There are many reasons why you may want to format an external HDD or small flash drive. For instance: • You brought a new unformatted hard drive • If the drive is not properly formatted, it won’t work • You want to use your external hard drive in both MAC, PC and Linux (use FAT32) • Before you sell your SDcard or Pendrive, you should format it to erase its data • Your camera’s SD card (FAT32) can only hold a file up to 4GB file. To get larger file size format it to exFAT. Warming: Formating a drive, also erase its data. Although you can still get it back, but it’s much harder after formatting. So if you can’t afford losing you data, take backup.

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NTFS: This is windows propriety file system. Most external drives come preformatted in NTFS so that they can be used easily with Windows. However, NTFS drives are read only in MAC, but you can get write access by using software like. It also works in Linux.

And to support NTFS on Android use. HFS+: This MAC propriety file system and is used in iOS and MAC.

If you format your external hard drive to HFS, you can use it on MAC and Linux (by removing journaling). However, to use it on Windows you can (read only). Ext4: This is a default file system for linux OS (including Raspberry Pi).

This article offers detailed guidance to help you recover data from encrypted (EFS) hard drive partitions in Windows 10/8/7 and Mac OS X. If you are having problems in restoring data from EFS partitions in your Windows hard drive, follow to find solutions here. Dec 22, 2018 - Unfortunately there is no such application in Windows to read MAC files on an external hard drive. However, I would suggest you to find any.

To read an ext4 drive on Windows, you can and OSXfuse for MAC. However, I have not really use this format much, so we just skip it. FAT32: This oldest file system and work with all OS i.e. Windows, MAC, Linux, Android, even TV, and PS3 etc.

This is why it’s used in all small flash drive. Although it lacks all modern features and comes with 4 GB limit for single file size. ExFAT: is the extended version of exFAT. It works fine with Windows and MAC (all the modern version). For Android, you can use Stick mount app (root needed). However being a windows propriety file system, it does not play well in open source environment. But unlike FAT32, it does not have 4GB limit for single file size.

Thus making it ideal for SDcards of the high-end camera. How to Format an External Hard drive or Pen drive Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in Windows, MAC, and Linux. Windows Formatting a drive on Windows is quite simple. Plug in your external HDD to the USB port of your computer> then go to my computer > find your external drive > right-click it > and select format. A new window will open, select the desired file system, keep the allocation unit size to default and check mark quick format (or it will take more time).

Once done hit the format button and that’s it. Within seconds, you will have your drive in the new format.

Note: While formatting a pen drive you will see FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS as the available file system. However for external HDD you won’t see the FAT32 (windows don’t suggest fat32 for bigger drives) However to get other format option you can use third-party software. MAC Start by connecting your external HDD to MAC’s USB port. Under the finder men, go to Go > utilities > Disk Utility or type disk utility in the spotlight and hit enter.

Once under disk utility. Select your external HDD on the left side and then select partition option. Now in the Partition area, click under Partition Layout and select 1 Partition. Then, click on Options. A new window will open, here select Master Boot Record and then click Ok.

Now in the right side of windows, give a name to your drive, from the drop-down select desired file system format. Make sure the size is set to an entire volume of your external drive. And once done, click on Apply. Note: Here you will also see an option to format a large hard drive to FAT32 which is not available in Windows. See (Imgur) Linux Unlike windows and MAC, Linux does not a have built-in partition tool.

So, you will have ti install a GUI tool called GParted and then plug in your external drive in the computer. Open your terminal and type in the following command to install GParterd. Sudo apt-get install gparted Once installed, type the following command to launch the program. Sudo gparted A new window will open. Click on the top right side, select the volume you want to format. Once you see the volume you want to format, right click on the block and select format > choose the file system you want > and click OK to confirm.