1Tb external hard drive

Status
Not open for further replies.

MarthaM

Distinguished
Dec 15, 2011
6
0
18,510
Is there a way to reformat a 1 TB external hard drive for Windows once it's been used on a Mac? I have Windows 7. Thanks.
 
Solution
You need to go into disk management and initialize/format the drive from there, then it will show up in windows explorer and "my computer".

jsrudd

Distinguished
Jan 16, 2009
927
0
19,060
Yes, but you will lose the data. Just right click on the drive in windows explorer and choose format

In general, to use the hard drive with both Windows and Mac then format it as exFAT.
 

MarthaM

Distinguished
Dec 15, 2011
6
0
18,510
I have no problem with whatever data is on the drive, but it doesn't even show up in windows explorer -- just on the devices list.

I'm in Windows 7. So it's a mystery. Not an urgent thing, but I'm very curious why this is happening.

Thanks!



 


Mac uses HFS, so he can't just assign a drive letter to it. It will need repartitioned and formatted to NTFS, thus my instructions above to initialize the drive in disk management.
 


You should be able to do all that from the computer management/storage window. Right click on the disk to bring up that menu.

OOPs! My bad! you need to go one level deeper. Disk Management is listed under Storage. My apologies!
 

MarthaM

Distinguished
Dec 15, 2011
6
0
18,510
Got it! Thanks so much for your help.



 

MarthaM

Distinguished
Dec 15, 2011
6
0
18,510
Thank you - this worked! I appreciate your help so much.



 
Status
Not open for further replies.