how to erase and format external hard drive windows

#HOW TO ERASE AND FORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE WINDOWS HOW TO#
#HOW TO ERASE AND FORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE WINDOWS FOR MAC#

To begin with, you can just go to the Start menu, look for Command Prompt, and launch it as an administrator.Ģ.

#HOW TO ERASE AND FORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE WINDOWS HOW TO#

To learn how to format a hard drive for Windows 10 via DISKPART, follow these steps:ġ. The Disk Partition is a utility command that would let you clean and format the hard drive easily. In case your system can’t detect the attached device or the Disk Management tool can’t yield the expected results, then use the DISKPART command. Here, make sure that the file system is NTFS or exFAT that is supported by Windows 10 while formatting the drive.Ģ Format any Drive via the DISKPART Command This will open a dedicated wizard to format the hard drive on Windows 10. Simply select the drive, right-click, and choose the “Format” option.ģ. Great! Once the Disk Management application is opened, you can view the details of the connected drive at the bottom. If you want, you can also launch it by entering the “diskmgmt.msc” command in the Run prompt.Ģ. At first, just launch the Disk Management tool by looking for it from the search option.

You can learn how to format an external hard drive on Windows 10 in the following way.ġ.

If you are a Windows user, then you might be familiar with the Disk Management tool that helps us format, defragment, and manage our drives.

#HOW TO ERASE AND FORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE WINDOWS FOR MAC#

If you are interested in How to Format External Hard Drive for Mac And PC, you can click the link to seek more details. Therefore, to learn how to format a hard drive for Windows 10 that was initialized on Mac, you can follow the two methods to format the external hard drive on Windows OS. For instance, HFS or APFS file formats would not be supported by your Windows 10 system. If you have been using a hard drive on Mac, then it can have a file format that is not supported by Windows 10. How to Format a Hard Drive for Windows 10 on Windows 10? It stands for Apple File System and has advanced partitioning, security, and user permission features. For a long time, this used to be the native file system in macOS.ĪPFS: Newly released, this is now the default system for macOS High Sierra or newer versions. HFS+: It stands for Hierarchical File System and can easily accommodate large files with a Unicode system. Please note that you can’t format hard drive for Windows 10 in NTFS using the native apps in Mac as of now. Just like Windows, you can format a hard drive in the following file systems on macOS:įAT and exFAT: These are the only two file formats supported by macOS that are compatible with Windows 10. The format is recommended to avoid data corruption, assign permissions, and even supports encryption.Ĭompatible Hard Drive File Formats for macOS

NTFS: Stands for New Technology File System, it is the default file system for Windows and can accommodate large files easily. It is recommended for drives with more than 32 GB of storage. It can record file changes and has optimum partitioning style, but might not be compatible with older devices. It is recommended for USB drives with 32 GB or lesser storage.ĮxFAT: This is a more universal file system as it is supported by both Mac and Windows. In this, the maximum size for a single file can be 4 GB and is used to transfer data to older systems. Just like every other operating system, Windows also supports the following file formats for the hard drive.įAT32: This is one of the oldest file systems that is allocated to external storage units (like USB drives). In any hard drive, there is a file system that defines how the partitioning is done or the way data is stored in the disc. Part 4: How to Format a Hard Drive for Windows 10 on macOS?Ĭompatible Hard Drive File Formats for Windows.Part 3: How to Format a Hard Drive for Windows 10 on Windows 10?.Part 2: Compatible Hard Drive File Formats for macOS.Part 1: Compatible Hard Drive File Formats for Windows.

How to erase and format external hard drive windows