Feb 08, 2020 How to Partition an External Hard Drive on Mac. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive (in fact, you should for better file organization), here’s a step-by-step guide: Step 1: Highlight your drive and click “Partition” in Disk Utility. Open the Disk Utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Jun 22, 2013 This option on boot trick works for quite literally any boot volume, whether it’s an external USB drive of any sort, a Thunderbolt hard drive, boot DVD, CD, the Recovery partition, even in dual-boot environments with other versions of OS X, or a Linux or a Windows partition with Boot Camp, if it’s bootable and connected to the Mac it will be visible at this boot manager. Select the drive (out-dented entry with the mfgr.' S ID and size) from the side list. Click on the Erase tab in the Disk Utility toolbar. A panel should drop down. In the drop down panel set the partition scheme to GUID. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and click on the Done button when it is activated. Jun 04, 2013 If none of the options above work I would assume your hard drive is formatted using the old Apple Partition Map scheme which is solely supported by Mac OS and OS X. In that case you would have to backup all the files, repartition the drive using the Master Boot Record or GUID Partition table. Nov 14, 2019 It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup HD and external drive problems. If you are able to fix the hard drive or SSD in your Mac (or an external drive) using Disk Utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files. To run Fist Aid on an external hard drive: Open Disk Utility.
HomeHow ToMacsHow to Format or Partition an External Hard Drive on Mac
If you recently purchased an external hard drive or portable SSD for your Mac, you probably noticed that Mac OS X doesn’t allow you to write data on to the drive. This is because the drive has been initialized for Windows NT File system, NTFS for short, and NTFS is primarily for PC use. Mac computers support a different file system. Nonetheless, there’s a way you can format your external drive for a Mac compatible file system.
Before you dive into learning how to format your external drive, there’s an important factor you need to take into account. If your external drive has many useful files on it, you should ensure that you copy or transfer these files elsewhere. This is because when you begin the process of formatting your drive, all of your data will be deleted.
Partition External Drive. If you have a large external hard drive, you can easily partition it so that the entire drive gets utilized. I was using a 1.5 TB external drive with my Mac, but never really used more than 1/4 of the space. Instead, here’s how I ended up partitioning my drive, which ended up making it.
Although you can use a recovery program, such a Data Rescue, in order to recover your files, it will be quite a hassle, and near impossible. It’s better to take precautions beforehand, and back up your files to another safe location. Once you’ve backed up your important files and data elsewhere, follow the instructions below in order to format your external drive.
Format External Drive to Work with Mac OS X
In order to format your external drive, you’ll need to use Disk Utility. Disk Utility comes built-in with your Mac, and is used to erase, format, or manage internal and external storage devices. Disk Utility is also used in order to manage volumes, and organize data into partitions. Overall, this is a very useful tool, that will aid you greatly in the process of formatting your external drive. In order to get started and use Disk Utility to format your external drive, follow the simple instructions below.
1. Launch Disk Utility. You can use Spotlight to do this, by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of your screen. Type in Disk Utility in the search bar, and press the enter/return key.
2. In the left windowpane, you’ll see a list of the available drives. Please select the drive you would like to format. If you don’t see your drive available, ensure that it’s properly connected to your Mac.
3. Click on the Erase tab.
4. A window will now pop-up asking which file system you would like to use, in order to format your external drive. The default option is the Windows NT File system. Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled), instead.
If you prefer to use your external drive for both Mac and Windows, you can choose ExFAT, instead. You’ll also have the option to rename your external drive, if you wish to do so. Please be patient as the erasing process carries out. This may take some time depending on how much information needs to be erased.
After the process has completed, you can check to see if it was successful. Follow the instructions below, in order to see if your drive was properly formatted.
1. Right-click on the icon for your external drive.
2. Click on Get Info.
3. Next to Format, it should say Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
That’s all it takes. You’ve formatted your external drive to be compatible with Mac OS X, and have confirmed that the formatting process was successful. You can now edit, read, and write files, as you wish.
Partition External Hard Drive on Mac OS X
You should create multiple partitions on your external hard drive, in order to have enhanced file organization. This is very easy to carry out, and only requires a few moments of your time. In order to get started and partition your external hard drive, follow the simple instructions below.
1. Launch Disk Utility. You can use Spotlight to do this, by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of your screen. Type in Disk Utility in the search bar, and press the enter/return key.
2. In the left windowpane, you’ll see a list of the available drives. Please select the drive you would like to format. If you don’t see your drive available, ensure that it’s properly connected to your Mac.
Mac Os Doesn Recognize By Partition External Hard Drive Computer
3. Click on the Partition tab.
4. A window will open with a blue circle and the name of your external drive. Click on the + button in order to add a partition to your external drive.
5. Feel free to allocate the desired volume to each partition that you create. You can easily do this by clicking on the small white circle and dragging it around, as you wish.
6. Feel free to rename each partition, as you wish, and select a file system for it.
7. Click on Partition in order to confirm you’d like to carry out the partition.
Please be patient as the process to partition your external drive is carried out. Once the process has completed, you’ll see a Operation successful message. Click on Done when you see this message. That’s all it takes. You’ve now partitioned your external drive. Thanks to Disk Utility, the process was very easy to carry out, and only required a few moments of your time.
If you’re worried the partition didn’t carry out successfully, there’s an easy way to confirm. All you need to do is navigate to your Mac OS Desktop. On your Desktop, you should now see various icons, representing the partitions that you created, using the instructions above. Although you may think there’s no need to create partitions for your external drive, you’ll soon learn that this is a very neat tool that will allow you to have enhanced file organization.
