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This article was co-written by Yaffet Meshesha. Yaffet Meshesha is a computer expert and founder of Techy, a full-service company: home pick-up, repair, and return. With over eight years of experience, Yaffet specializes in computer repair and technical support. Techy has appeared in TechCrunch and Time magazines.
This article has been viewed 11,483 times.
This article shows you how to change the format of an external hard drive (USB) on computers running Windows and Mac operating systems. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to create compatibility between files and the computer’s operating system, as well as fix invisible errors on the hard drive. Note, however, that the formatting process will erase the data on the hard drive.
Steps
On Windows operating system
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Attach the hard drive to the computer. Attach the hard drive’s USB cable to one of the flat rectangular ports on the computer.
- If you’re using a desktop computer, the USB ports are usually on the front or back of the device’s CPU.
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Open Start 
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. Click the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen, or press ⊞ Win on your keyboard.
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Open File Explorer 
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. Click the folder icon in the lower left corner of the Start window.
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Click This PC on the left side of the File Explorer window.
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Click the name of the external hard drive under the “Devices and drives” heading in the middle of the This PC window. This is the operation to select the hard drive.
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Click the Manage tab. It’s a menu in the upper-left corner of the This PC window.
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Click Format with the hard drive icon located in the Manage toolbar near the top of the window. Click here to open the Format window for your external hard drive.
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Click the “File System” box below the “File System” heading near the top of the page. This will open the selection list as follows:
- NTFS – Suitable for Windows-specific hard drives.
- FAT32 – Fits Windows and Mac, but has a memory limit of 32 gigabytes and a file size limit of 4 gigabytes.
- exFAT (Recommended) – Use this option for hard drives that you want to use on multiple devices (Mac, Windows, conspe devices, etc.). This type is similar to FAT32 but has no memory limit.
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Select format. Click to select the format you want to use.
- If you have formatted your hard drive before, check the Quick Format box.
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Click Start , then select OK . This will ask Windows to proceed with formatting the hard drive.
- The files of the external hard drive will be deleted during processing.
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Click OK when prompted. Now your external storage has been reformatted according to the selected file structure.
On Mac OS
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Attach the hard drive to the computer. Attach the hard drive’s USB cable to one of the thin rectangular ports on the computer.
- If you’re using an iMac, you’ll see USB ports on the side of the keyboard or on the back of the iMac display.
- Not all Macs have USB ports. If you’re using a newer Mac that doesn’t have a USB port, you’ll need to purchase an additional USB-C to USB adapter.
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Open Finder with the blue face icon in the Dock.
- You can also click on the computer screen.
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Click Go in the upper left corner of the screen.
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Click Utilities near the bottom of the Go selection list.
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Double-click Disk Utility in the middle of the Utilities page.
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Click the external hard drive’s name on the left side of the Utilities window.
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Click the Erase tab at the top of the Disk Utility window.
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Click the “Format” drop-down box in the middle of the page. The screen will display a list of options as follows:
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled) – The default format on Macs, Mac only.
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) – Encrypted version of the default Mac format.
- Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) – Version of the default format on Macs, with different treatment for files of the same name but with upper and lower case differences (such as ” file.txt” and “File.txt”).
- Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted) – A combination of the three formatting options above for Mac formatting.
- MS-DOS (FAT) – Suitable for Windows and Mac computers, but has a file limit of 4 gigabytes.
- ExFAT (Recommended) – Suitable for Windows and Mac computers, no memory limit.
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Select format. Just click on the format you want to use.
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Click Erase , then click Erase when prompted. This allows the Mac to delete and reformat the external storage. When the process is complete, your hard drive will be in a new format.
Advice
- When formatting an external hard drive for a conspe game device, FAT32 or exFAT is the most appropriate choice for the file format.
Warning
- Formatting does not destroy all data on the hard drive. The formatting process will assist the hard drive to save new files. Usually, the data will be recorded on disk or can be recovered using recovery software.
- Formatting will erase all data. Back up the files you need to save before formatting the hard drive.
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This article was co-written by Yaffet Meshesha. Yaffet Meshesha is a computer expert and founder of Techy, a full-service company: home pick-up, repair, and return. With over eight years of experience, Yaffet specializes in computer repair and technical support. Techy has appeared in TechCrunch and Time magazines.
This article has been viewed 11,483 times.
This article shows you how to change the format of an external hard drive (USB) on computers running Windows and Mac operating systems. Formatting a hard drive can change the file system to create compatibility between files and the computer’s operating system, as well as fix invisible errors on the hard drive. Note, however, that the formatting process will erase the data on the hard drive.
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