
- #HOW TO REFORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR PC FROM MAC HOW TO#
- #HOW TO REFORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR PC FROM MAC FOR MAC#
- #HOW TO REFORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR PC FROM MAC MAC OS#
- #HOW TO REFORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR PC FROM MAC MAC#
- #HOW TO REFORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR PC FROM MAC WINDOWS#
When you purchase an off-the-shelf external drive, the enclosure is mated to its drive (sometimes even literally soldered together).

Lastly, you’ll get more long term value out of rolling your own external drive since any drive can be used within the enclosure. (Although, if you’re only interested in a one-and-done data pull from the hard drive and have no intention of using it as an external drive, you might find the cable and techniques we use in this article to be more helpful.) Yes, you could mount the drive internally on your desktop computer, but it’s a bit more time consuming, and can be impossible on some machines. And, on most laptop computers, it’s impossible to add an additional internal drive. Third, if you have a drive with data on it that you wish to retrieve, you can easily use your external enclosure to mount the hard drive and retrieve it.
#HOW TO REFORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR PC FROM MAC HOW TO#
RELATED: How to Get Data Off an Old Hard Drive (Without Putting It in a PC) If you use an old hard drive of your own or even purchase a new bare internal drive for this project, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting. It’s a not so hush-hush secret in the hardware industry that external hard drive units rarely get premium drives, and even if you like the company you’re purchasing your off-the-shelf external drive unit from, that doesn’t mean you’ll be getting the cream-of-the-crop drive design from them in the process. Second, you get control over the drive quality and specifications. Even if you don’t consider yourself much of a hardware geek, there’s a good chance you have a few (or more) hard drives sitting around (we’ve got bunches sitting in drawers). Not only is there no good reason to pay the hard drive company a premium to slap their drive in an enclosure on your behalf, there’s actually more than a few benefits to rolling your own external hard drive setup.įirst, if you already have a drive on hand, it’s extremely cheap to use it as an external drive, since the biggest cost (the drive) is already sunk and the smallest cost (the enclosure) is trivial by comparison. But what seems to be a value on the surface isn’t always so. You can, if you wish, head down to your local big box electronics store or favorite e-retailers, like Amazon or Newegg, and pick up an external drive at a seemingly decent price. Let’s look at how you can blow the dust off those old drives and save money in the process. Don’t throw it away! It takes surprisingly little effort to turn an old (or new) hard drive into an external drive perfect for stashing your extra files on. Click Cancel and it will turn off the Time Machine.Īfter you turn off the Time Machine, redo steps 4 to 6.So you’ve upgraded the hard drive in your computer, and you’re left with this old, seemingly useless bare hard drive. Time Machine in menu bar.” This will open another window. You can do this by opening System Preferences and unchecking the box This is an issue caused by Time Machine running on your external Click done toĬontinue,” don’t freak out about it. If you get an error message that states, “Erase process has failed. This will immediately wipe the entire drive.
#HOW TO REFORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR PC FROM MAC MAC#

#HOW TO REFORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR PC FROM MAC MAC OS#


#HOW TO REFORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR PC FROM MAC FOR MAC#
Here’s how to do that: How to Format a Hard Drive for Mac So if you’re trying to connect an external hard drive to a Mac, you might have to format the drive before you can use it.
#HOW TO REFORMAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FOR PC FROM MAC WINDOWS#
Most external hard drives are designed to work for Windows computers.
