely no problems on any computer, Mac or Windows.

How to format an external hard drive - to be accessed by mac and pc

I have four large video files on my mac pro that I to transfer to a friend's external hard drive. It's a new hard drive so is unformatted at present. My friend has a Vista laptop and XP PC which I know won't recognise a Mac formatted drive.
What is the easiest and quickest way to transfer the files (approx 90GB each) to the hard drive. I did consider networking but that might take ages!! :-(( Once on the external drive, my friend wants edit them.
Thanks for your help in advance.

Format ur external Hard Disk with HFS format then access it from windows by (HFS Explorer) here is the link of that software
http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/hfsx.html
you can extract anything from HFS format hard disks..the program is free also

Advice on how to format an external hard drive for a MacBook Air

I have an external USB hard drive plugged into a 64GB MacBook Air. How should I format the hard drive so that when I run out of room on the small 64 GB SSD drive on the MacBook Air, it will start putting some iTunes or other files onto the external hard drive? I only put iTunes and other small music files on the MacBook Air in order to save room. I do have iTunes set for iCloud.

You cannot format a drive so that files will be automatically put on that drive when you run out of room on another drive. Transferring the files must be done specifically by you. You will need to learn how to manage free space on the SSD because 64 GBs is a bit small for much more than OS X.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

How to format an external hard drive previously run on win. xp

I am trying to get into my external hard drive to edit or delete some old data that is no longer needed. I can get onto the hard drive but not remove any of the data, nor can I change the location of the files. Does anybody know how i can do this? I do have iWork'09. The store I bought the system from said that it would convert my files to be usable on my MAC.

Windows has 2 HD formats, FAT32 and NTFS.
The newer NTFS is not directly supported in OSX.
Try:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24481/ntfs-3g
or
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30449/ntfs-for-mac
to see if they can mount and read the drive for you.
If you have a real problem, back-up your hard drive to a PC and reformat the drive to FAT32. Then return the files onto the HD and it should read OK on your Mac. Alternatively back the files up onto CD/DVDs these can be easily read on your Mac as well.
Peter

How to format an external drive used for time machine

My 150 Gig external hard drive showed too full for a time machine backup. It only showed 20 gig left. So I moved the time machine backup on it to the trash to make room for a new one. This did nothing. With the files in the trash the drive still shows full even though it has no time machine backup on it.
So I would like to know how I can format this drive again to get it to accept a brand new time machine backup. Or how do I get time machine to recognize the drive as empty instead of full.
I now know I should have at least a 500 gig drive to let time machine make it's plethora of backups. But the 150 gig drive is what I have right now to backup an 80 gig hard drive and I would like to start from scratch.
Thanks,
JJ Bula

With the files in the trash the drive still shows full
You need to empty the Trash before anything is actually removed from the drive.
If you want to completely erase the drive, launch Disk Utility, select the drive, go to the Erase pane and click "Erase".

HT1338 how to format an external hard drive for MacOSX

I have a new Fantom hard drive, but ut is formatted with NTFS file system. How do I format it for my mac mini? The instructions from Fantom say to use the Disc Utility...but also warn to reformat with HFS. Will this be done when I chose Disc Utility, or do I need other software?

55heyjude wrote:
ok...the Apple store tech says just to format using the Disc Utility...
And that is exactly what mende1 said as well, he just gave you a little more of the steps than the Tech did, thank him and format your disk.

How to format an external drive

I have a Western Digital external HD (Passport). I downloaded the new 10.x OS (Maverick ?) and it does not support the drive. WD does not have an firmware upgrade for it.
My preference would be to simply reformat the drive and lose the WD firmware, formating to any compatable Apple OS.
Can't find a format command. (I am more expiereced with Windows machines and could do it there with ease)
Thanks in advance for any help you may offer

Thanks shoulder to the wheel.
I got halfway home (kind of like a C&W Song)
I did create another drive (Partition?) followiing your good directions. I have yet tried to copy to it. (Fear!)
But the WD Smartware will not eject the drive. That worries me. (So does Putin)
But, it's late, I'm nearing 106 years old (or so it feels) and I'm tired. I'm gong to fire up some Pink Floyd and slip into a fog of the past, drift off to sleep and try this after they server the oatmeal here at the home. (We get bibs)
Thanks so much. At least I found the disk utilty. Now, if I could only find my other sock.
Wonky

How to format an external drive as FAT32?

Hi. In 10.4, you used to be able to format drives as FAT32. Seems 10.5 has lost this ability. I need to format a drive in order to recover some lost data from a nearly dead PC. Unfortunately, the PC cannot do the formatting so the only "live" computer I have is my Mac. If this cannot be done in 10.5, is there an external utility that can do this for me?
Thanks!
p.s I've got Parallels and XP2, but it won't recognize my Lacie USB drive when I plug it in, perhaps because it's formatted for Mac.

I take it then that you don't have XP running natively either on your Mac.
Leopard has made changes so that sometimes a FW or USB2 drive won't mount or show up, which often means that new OS X requires a firmware update for the bridge it uses - Oxford or some other - and the vendor needs updated firmware.
That leads to a 'catch-22' situation.
If you boot from a DVD (Tiger or Leopard) same problem? FAT (or MSDOS) has always worked here, any size, even mixed.
If you do get it to mount, I would go to Partition tab in DU, then Options... and change it to Master Boot Record.
I know you want FAT, but just to see if it helps, you could try the NTFS driver MacFUSE 3G to see if it helps any (it can format to NTFS if the drive is using MBR).
Try plugging in the USB drive after the system is booted if you haven't yet. IntechUSA Speedtools has a PC Format utility, but I don't think it really adds anything and costs as much as a new drive would, which is always one option.
http://www.macsales.com/firewire - never had any trouble with these.

How to Format an External Drive for Windows-only

I'm a mac user, and I'm selling a used external hard drive on eBay. I want to offer to format it correctly if a Windows user buys it, and I don't want to assume newbie eBay people will have the knowledge/interest in formatting themselves.
Will "MS-DOS (FAT)" work perfectly fine for a modern Windows user? If not, is there some other way I can format this thing on my end?

Thanks, Niel and Bob
I found s/w called Tuxera NTFS for Mac allowing you to format NTFS on a Mac. Costs $31 but there's a 15 day free trial.
There's also a freeware app floating around out there using MacFuse and NTFS-3G, but there are conflicting reports on Mavericks compatibility and overall reliability.

How to format WD external drive for Mac

Just got the WD MyBook 2TB. It's not the one specifically for Mac. It says it is compatible, needs to reformat. How easy is it to reformat? It is for Time Machine. Thanks.

Connect it, power it up, go to Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities), select the WD disk on the left, go to the Erase tab, and choose "Mac OS Extended". Click Erase. That should do it.
You should then a) see it mount on the desktop, and b) automatically get a prompt to use the drive for Time Machine - if not, you can go into the Time Machine menu (top right of the screen), go to TM Preferences, and select it.
Matt

How to format an external hardrive.

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