You can create different partitions for different needs. For example, you can have a backup partition, a personal use partition, a work partition, and other such partitions of the like. This will increase your productivity, as all of your important files and data will be properly organized, and easy to see.
Get a data lifeguard for Mac
Disk Drill brings deleted files back from the dead.
Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac’s USB port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the Finder in the left-hand column under Devices, since Mac’s treat them the same way as another computer.
However, sometimes, an external hard drive doesn't show up. It’s annoying, especially when you need to transfer something right then. And besides, there can be a risk that data on the external USB pen, hard, or flash drive is corrupt, which means you can’t transfer what you need between devices at all.
Mac Os Doesn Recognize By Partition External Hard Drive Mac
Corrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too. Let’s take a look why this is happening and how you can get an external drive to appear on your Mac and get recover data to access to your documents.
How to fix an external disk drive that won't show up on a Mac
Why an external disk drive is not showing up? There could be a few reasons why a USB flash drive isn’t making an appearance.
Open an External Drive Not Showing on Mac
Get a huge set of top utilities for troubleshooting external hard drives not mounting on a Mac
Start with the basics:
Unfortunately, if none of those options has worked and the external drive still isn’t visible, then it could have crashed, or be well and truly broken. But there might still be a way you can recover the data on the external drive.
How to show connected devices in Finder
In the Sidebar tab you can choose which folders and devices will be shown in the left-hand column of the Finder window.
How to add cloud storages to Finder
You can also mount cloud storage as local drive on your Mac. By connecting Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon to your computer, you get more space for securely accessing and sharing files. For your ease, add cloud drives to Finder with CloudMounter app, so that you keep them close at hand. You can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drives here.
Repair the failed external drives with First Aid
If your drive is having problems, you can try to fix them yourself with First Aid and therefore get access to your files. First Aid tool will check the disk for errors and then attempt a repair as needed. It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup HD and external drive problems. If you are able to fix the hard drive or SSD in your Mac (or an external drive) using Disk Utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files.
To run Fist Aid on an external hard drive:
If First Aid successful in fixing errors, the external drive should be available to mount. If the utility unable to repair issues, your drive truly is broken or formatted using a file system that the Mac cannot read - in this way we suggest you follow the next steps to recover data from a damaged disk drive.
How to recover data from a crashed drive
Thankfully, there is an app for that. Disk Drill is the world’s premier data recovery software for Mac OS X. Powerful enough to retrieve long-lost, mistakenly deleted files from Macs, external hard drives and USB drives and camera cards.
Get a file recovery app
With Setapp you get a pack of professional tools for file recovery and Mac maintenance.
An easy way to recover lost files on an external hard drive
Providing you already have Disk Drill Pro version, which you can get automatically by downloading from Setapp:
Mac Os Doesn Recognize By Partition External Hard Drive Windows 10
Disk Drill does have other ways to recover lost files but assuming there aren’t complications, this method is the most effective. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available from Setapp, along with dozens of Mac apps that will make your life easier. Never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive again.
A few more tips on getting your files back
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Alternative ways to recover data from an external hard drive
Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) if your Mac shuts down when you plug in an external hard drive. Then use a different port to connect the external hard drive. If you’ve got a battery that you can’t remove:
For Macs with removable batteries, you need to switch them off, remove the battery, then press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. After that, put the battery back in, plug in the power adapter and switch the power on again.
What’s your file format? One reason your Mac isn’t recognizing the hard drive is the file format. Windows uses NTFS file formats, while Macs, up until the introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+. Now, Apple has introduced the Apple File System (APFS) for newer operating systems. It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on Mac and Windows computers, providing you format using exFAT. However, if you’re having problems accessing the files and the issue is due to formatting, you will need to connect it to a device it can be read on, and then format the files correctly for the computer you are going to use it on next.
How to make Ext2/Ext3 drives readable on Mac
The common issue is Ext2- and Ext3-formatted drives are not readable on macOS. There are two ways to access such external drives on your Mac – via Linux OS or FUSE system. The easiest would be installing Linux to a secondary drive or virtual machine.
If you go with Linux installation, dual boot your Mac with Linux on another drive and use FAT32 as a transfer intermediary. If you don’t have a drive to install Linux to, use virtual machine as an interface for it. Transferring can be done the same way – with FAT32, or via network.
Another option for reading Ext2/Ext3 disks is mounting disk with Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE). Basically, it works as an extra interface enabling file system access via specially installed modules. Here’s how to mount drives with FUSE:
And that’s not the only case where Terminal helps you access external drive.
Employ the handy all-powerful Terminal, which always comes forward with solutions for difficult problems. Especially if System Information does recognize the USB or hard drive, but continues to hide it from you, disconnect the drive and try to find it using the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities.
Console is also reliable when it comes to solving tricky problems, although it isn’t always that easy to use. You can find Console under Applications > Utilities > Console. Console shows if an external drive or any error is detected under the Errors and Faults tab. If no errors show up, then the problem is not caused by the device.
To sum up, there are lots of potential solutions for a Mac not reading an external hard drive. If we were to pick one, Disk Drill seems to be the most well-rounded, offering plenty of customizations and power in an easy-to-use interface. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available via Setapp, along with 150+ Mac apps that strive to make your life much much easier. At the very least, you’ll never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive ever again.
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