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.
NOTE: Mylio Photos is not compatible with applications for macOS or Windows that allow for non-natively supported drives to be read/written to by unsupported operating systems
Drive Formats
Drives can be formatted in three primary formats:
- NTFS can only be read and written to by Windows.
- APFS can only be read and written to by macOS.
- ExFAT can be read by both Windows and macOS.
If your drive will be used solely by a Windows or macOS device, choosing a traditional NTFS or APFS format is ideal. These formats offer increased stability and security.
If your drive will be used with both Windows and macOS, choose ExFAT.
How to Format a Drive on Windows
WARNING: Formatting a drive will completely erase its contents.
- Connect your external drive to your Windows machine.
- Open File Explorer and navigate to This PC to see your external drive.
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Right-click the external drive and select Format.
- Choose your file system and drive name (Volume Label).
- For Windows-specific drives, choose NTFS
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For drives that work on both macOS and Windows, choose ExFAT
- Select Start to begin formatting the drive
How to format a drive on macOS
WARNING: Formatting a drive will completely erase its contents.
- Connect your external drive to your Mac.
- Open Finder and select the Go menu at the top of the screen.
- Select Utilities.
- Locate and open Disk Utility.
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On the left, select the partition of the drive you would like to erase.
- Select Erase.
- Name your drive and choose a format.
- For Mac-specific drives, choose APFS.
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For drives that work on both macOS and Windows, choose ExFAT.
- Select Erase to erase and format your drive.