External drives allow for many different configurations that may work in some situations but not others. This guide will walk you through the basics of reformatting a drive and how to best format it for your setup.

Types of Formats

Formatting a Drive for Mac or Windows

Drives can be formatted in two primary different formats. NTFS and HFS+. When choosing the right format for your hard drive, it is possible that you are formatting the drive to work with one specific operating system.

• NTFS drives can be read and written to by Windows computers.
• HFS+ drives can be read and written to by Mac computers.

If you are formatting a drive to be used solely by a Windows or Mac machine, choosing a traditional NTFS or HFS+ format is ideal. These formats offer high stability and many features that keep data secure such as permissions.

Formatting a Drive for Mac and Windows

If you are interested in using a drive between both the Windows and Mac ecosystems, you may be interested in using a format known as ExFAT. ExFAT allows a drive to be read and written to in both environments but is generally seen as less stable and missing some features that both NTFS and HSF+ offer. Nevertheless, for basic file storage ExFAT is a great option.

How to Format a drive on Windows

1. Connect your external drive to your Windows machine.
2. Open File Explorer and navigate to This PC to see your external drive.
3. Right-click on the external drive and select Format.
4. Set your file system and drive name (Volume Label). Generally,
   1. For Windows-specific drives, choose NTFS
   2. For drives that work on both Mac and Windows, choose ExFAT
      
5. Select Start to begin formatting the drive

How to format a drive on Mac

1. Connect your external drive to your Mac.
2. Open Finder and select the Go menu at the top of the screen.
3. Select Utilities.
4. Locate and open Disk Utility.
5. On the left, select the partition of the drive you would like to erase.

• Select Erase.
• Name your drive and decide your format. Generally:
  1. For Mac specific drives, choose macOS Extended (Journaled).
  2. For Windows-specific drives, choose MS-DOS (FAT).
  3. For drives that work on both Mac and Windows, choose ExFAT.
• Select Erase to erase and format your drive.