Can only be read by a Mac running Big Sur. You’ll need to format it to APFS or Mac OS Extended File system.īut understand that your Time Machine backup on your APFS formatted drive. Want to use your shiny new drive for Time Machine? Format For Your Mac’s Time Machine Backup As that’s the compatible format for older Macs. If you’ve older Macs running the operating system High Sierra or earlier. Or ExFAT if you plan to use your drive to share between Windows and Mac. Or drag and drop your files to your drive. When you want to copy and paste your files. Format An External Hard Drive For Your Files And you can change that in 5 minutes or less. The great thing about your Mac is that it’ll use any drive out there. Why Format An External Hard Drive For Mac?īecause a lot of hard drives out there on the market are NTFS formatted.īut you won’t be able to copy any files onto an NTFS drive. Right Click to Eject Format External Hard Drive For Mac Frequently Asked Questions 1. And it’s all ready for you to use.Īnd when you’re ready to pack your drive away be sure to Eject your drive first. You’ll see it with the name you’ve given it. Your drive will then show up on your Mac’s desktop. But of course your external hard drive is way bigger. When formatted you can use your drive just as you would a USB stick. And once done your external drive is ready for you to use. Your Mac will take a few minutes to format a hard drive. The red arrows in the picture show you where you can find the format and scheme list of options. Then format again.ĪPFS will come up as an option the second time round.īut still pick GUID Partition Map for your Mac. Pick Mac OS Extended (Journaled) the first time you format. Can’t see APFS (Apple File System) as an option? Or you’ll have all sorts of odd problems using your drive later on your Mac.

Your Mac needs the GUID Partition Map scheme. Pick ExFAT if you want your drive read and writeable by both Mac and Windows.Īll the above formats allow you to copy and paste from your Mac to your drive.ĭrag and drop your files to your external hard drive.īut only APFS or Mac OS extended (Journaled) can you use for your Mac’s Time Machine backup.

But you can format your hard drive as APFS if you want. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is the format that’s the most compatible with newer and older Macs.

You need to format the disk in drive e